ialottery blog

Dreaming Has Never Been So Easy

You could say you've never had it so easy when it comes to the Iowa Lottery. That's because of three new ideas we've just unveiled that all are aimed at keeping it simple.

The first is "Did I Win?" a $1 scratch game that began sales this month. Its concept is simple: Players who find the word "yes" in the play area on their ticket win the prize shown for that game.   Prizes range from $1 up to $1,000.

And on Sunday, the "Lotto 12-Pack" promotion started, giving players a one-stop way to buy tickets for a special price in all three of Iowa's big-jackpot games. The promotion gives players a discount for buying tickets all at once in Powerball with Power Play®, Mega Millions with Megaplier® and Hot Lotto® with the Sizzler.

You can choose to buy all the games for a week and receive $12 in plays for only $10, or you can bundle your plays at a discounted price for two weeks ($24 value for $20), three weeks ($36 value for $30) or even four weeks ($48 value for $40) at a time. The Lotto 12-Pack promotion runs through May 22.

And, we can’t forget "Play 'Em All!" It lets you cover all the Powerball options or all the Mega Ball options for a particular drawing.

If you ask for the Play 'Em All option, you’ll get 39 plays in Powerball, one for each of the 39 Powerball numbers available. The Play ‘Em All option in Mega Millions is for 46 plays, one for each of the 46 Mega Ball numbers available.

New buttons for the Lotto 12-Pack and Play 'Em All options are being added to the screens on lottery sales terminals to make things easy for the retail employees selling tickets. We’re trying to make things simpler for both lottery players and retailers!

Does One Jackpot Grow Faster?

Now that Powerball® and Mega Millions® are both being sold in Iowa, folks are really watching – and comparing – the games’ jackpots. And when both big prizes were getting up there earlier this month, we got a lot of questions from people who were wondering about the cash vs. annuity options.

Specifically, they were asking why the cash amount of the Powerball jackpot was lower than the cash amount of the Mega Millions jackpot when the annuity jackpots were about the same.

The quick answer is that the Powerball jackpot earns more interest over time. But here are the details:

All lotteries start with the cash jackpot amount – that’s the amount of money that lotteries have on hand from the sale of tickets in the game. The lottery will pay that cash amount to the winner who chooses to receive the jackpot as a lump-sum, cash payment. (Withholding taxes also are taken out as required by federal and state law.)

But if the jackpot winner chooses the annuity option, the lottery invests the entire cash amount before taxes are deducted. The cash that is invested earns interest over time, and the cash PLUS interest equal the annuity jackpot amount. 

There are a few reasons that the Powerball jackpot earns more interest:

1. More money is invested for a longer period of time. The Powerball annuity is paid out in graduated amounts (rising by 4 percent per year to keep up with inflation) over 29 years (30 payments). The Mega Millions annuity is paid out over 25 years (26 payments). In both cases, the first payment is immediate.
2. Powerball invests in a wider ranger of securities. The Mega Millions jackpot invests only in U.S. Treasury Securities Stripped (CUSIPs starting with 912). The Powerball jackpot invests in about 20 different securities. Please note that the winner is not invested in the securities. The winner has a contract with the states to pay the prizes, no matter what happens to the securities.

A winner who wants to take the cash jackpot should compare only the cash jackpot amounts. The annuity jackpot amounts will be important for those winners who plan to select a long-term, fully guaranteed income stream.   

A Chance To Dream

A newspaper columnist has put on paper what I’ve always thought about the lottery: Having that ticket in your pocket gives you a perfect little escape. It’s a chance to kick back and think, “What if?”

Click here to see what Bob Wooten at the “Northern Virginia Daily” has to say.

Raffle Drawing Results!

Today’s the day lottery raffle players have been waiting for here in Iowa!

We held the drawing today in the lottery’s “Pot O’ Gold Raffle.” Click here to check out the winning numbers.

Lists of the winning numbers can be printed out from the lottery terminal at your local retailer. They’re also available at the Iowa Lottery’s offices, and we’ll have posters up where lottery tickets are sold.

Remember that you need to keep your raffle ticket to check your number against the winning raffle numbers and claim a prize. You have until the close of business on Tuesday, June 15, to claim a raffle prize.

Good luck, and thanks for playing!

Do Your Part: Participate In The Census

This week and for one week in April, May and June, the Lottery is running special messages on its lotto tickets encouraging everyone to participate in the 2010 U.S. Census.

If you’ve bought a lotto ticket this week, look at the top. We hope the message you see is self-explanatory:

Fill it out! Mail it in!
Census 2010.

President Obama has issued a statement explaining the importance of the Census to the nation. But it also matters on a state-by-state basis. 

The census determines the number of seats Iowa has in the U.S. Congress along with the boundaries for legislative districts and local precincts. But it also will determine the distribution of billions of dollars to our state and local communities.

A complete and accurate census count will ensure that we Iowans receive the political representation and funding we deserve.

The Iowa Lottery also ran messages on its tickets in 2000, encouraging people to participate in that year’s Census. We think it made a difference!

Iowa had top ranking in 2000 in getting its residents counted, with 76 percent of households returning census forms. Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin tied for second at 75 percent, while South Dakota came in third at 74 percent.

Can Iowa repeat its No. 1 status this year? You’ll help determine the answer! When you get your Census form this month, take a few minutes to fill it out and mail it back. Be counted for Iowa!   

Know The Code

This week marks an important event nationwide. It’s National Problem Gambling Awareness Week, a time to remind everyone to be safe and responsible while gambling.

