ialottery blog

He’s Going Tailgating in Style!

Today we had the opportunity to give a New Hampton man one of the biggest birthday gifts ever.

Jeff Weigel was the grand-prize winner in our “Great State Tailgate” promotion, so we decided since today is his 51st birthday, we’d just deliver it to him.

We trekked out to Jeff’s place of business in New Hampton, a car dealership called K&W Motors. He rushed out the front door to greet us and check out his tailgate trailer, part of a package valued at more than $22,000.

Jeff wasn’t the only big winner in yesterday’s drawing. Five other lucky players won prizes of $1,000 each. You guys entered more than 94,000 tickets in this promotion. Way to go!

We tricked out Jeff’s trailer with balloon bouquets and streamers when we took it to him. He’ll also be getting a $2,000 cash prize so he can customize the artwork on the outside of the trailer. As a lifelong Iowa fan, he said he plans to outfit it for the Hawkeyes. 
           
  The tailgate trailer came fully equipped with:
•    42-inch LCD HDTV with DirecTV® receiver and HD auto satellite antenna
•    SONY® theater system with iPOD® Direct Connect
•    Hitch-mounted tailgating gas grill and 54-qt. cooler on full slide system
•    1000W portable generator
•    30 AMP electrical panel box
•    $2,000 cash for customizing the trailer, for travel and spending money.

Congrats, Jeff! And to see if you were one of the winners of a $1,000 cash prize, check out our website.

Meet Iowa’s Latest Jackpot Winner

Iowa’s newest lottery millionaire already has tickets for the next drawing because he intends to win big again. Click on the video above to hear from Wally Markham of Waterloo.

Iowa Is No. 1 In Hot Lotto Jackpots!

Let’s hear it for jackpot winners in our state! Iowa is now officially No. 1 when it comes to jackpot winners in the Hot Lotto game. Iowa Lottery players have won nine jackpots in the game, the highest number among the 15 states that play Hot Lotto®.

The latest jackpot was won Saturday in Waterloo. The $7.54 million prize in the Hot Lotto drawing that night was won with a ticket purchased at the Kwik Stop convenience store at 4335 Texas St. in Waterloo. That follows a Hot Lotto jackpot of more than $9 million won in May in Webster City and a jackpot of more than $16.5 million won in December in Des Moines.     

Now, we know that you can’t predict when another big winner will hit, but Iowa is definitely on a roll in Hot Lotto! And hey, there’s nothing wrong with us being known as the lucky state!

The winning numbers in Saturday’s $7.54 million Hot Lotto jackpot drawing were: 5-12-16-23-24 and Hot Ball 8. The Waterloo ticket matched all six numbers drawn to win the grand prize. The Kwik Stop location will receive a $5,000 bonus from the lottery for selling the jackpot-winning ticket.

As always, we encourage the winner (or winners) to get financial or legal advice before coming in to claim the prize. And be sure to sign the winning ticket and keep it in a secure place until you come see us!

Here’s an interesting twist that’s also underway right now in Iowa: The Waterloo ticket is the third big-winning lottery ticket that’s still unclaimed here. Two other big prizes from Des Moines and Ottumwa also are waiting to be claimed.
 
The Hot Lotto jackpot won in December in Des Moines is still unclaimed, even after 11 months. That winning ticket will expire on Dec. 29 of this year if the prize isn’t claimed by then. The ticket was purchased at Quik Trip, 4801 NE 14th St. in Des Moines. It matched all six numbers drawn to win the grand prize of $16.5 million in the Hot Lotto drawing on Dec. 29, 2010, the third-largest jackpot ever offered in the game. The winning numbers that night were: 3-12-16-26-33 and Hot Ball 11.

And in addition to that big prize, a ticket sold in Ottumwa that won a $1 million Powerball® prize in July also hasn’t be claimed. That ticket originally matched the first five numbers but missed the Powerball to win a $200,000 prize in the July 23 drawing. But the player who purchased the ticket also added the Power Play® option to the winning play, which 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.

The $1 million-winning ticket was sold at Kum & Go, 1317 E. Mary St. in Ottumwa. The winning numbers in the July 23 Powerball drawing were: 1-7-27-38-48 and Powerball 30.

We can’t say it enough: Check your tickets! Someone has legitimately won these prizes and we want them to take home their winnings.

All three of the big prizes have to be claimed at lottery headquarters at 2323 Grand Ave. in Des Moines. If the winners have any questions before coming in to claim their prizes, they are welcome to call the lottery at 515-725-7900.

They’re Headed For A Great Getaway!

Congratulations to the winners of our Great Iowa Getaway promotion!

We held the drawing to determine our trip winners yesterday and ended up with some lucky names from all across the state, as you’ll see below. 

These folks will be headed out to see the sights and sounds of Iowa! Congrats again to our winners, and thank you to everyone who plays the Iowa Lottery. 

•    Honey Creek Resort - Tiffany Delarme, Marshalltown
•    Ames Hilton Garden Inn/Boone Scenic Valley Railroad – Tim Messler, Des Moines
•    The Inn at Okoboji – Krystal Ahrens, Fostoria
•    King’s Point Waterpark Resort, Storm Lake – Glaine Coleman, Cedar Rapids
•    Frank Lloyd Wright Historic Park Inn, Mason City – Gary McKown Jr., Cedar Rapids
•    Hotel Julien Dubuque – David Yackle, Eagle Grove
•    Hotel Blackhawk, Davenport - Elizabeth Hansen, Cedar Falls
•    Harrah’s Casino Hotel, Council Bluffs – Daniel Cramer, Des Moines

That’s Two Big Unclaimed Prizes In IA!

