ialottery blog

When Are Lottery Sales Higher?

We like to say that you can tell the seasons by lottery sales! Each year, there’s a general cycle here in Iowa: Lottery sales are strong in the fall and winter and through early spring. In late spring and throughout the summer, lottery sales dip a bit.
 
Why? In the late spring and summer, people aren’t in their regular routines. They’re on vacation, they’re traveling, and they’re outside having fun.

People buy lottery tickets when they’re running errands of part of their regular routines, and that gets interrupted a bit in the late spring and summer. But it always comes back when we head into fall.

Lottery Winners Have Been On A Roll!

The lottery's results for its latest financial year are in, and it was quite a year for lottery winners!

Preliminary figures show that lottery sales totaled $256.3 million in fiscal year 2010, which ended June 30. That marks the highest sales total from lotto, instant-scratch and pull-tab games since the lottery’s start in 1985.

Lottery players also had a good year, taking home a record $150.5 million in prizes from the lottery's core products. That's a 4 percent increase from the previous record prize total from those products of $144.7 million set back in FY 2008.

Bottom line, the Iowa Lottery returned more than $208 million to Iowans during the year either directly in prizes or as profits to support the state programs that benefit us all.

Here's a closer look:

The unaudited figures released today show that the lottery raised more than $57.9 million in profits for state programs during FY 2010, down slightly from the lottery's profits total the year before. Lottery proceeds to the state were impacted during FY 2010 on a couple fronts: The lottery had expenses of about $1.5 million related to the State Employee Retirement Incentive Program approved during the 2010 legislative session. The retirement incentive program hadn’t been part of the picture when the lottery’s lottery’s budget for the year was set. But accounting standards required that all expenses from the program be recorded during FY 2010.

Meanwhile, prize payouts were ahead of projections for the year. That's in comparison to FY 2009, when prizes in instant-scratch games in particular ran behind prize totals during the same time period a year earlier. Those kinds of fluctuations are just part of the random nature of lottery games, and they'll average out over time.

Here's another really positive number: Lottery players in Iowa now have helped the lottery raise $5.4 million for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. The Lottery's first games to benefit our state's veterans and their families began sales in July 2008. When the idea of games dedicated to veterans was initially discussed, the lottery had estimated it could raise between $2 million and $3 million annually for the Veterans Trust Fund. The FY 2009 total was $2.8 million, with another $2.6 million added in our latest year!

Here's another interesting stat: Iowa Lottery players won nine prizes of $1 million in FY 2010 compared to just two $1 million prizes during the previous fiscal year!

So how do lottery proceeds make a difference in Iowa? Today, they have three main purposes: They provide support for veterans, help for a variety of significant projects through the state General Fund, and backing for the Vision Iowa program, which was implemented to create tourism destinations and community attractions in the state and build and repair schools.

He's Lucky No. 7!

A northwest Iowa man has become the seventh Iowa Lottery player to win a $1 million prize just this year!

Robert Stewart II of Aurelia stopped at a convenience store to buy his wife something to drink and decided in the process to buy the last "Lifetime Riches" instant-scratch ticket in the store. As he scratched the ticket, he realized he'd won the game's top prize of $1 million.

Robert said he immediately shared the good news with his wife and told her she'd need to take the day off so they could go to the lottery together to claim his big prize!

Robert claimed the second $1 million prize in the game, leaving six other top prizes still up for grabs in it.

Iowa Winners Filmed For National TV Show

I got to have some fun last week in western Iowa, catching up with one of our $1 million winners who's now being filmed for a national TV show.

In January 2006, Logan farmer John Straight won the top prize of $1 million in our "Thanks A Million" promotion. Last week, a camera crew was in Harrison County, filming Straight, his family and other local folks for an episode of "The Lottery Changed My Life" series on The Learning Channel.

John Straight's story is a fun one: The "Thanks A Million!" game and promotion were part of the celebration of the lottery's 20th anniversary. Players who didn't win a prize on their $10 Thanks A Million scratch tickets could send them in for a second-chance drawing that offered 11 cash prizes of up to $1 million. John's ticket was selected as the grand-prize winner.

We decided to surprise John with the news, so we worked with the Straights' friends and family to plan a little party. The local bank vice president told John, a history buff, a tall tale about having some old pictures for him to check out. Loads of friends and family all gathered in a conference room at the bank and we hid around the corner with a big ceremonial check, some balloon bouquets and a camera crew.

And we waited. And we waited. And we waited…

And finally, the bank got a call from John: He and his wife, Debbie, were running late because their cows had been out! When they finally arrived, we surprised them with the big news, presented them with the big check, and there were cheers all around!

Five years later, John and Debbie are still happy on their family farm near Logan. They've used John's winnings to buy a combine, a couple tractors, and a Corvette, although John wants everyone to know he bought it used!

