ialottery blog

Lottery To Sell Discount-Admission Tix To State Fair

We’ve got a convenient new way for you to buy discount-admission tickets to this year’s Iowa State Fair. Starting July 1, you’ll be able to buy adult advance-admission tickets to the Fair at an Iowa Lottery sales terminal!

This is the first year we’ve teamed up with the Fair on this project, but our two organizations have a long history of working together, so we’re excited for this latest collaboration. This year’s Fair, by the way, is set for “Non Stop Fun” Aug. 12-22.

State Fair tickets will be printed from lottery terminals on the same paper that’s used for lotto tickets in games like Powerball® and Mega Millions®. Adult advance-admission to the Fair is $7, with a $1 convenience fee for tickets available from lottery terminals. Tickets go on sale July 1 and must be purchased by August 11, the day before the Fair.

Child advance-admission tickets aren’t available this year through the Lottery system, but will be available at all Dahl’s Food Stores, participating Fareways, as well as participating Iowa and Omaha-area Hy-Vee and Hy-Vee Drugstores. Those tix will cost $3.

Adult and child tickets are also available now at www.iowastatefair.org or at the State Fair Ticket office beginning July 12. Tickets are good any one day of the Fair. Children 5 and under are admitted free everyday.

Earlier, I mentioned the long history between the Fair and the Lottery. Did you know that the first  
Iowa Lottery tickets were sold at the 1985 State Fair? And, Lottery proceeds were used to remodel the Grandstand on the State Fairgrounds. The Lottery also sells tickets each year during the Fair at its booth in the William C. Knapp Varied Industries Building.

Meet Iowa’s Sixth Lottery Millionaires Of 2010

Here’s a nice family story that helps us all keep things in perspective: Yes, they won $1 million and they’re of course thrilled. But the real good news is that their sick family member is out of the hospital!

Rolle Zellers of Sioux City and his father-in-law, Keith Olson of Whiting, split a $1 million Powerball prize on Monday, the day after Olson’s wife, Joyce, got to go home from the hospital. Click on the video above to hear their tale!

What's The Deal With These Tickets?

There’s something kind of unusual going on in Iowa right now in terms of unclaimed lottery tickets: There are four tickets out there that each have won a $10,000 prize and they’re all about to expire!

I’m using a bullhorn pic for this blog entry as a not-so-subtle reminder for you to check and double-check your tickets!

The $10,000 unclaimed prizes are in the Powerball and Hot Lotto games. Here are the details:
 

Powerball
Prize Drawing	Amount Won	Retailer	Expiration
July 1, 2009	$10,000	Wings America, Avoca	July 1, 2010
July 15, 2009	$10,000	Kum & Go, Council Bluffs	July 15, 2010
July 18, 2009	$10,000	Git-N-Go, Pleasant Hill	July 19, 2010

Hot Lotto
Prize Drawing	Amount Won	Retailer	Expiration
July 11, 2009	$10,000	Pronto, Kingsley	July 12, 2010

For a complete list of all the unclaimed lotto prizes in Iowa right now, click here.

In the lottery’s latest financial year, more than $1.3 million in prizes went unclaimed in lotto games. Unclaimed prize money in Iowa goes into the prize pools for future lottery games. So, the money will be used to pay prizes, just not the particular prizes that have expired.

 

10X Hits!

The 10X hit in Saturday night’s Powerball drawing, bringing to a close the Power Play 10X promotion that had been running since early May and was extended for more time a couple weeks ago.

More than 2,500 tickets purchased by Iowa Lottery players won 10X prizes in Saturday’s drawing, including a ticket in extreme eastern Iowa that won a $100,000 prize.

The $100,000-winning ticket was sold in Sabula, which is along the Mississippi River in Jackson County. The ticket originally won a $10,000 prize, but the player also had added the Power Play® option to the winning play, which multiplied the prize to $100,000!

