ialottery blog

How’s It Going, Iowa Lottery?

We thought you’d never ask! And actually, we have some good news to share.

The lottery just made its final proceeds transfer to the state for fiscal year 2009, and our total was up more than 7 percent from a year earlier.

Our preliminary figures show that lottery proceeds to the state in FY 2009 totaled more than $60.6 million. That’s the highest profits total from the sale of lotto, instant-scratch and pull-tab games since the lottery’s start in 1985. And that’s even with lottery sales being down a little for the year. Lottery sales totaled $243.3 million in FY 2009, down 2.4 percent from a year earlier.
So how can our numbers match up? It has to do with the success you can achieve with business flexibility.

In 2003, the lottery “got a makeover,” changing from being a state agency into the Iowa Lottery Authority, a corporate-model lottery that focuses on entrepreneurialism. That new flexibility has allowed us to make some important changes that have saved money.

In 2004, the lottery purchased both its headquarters building in Des Moines and the vending machines it currently uses to sell instant-scratch and pull-tab tickets in retail locations across the state. That’s resulted in long-term savings to the state, including a big change this year as the payments on the bonds we’d issued to buy the building and machines decreased from $2 million to $100,000.

We’re glad that our changes are making a difference for our state’s budget, especially in these tough economic times.

Another important project that’s made a big impact on the lottery are our games that benefit the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. Legislation dedicating some lottery proceeds to veterans’ causes was signed into law by Governor Culver in March 2008. The Lottery’s first games to benefit the Veterans Trust Fund began sales in July 2008 and we’ll continue to create two new instant-scratch and two additional pull-tab games each year, with the proceeds from those games dedicated to the Trust Fund.
 
When we’d initially talked about the games, we’d estimated that they could raise between $2 million and $3 million annually to help Iowa veterans and their families through the Trust Fund. Well, we hit the very upper end of that range in FY 2009, raising nearly $2.8 million for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund.

Our thanks go out to lottery players for recognizing this important cause and helping the lottery provide a stable, ongoing source of revenue for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund!

 

When Are Powerball Results Announced?

One of our blog readers just sent me a message that raised some great questions about Powerball® and the timing of its drawing results. It’s such a good topic that I decided to share it with you here on the blog, too.

The question has to do with exactly when the results of Powerball drawings are released, and I don’t think we’ve talked about that here before. As you can imagine, with all the money that’s involved in a lottery game, but especially a big-jackpot game like Powerball, there are all sorts of security and accounting requirements that have to be met, and for good reason. People want to know that the game is secure and that each and every play made has the same odds of winning.

So, you buy your ticket, the drawing is held, and the winning Powerball numbers are shown on TV … And then what happens? Well, behind the scenes, computerized checks are being run on all of the plays made for that drawing.

So across the country each Wednesday and Saturday night, a massive amount of numbers are being scanned to see if any of them match the winning numbers in the Powerball drawing. All of the plays have to be accounted for, everything has to be in balance and the records all have to check out.

As computer processors have gotten faster, the process of checking all of the plays also has gotten faster. But at the same time, more states have become part of the Powerball game, so that many more plays have to be checked. Today, Powerball is played in 30 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands, so that’s a lot of processing!

Depending upon the volume of plays in a particular drawing, it can take up to several hours to verify all of the results. We provide information about winning tickets just as quickly as we can, but we know people don’t want us to rush and make a mistake. There’s too much riding on the outcome!

So the next time you’re looking for Powerball results, know that we’re working late into the night or even into the early morning hours to get you that information, but we’ll only provide it after we know it’s accurate! Just have fun playing Powerball, and who knows? The next big winner could be you!

Twitter-Facebook Contest Winners Today

We’ve got the 10 lucky winners from our Twitter-Facebook contest today!

This time around, we used a rock theme in honor of “The Freedom Rock™,” out latest instant-scratch game that benefits the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. Tickets in the game feature an image of this year’s version of the giant boulder near Greenfield in Adair County that’s painted each year by a local artist as a tribute to our nation’s veterans.
 
Each of our contest winners gets 10 free tickets in The Freedom Rock game. That’s $20 each in free tix! Check out video of our contest results here.

Congrats to our winners:

From Facebook:	From Twitter:
Matthew Cousins	@ashleymc
Melissa McHenry Kauzlarich	@dabates
Becky Mason	@eulahkaye
Jennifer Suzette Schmitz Nobbs	@kenny7558
	@PomPrincessMomJ
	@Tony_Leo

You'll need to contact Kim Vore at the lottery at 515.725.7890 by the close of business next Thursday (by 4:30 p.m. July 30) so she can take down your information and send out your free tix!