I got to tell the camera crew the story of our surprise party for the Straights and then afterwards, I caught up with John and Debbie. Check out their pic above: You'll see that John is still wearing his 20th anniversary lottery T-shirt! Thanks for helping to spread the word, John!

And as for that oversized check from the lottery? The Straights had it framed and it hangs in their house as evidence of John's big win in case someone doesn't believe their story!

What's That About State Fair Tickets?

You may have read something in the newspaper over the weekend about the Iowa Lottery selling tickets to the Iowa State Fair. And you may remember that we announced that project here in the blog last month. The Fair asked us if we could help make its adult advance-admission tickets more accessible statewide and we've done our best to help out.

Here's the background about how the project came to be, what's involved in the sale of State Fair tickets this year, and all the options you have when it comes to buying your adult advance-admission tix to the 2010 Fair:

For years the Iowa State Fair has sold its tickets in hard-copy form with limited distribution at approximately 235 outlets. The Fair also sells its tickets at the Fairgrounds in Des Moines and online through its website. Tickets that are ordered from the website include shipping and handling fees for delivery to customers.

The State Fair has been investigating ways to modernize the distribution of its tickets and make them more widely available to customers across the state. The Fair asked the Lottery if there would be some way that State Fair tickets could be sold through lottery terminals, because that change would allow its tickets to be sold at the 2,000 retail locations statewide that have lottery terminals as opposed to only a few hundred locations. And, having State Fair tickets available in that many additional locations statewide would be a big convenience for customers.

The Lottery and State Fair have a long, successful history of working together (the very first Iowa Lottery tickets were sold at the Iowa State Fair back in 1985) and the Lottery wanted to help the Fair if it could.

After some investigating, we found out that our system could be changed to accommodate the sale of State Fair tickets, but there would be certain costs involved. Retailers receive a sales commission for the sale of products through the lottery's terminals, the vendor that supplies the lottery’s terminals receives a share of any sales, and the lottery would need to provide sales and accounting oversight for the project.

Of the $1 convenience fee that a customer pays to purchase a State Fair advance-admission adult ticket through a lottery terminal, 45 cents goes to the retailer as sales commission. Fifteen cents goes to the vendor providing the lottery's equipment. After the lottery provides sales, accounting and other oversight responsibilities for the project, the remaining proceeds are distributed to the state's General Fund.

The convenience fee for State Fair tickets through lottery terminals is the same thing as the convenience fees that are required for a lot of concert tickets or the convenience fees that you pay when you purchase movie tickets in advance online to guarantee your seats at the theatre. In the case of the movie tickets, it's a convenience to you as the consumer to be able to purchase your tickets at home and guarantee your spot in the theatre, but you don't have to do that. You can wait and buy your tickets at the theatre without paying a convenience fee.

It's the same thing with the advance-admission State Fair tickets through lottery terminals: Customers can buy tickets in person at the Fair and not pay the convenience fee. They can purchase tickets on the State Fair's website and pay shipping and handling charges. Or, they can have the convenience of buying tickets at a local store with a convenience fee.

The Lottery said it would help the Fair if it could and we're always glad to lend a hand to other important state projects when we can.
 
The bottom-line goal of the project has been to provide Fair fans added convenience and statewide accessibility to Iowa State Fair adult advance-admission tickets, and we believe that has happened.

Psssst: Did You Notice The New Drawings?

Hey, did you notice? There’s a new drawing in the Pick 3 and Pick 4 games! 

This past weekend, a Sunday midday drawing was added to those games, so now you can play Pick 3 and Pick 4 for two drawings every day. The midday drawings are at 12:40 p.m. while the evening drawings are at 9:20 p.m.

People have been asking if we could expand both games to two drawings every day, and after a little computer programming, the answer is: Yes!

Good luck with your tickets!

FREE LOTTERY TIX AT STATE FAIR’S OPENING

Today, advance-admission tickets to the Iowa State Fair have gone on sale at lottery terminals across the state. And, here’s some more Fair news that involves the lottery: Those who attend the Fair’s opening ceremonies on Aug. 12 will get a free scratch ticket in our latest game that benefits veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. One free ticket will be available to each person 21 and older during the Fair’s opening ceremonies only.

There will be lots of activities during the Fair’s first day: From 6 a.m. to noon, Fairgoers can take advantage of half-price admission with a coupon in the Iowa State Fair daily program special section from the Aug. 8 issue of “The Des Moines Register.” The Fair’s opening day will honor America’s Armed Forces, with country music artist Lee Greenwood giving a special performance during the opening ceremonies and a full concert that night at 7 p.m.  

This year’s Iowa State Fair is set for “Non Stop Fun” Aug. 12-22. As always, stop by to visit us at the Iowa Lottery’s booth! We’ll be in our usual spot in the southeast corner of the William C. Knapp Varied Industries Building.