Here’s how the 10X feature worked: The Power Play option normally gives Powerball players the chance to multiply their non-jackpot Powerball prizes by 2, 3, 4 or 5 times for an additional $1 per play. At the beginning of each Powerball drawing, an animated spinner presents that night’s multiplier number. But during the promotion, one of the 5X multipliers in the Power Play feature was replaced with a 10X. When the 10X was selected Saturday, that meant prizes with the Power Play option were multiplied by 10 times. (Jackpot prizes are not eligible for the Power Play.)

The $100,000-winning ticket was sold at the Hop N Shop, 416 Broad St. in Sabula. The ticket matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball in Saturday’s $45.7 million jackpot drawing. The winning numbers that night were: 9-12-13-35-38 and Powerball 30. No one won the jackpot Saturday, so it climbs to an estimated $60 million for tomorrow’s drawing.

CPA’s Look At Winning The Powerball Jackpot

I always like to see what other folks are thinking about the lottery. Here is an interesting take from a financial planner in Colorado on what to do if you win the jackpot. He’s thought through all sorts of issues! 

A Look At Our Cash Stop Tour

We’re three weeks into our Cash Stop tour of the top 25 must-see events in Iowa this summer, and we’re gearing up for stops this coming weekend in Dubuque and West Des Moines! If you’re at America’s River Festival or at the Hy-Vee Triathlon, stop by our tent and enter your nonwinning tickets in “The Silver Ticket” game into our Cash Stop contest. There are four cash prizes totaling $1,000 on the line at each stop!

Check out the video above to see the fun we had at the John Wayne Birthday Celebration in Winterset.

Powerball Drawing, By The Numbers

Someone who bought a ticket in Mason City came close to take home a share of last night’s $261.6 million Powerball jackpot!

The ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Powerball to win a $200,000 prize. It was purchased at Casey’s, 610 S. Monroe Ave. in Mason City.  A ticket sold in Ohio won the jackpot, so the big prize returns to $20 million for Saturday’s drawing.  
 
The winning numbers in last night’s Powerball drawing were: 4-9-14-39-43 and Powerball 38. The Power Play® number was 4. Whoever bought the $200,000-winning ticket did not add the Power Play option to the ticket, which would have multiplied the prize to $1 million. If your ticket matches the first five numbers in a Powerball drawing and you’ve added the Power Play, the prize you’ll win is always $1 million, no matter what the Power Play number is for that drawing.

We’re waiting to find out who will claim the $200,000 prize. A prize of that size has to be claimed at one of the Iowa Lottery’s offices, which are in Mason City, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Storm Lake and Council Bluffs.

And by the way, here are a few more numbers for you: Iowa Lottery players won a total of 20,164 prizes ranging from $3 up to $200,000 in last night’s drawing.

10X Continues, Still Looking For That 10!

We're still looking for a 10 in the Power Play 10X promotion, and that means you still have the chance to win up to $2 million with the Power Play. And this all comes at a great time in Powerball, with the jackpot climbing to an estimated $260 million for tomorrow night's drawing.

The Powerball 10X Promotion began with the drawing on May 1 and was scheduled to end after Saturday night's drawing. But, because the multiplier "10" did not come up during the promotion's initial period, the 10X special will continue until the multiplier 10 is drawn.

This is the fourth time around for the 10X promo, but the first time that a 10X didn't come up at least once during the promotion's initial run.

Here are the 10X details:

The Power Play feature normally gives Powerball players the chance to multiply their non-jackpot Powerball prizes by 2, 3, 4 or 5 times for an additional $1 per play. At the beginning of each Powerball drawing, an animated spinner shows that night's multiplier number.

But during the promotion, one of the 5X multipliers in the Power Play feature has been replaced with a 10X. And if the 10X is selected, that means Powerball prizes will be multiplied 10 times. For example, if a player wins a $100 prize and the Power Play number is 10, that player would win $1,000. A $200,000 prize with the 10X will be multiplied to $2 million. Jackpot prizes are not eligible for the Power Play option.

Now the question is: When will the 10X come up?