Thanks to everyone who entered, and thanks for following us on Twitter and friending us on Facebook! Be sure to watch for our next contest!

Now That’s One Happy Winner!

Every day, we get to meet people from across Iowa who visit the lottery’s offices to claim prizes of $600 or more. Some of those folks stick out in our memories more than others, and one of our winners this week will stand out from the crowd in my mind just because of the picture he took.

Check out this shot of Jeff Gerstenkorn of Denver. I’d say he’s one happy guy, wouldn’t you?

He matched all five numbers in Monday’s drawing of Iowa’s $100,000 Cash Game to win the game’s top prize of $100,000. He claimed his prize yesterday at our regional office in Cedar Rapids and obviously had some fun showing off his big check for the camera!

When folks like Jeff come to our offices to claim prizes, we send them home with some memorabilia that they can keep as the evidence of their big day. The first are the ceremonial checks that we write out just for fun. They’re great props to take to work to prove to your co-workers that you really did win!

The second is a photo like the one you see here of Jeff. We take your pic with your big check and then print it out on the spot and send you home with a refrigerator-magnet picture frame that you can use to display your happy shot once you get home. Once again, what’s better evidence of your big win than a pic of you with your big check right on the fridge in your kitchen?

Thanks for taking such a great shot, Jeff!

Twitter/Facebook Contest On Thursday!

You’ll have the chance this week to join in our latest contest on Facebook and Twitter!

It's set for 10 a.m. Thursday (July 23). We’ve just released our latest scratch game to benefit Iowa veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund, so we’re going to give away tickets in that game as part of our contest. Tickets in “The Freedom Rock™” game are available at lottery retail locations across the state, and we’ll give away 10 sets of 10 tickets (each set = $20 value) in our contest.

Just follow us on Twitter or join our fan page on Facebook, give the correct answer to an EASY question during the contest, and you'll be entered for a chance to win one of the sets of tickets. It all kicks off at 10 a.m. Thursday, and the contest will only last for 15 minutes!

Reply to @ialottery on Twitter or write your answer on the lottery’s wall on our Facebook fan page. (Don't direct message us on Twitter, as direct messages aren't eligible for entry.)
 
We'll put the names of all those who give the correct answer in a fish bowl and then draw from amongst those to determine which folks will go on to the next step in the contest. Then we'll hold an obstacle course race to determine the contest winners. Don’t worry, you won’t have to run in the race, we’ll be doing that on your behalf! We’re going to have to stretch and warm up to make sure we’re ready to race!

We'll videotape the contest results, then post the video on our Web site, Facebook and YouTube. We'll also provide a link to the video from Twitter and we'll post an announcement with the winners' names here on our blog. If you win, you'll need to contact us by 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 30, with your name and mailing address so we can send out your tickets.

A few requirements:
• You've got to be at least 21 years old to enter, and you must live in Iowa.
• No purchase necessary to enter or to win!

And if you haven’t been to see The Freedom Rock™ in person, be sure to make it one of your stops this summer. It’s along Iowa Highway 25 near Greenfield in Adair County and it’s definitely worth the trip!

©All Images 1999-Present: THE FREEDOM ROCK/SORENSEN STUDIOS The Freedom Rock is a registered trademark and is used with permission.

How Many Jackpot Winners Does Iowa Have?

It had been a little while since this comment had come our way, but it arrived in our inbox today. It’s the statement that usually goes something like this: Nobody from here ever wins the jackpot.

It’s funny how that statement seems to go in waves. We won’t hear it for awhile, then several people will ask about it. I think the statement is motivated by the fact that lottery players won’t ever truly be satisfied until THEY’RE the ones getting the big check.

I’ve blogged about this issue here before, so I’ll keep it short and let the evidence speak for itself this time around: Iowa Lottery players have won six Powerball® jackpots through the years, totaling $398.6 million. And lottery players in Iowa also have won six jackpots in Hot Lotto®, with those grand prizes totaling $31.11 million.

You just never know where the next big winner will be from, and that’s part of the fun!        

The Iowa Lottery’s Powerball winners are:
• Tim and Kellie Guderian of Fort Dodge, who claimed a $200.8 million jackpot in October 2006.
• Hugh Hawkins of Des Moines, who claimed a $113.2 million jackpot in December 2005.
• Jacquelyn Moore of Omaha, Neb., who won a $14.4 million jackpot in October 2004. (She bought her ticket at a convenience store in Carter Lake in western Iowa.)
• The Larry Hasken family of Sabula, who claimed a $31.8 million jackpot in January 2000.
• Tim Schultz of Des Moines, who won a $28 million jackpot in February 1999.
• Ed Brown of Washington, who split a $10.4 million jackpot with a woman from Missouri in December 1992.