Here in Iowa, the theme we’re using this year is “Know the Code.” At the Iowa Lottery, we worked with the Iowa Gambling Treatment Program and its local treatment provider organizations to develop materials that we’ve delivered to all retail locations in Iowa that sell lottery products.

We’re reminding retail employees who sell Iowa Lottery tickets to check photo IDs for any customers they think are younger than 30 before making the sale. Under Iowa law, lottery products can’t be purchased by anyone younger than 21.

We also gave the businesses copies of a flyer about the penalties for selling lottery products to those who are underage. This week is the perfect time to educate Iowans about responsible gambling.

And finally, if you or someone you know has a gambling problem, please remember that help is available here in our state. Please call 1-800-BETSOFF for more information.

Double-Check Your Tickets

A $10,000-winning Hot Lotto® ticket that was purchased nearly a year ago at a Sioux City convenience store is still unclaimed, and the deadline for the winner(s) to come forward is later this month!

The $10,000-winning ticket was sold at Maggie’s Mini Mart, 1203 Tri View Ave. in Sioux City, for the Hot Lotto drawing on March 21, 2009. It came close to winning the jackpot that night, matching the first five numbers but missing the Hot Ball® to win a $10,000 prize. The winning numbers were: 2-10-11-14-28 and Hot Ball 1.

The prize will expire if it’s not claimed by 4 p.m. on Monday, March 22, at an Iowa Lottery office!  

In fiscal year 2009, lotto prizes totaling about $1.3 million were left unclaimed in Iowa. That money goes into prize pools for future lottery games, so it will be used to pay prizes, just not the specific prize that’s expired.

In addition to the Sioux City prize, here are some other big unclaimed prizes in Iowa that will expire in the next couple months if the winner(s) doesn’t come forward.

Pick 4

Prize Drawing	Amount Won	Retailer	Expiration
Dec. 20, 2009	$3,125	Eddy's, Council Bluffs	March 22, 2010
Dec. 28, 2009	$3,250	Express Lane, Davenport	March 29, 2010

Powerball

Prize Drawing	Amount Won	Retailer	Expiration
May 9, 2009	$200,000	Eddy's, Council Bluffs	May 10, 2010

Iowa Lottery players have up to 365 days from the date of the drawing to claim prizes in Hot Lotto, Powerball® and Mega Millions®. Players have up to 90 days from the date of the drawing to claim prizes in Iowa’s $100,000 Cash Game and the Iowa Lottery’s Pick 3 and Pick 4 games. If the expiration date falls on a weekend or holiday when the lottery’s offices are closed, the winner has until the close of business on the next business day to turn in the ticket.

The moral of this story is: Double-check your tickets!

Deadline Approaching To Get In The Raffle

If you've been procrastinating, I'm officially putting you on notice: You've only got about a week to buy your ticket(s) in the Iowa Lottery's "Pot O' Gold Raffle"!

The game offers you some of the best odds ever to win a big prize! A maximum of 120,000 $20 raffle tickets will be sold, and Saturday, March 13, is the last day you can buy one!

We'll hold the raffle drawing on Saint Patrick's Day (Wednesday, March 17). Remember that you need to keep your raffle ticket to check your numbers against the winning raffle numbers and claim a prize.

Raffle tickets are available from lottery terminals statewide where you buy Powerball tickets. Each ticket you buy will have a unique number ranging from 10000001 to 10120000. Tickets are printed in sequential order across the state, meaning you get the next number that's available (you can't pick your own number). To win, the number on your ticket has to match the number drawn in the exact order.

Below are the details about the prizes in the game and the odds of winning. And remember, if for some reason the game doesn't sell out, your odds of winning will be even better!

Good luck, and thanks for playing. We hope to write you a big winner's check in the Pot O' Gold Raffle!

Raffle Prizes and Odds**
$1 million	One Winner	1:120,000
$100,000	One Winner	1:120,000
$1,000	100 Winners	1:1,200

(PRIZES ARE BASED ON A SELL-OUT. IF ALL TICKETS ARE NOT SOLD, PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED ON A PARI-MUTUEL BASIS BASED ON A PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL TICKETS ACTUALLY SOLD AND WILL BE LOWER THAN SET PRIZE AMOUNTS. SEE OFFICIAL RULES FOR COMPLETE DETAILS.)

Two Jackpots Of More Than $100 Million!

For the first time in Iowa, you have the chance to play for two jackpots of more than $100 million! The Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots both jumped past the $100 million mark over the weekend.
 
The Mega Millions jackpot is at an estimated $112 million for tomorrow’s drawing, while the Powerball jackpot has grown to an estimated $114 million for Wednesday’s drawing. The Powerball jackpot is currently the largest in the world, while the Mega Millions jackpot comes in a close second.

This is what we’d hoped for when Mega Millions and Powerball both began to be offered by lotteries across the country: Players are having the chance to play for even more big prizes!

Until January, the games had been sold by separate groups of lotteries. But an agreement among U.S. lottery directors to allow cross-selling of the games was reached in October and many lotteries, including the Iowa Lottery, began offering both games on Jan. 31.

The Mega Millions jackpot was last won in the drawing on Jan. 29. William Kiefer of Katy, Texas, claimed that $144 million prize. The Powerball jackpot was last won in the drawing on Feb. 6. Frank Griffin of Asheville, N.C., a retired firefighter, won that prize of $141.4 million.