Iowa’s Hot Lotto jackpot winners are:
• John Hall of Indianola, who won a $19.97 million jackpot in January 2007. It was the largest prize offered in the game to date.
• Moses Bittok of West Des Moines, who won a $1.89 million jackpot in September 2005.
• Danny Good of Des Moines, who won a $1.65 million jackpot in December 2003.
• Todd Brobston of Fort Madison, who won a $1.3 million jackpot in November 2003.
• Don Sporrer of Denison, who won a $2.7 million prize in December 2002.
• Darlene Becker of Dubuque, who won the first jackpot ever claimed in the game, a $2.6 million prize in the drawing on July 10, 2002.

The Freedom Rock Comes To Lottery Tix

We’re teaming up with the artist of an Iowa landmark for the latest instant-scratch game that will raise money to support veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund!

In May, I introduced you here to Ray “Bubba” Sorensen II, a Greenfield artist who paints a huge boulder near his Adair County hometown with patriotic images each year as a tribute to our nation’s veterans. The 56-ton rock is now called The Freedom Rock™ and it’s become a destination for visitors from around the world.

Almost as soon as the lottery gained authorization last year to begin producing games to benefit veterans, people started telling us that we should put The Freedom Rock on those tickets. We met with Bubba and Maria Sorensen in mid-2008 and reached an agreement with them late last year to put The Freedom Rock on our tickets.

It’s been quite a process – Bubba has never shared the idea for his artwork with anyone in advance before, but we had to have artwork from him this winter before he even started painting. Then as soon as he got to work this spring, we went to Greenfield to shoot photos and video of the 56-ton boulder. It’s been fascinating to watch Bubba’s creation from start to finish. His art is truly inspiring and we’re honored to showcase his work while we help Iowa veterans at the same time.

Ticket sales have started today in “The Freedom Rock” game. Players can win up to 10 times on each $2 ticket and prizes in the game range from $2 to $7,777.

The next pull-tab game to benefit the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund begins sales next Monday (July 20). It’s a $1 game called “Red, White & Blue” that features artwork on its tickets of several patriotic symbols, including the bald eagle and Liberty Bell.

To learn more about the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund, click here.

Check Back Here Monday For Cool News

We’ll have a big announcement Monday about our efforts to help veterans and their families by providing proceeds for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. Check back here for the inside scoop!

It’s “State Fair Time”!

I’m thanking Mary Neubauer in her absence for the opportunity to “vine” about more exciting news at the Iowa Lottery.  This is one of my favorite seasons here at the Lottery as we prepare for our exhibit at the Iowa State Fair. 

In keeping with this year's Fair theme, it’s definitely “State Fair Time” for us as we prepare for the various promotions that we undertake in our Fair exhibit.  Here are just a few things to expect when you visit us this year in the Varied Industries Building –           

• A “wheel spin” promotion.  All lottery players like to spin wheels. You’ll be able to enter contests at 12, 3 and 6 p.m. to spin our wheel and take a chance to win Lottery Bucks.

• Our traditional pull-tab “dot” promotion is always a favorite at the Fair.  This year’s prizes include $5 coupons for great turkey products at the Iowa Turkey Federation stand.

• With a $20 scratch ticket purchase, you win a new t-shirt.

There’s a lot of preparation required in gearing up for lottery ticket sales at the Iowa State Fair.  We review and lease our space, prepare signs and other marketing materials and pull together graphics for our exhibit equipment.  It’s also quite the logistical operation to move our equipment and vending machines into our exhibit space.  We start the Monday prior to opening day. 

Come visit us at the Fair and visit the Iowa State Fair’s web site to learn about other exciting happenings at this year’s event -- http://www.iowastatefair.org/.

“What’s in a Name?”

Having the last name of Rich creates some fun conversations. It never occurred to me that my name might someday be associated with one of the biggest benefits for Iowa: prizes for players and proceeds for great causes at the Iowa Lottery.

But your name is just as important in our business. Why? Well, when you sign your name to the lottery ticket you buy, it immediately becomes yours. It becomes really tough for anyone to steal it or claim it’s theirs.

So keep your name and ticket together! And here’s my hope that in the near future my name will appear on an Iowa Lottery check made out to your name!