Now there are two big lotto prizes still up for grabs here in Iowa. One is a Powerball® prize from about two weeks ago in Ottumwa, the other is that Hot Lotto® jackpot that’s been hanging around since last December.

Got a ticket? Double-check it!

The picture with this blog entry is from the Kum & Go location in Ottumwa where a ticket was sold that won a $1 million prize in the July 23 Powerball drawing. You’ll notice that we’ve put up a big banner in the window of the store to call attention to the prize!

Whoever bought the lucky ticket originally matched the first five numbers but missed the Powerball to win a $200,000 prize that night. But the player also added the Power Play® option to the winning play, which 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.

The winning numbers in the July 23 drawing were: 1-7-27-38-48 and Powerball 30. The Power Play number was 3.

And then there’s that $16.5 million Hot Lotto jackpot from back in December. It’s got us worried. Did someone lose the ticket? Does the big winner still not know the good news? Help us spread the word!

The jackpot was won in the Dec. 29 Hot Lotto drawing. That was right in the middle of the holiday season, which is always a busy time. The winning ticket was purchased at Quik Trip, 4801 N.E. 14th St. in Des Moines. The lucky ticket matched all six numbers drawn that night to win the grand prize. And the winning numbers were: 3-12-16-26-33 and Hot Ball 11.

Hot Lotto and Powerball tickets in Iowa expire a year from the date of the drawing in which a prize was won, so there's still time for these prizes to be claimed. But if you’ve got a ticket that’s been sitting around for a while, double-check it. You never know – it could be you!

Pssst: Now You Can Earn Points Through The VIP Club!

We’ve been telling you for a couple months now about the cool changes we’ve made to our player rewards program, and now there’s another BIG reason you’ll want to become a member of the VIP Club.

You now can earn points with every ticket you enter in your club account, and those points can be turned into all sorts of cool prizes like music downloads, big-screen televisions and camping equipment.

And here’s a little secret for all of you who have already joined the club and entered nonwinning scratch tickets in our Play It Again promotion: You’ve been building up points from the tickets you’ve been entering, and they’re waiting for you now in your VIP Club account. So you may want to check your points balance! I’m just sayin.

So what’s behind all this? Like any other business, the lottery looks for ways it can offer its customers more value for the products they buy. We think our enhanced VIP Club – and now its Points For Prizes store – really helps players stretch their fun. You know these programs are popular when you see the range of businesses that offer them. You’ll find customer rewards programs at restaurants, airlines, radio stations and hotels, just to name a few. This is another way we can give prizes to our players, but with a different look and feel than just changing the prize structures of our games.

Through the website of our VIP Club, we can offer players special promotions and prizes on an ongoing basis. You’ve told us that you like being able to use nonwinning tickets for the chance to win more prizes, and we listened! There are several categories of items to choose from in the Points For Prizes store: accessories, apparel, automotive, electronics, entertainment, home, housewares, jewelry, outdoors, sporting, tools and travel. You can purchase items starting as low as 100 points!

Right now, you can only enter nonwinning scratch tickets in your club account, but later this year, we anticipate being able to expand the club so you also can enter nonwinning lotto tickets.

Earlier today, we selected the winners of our first promotion through the revamped VIP Club. Forty-six Iowa Lottery players won cash prizes ranging from $500 up to $5,000 in the Play It Again™ promotion, including Andrew McCullough, who won the top prize. For a complete list of winners, click here. VIP Club members had entered more than 338,000 tickets in the promotion.

Congratulations to all of today’s winners, and we hope you enjoy the new Points For Prizes store in our VIP Club! Just remember that in order to register for the club and participate, you have to be at least 21 years old and have a valid U.S. street address. P.O. Boxes will not be accepted because the carrier services we use to deliver prizes through the club don’t ship to P.O. Box addresses.

They’ll Definitely Be Rockin’ Out!

The top-prize winner in our “Rock Of Ages” promotion just claimed his prize here at lottery headquarters and now we’re excited to meet the winners of our signed electric guitars!

Kevin Stewart of Des Moines won the grand prize in our Rock of Ages promotion: a trip for two to see the Rock of Ages show on Broadway. His prize package includes a $1,000 hotel certificate for the W New York – Times Square and $1,500 in airfare and spending cash. Have a great time in New York, Kevin, and we hope you enjoy the bright lights on Broadway!

Diane Morgan of Omaha, Neb., and Lori Bridgewater of Belle Plaine each won an electric guitar signed by Rock Of Ages cast members, including Tony Award® nominee Constantine Maroulis of “American Idol” fame. Those guitars should definitely help them rock the house!  

The top three winners were selected in the final Rock of Ages drawing Thursday. They’re in addition to the winners from our first ROA drawing, who each got a “Party Like A Rock Star” prize package to see the musical when it played this spring at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines. Congrats again to those winners:

•    Abbey Fry, Ollie
•    Jay Griffey, Muscatine
•    Shirley Grillet, West Des Moines
•    Andrea Groves, Winterset
•    Bonnie Martin, Marshalltown
•    Tisha May, Eldora
•    Dianne McKenzie, Ocheyedan
•    Tamara Moseley, Davenport
•    Tom Pauley, Forest City
•    Kathleen Schwanz, Breda.

Can’t People Who Came Close Have The Prize?

One of the interesting questions that’s come our way of late has to do with the unclaimed jackpot that’s STILL out there in Hot Lotto®. The person wondered if the jackpot could just be split up among those who came close winning the big prize if the actual winner doesn’t come forward.

I suppose it can be fun to think about ideas like that, but in reality, you have to have a ticket showing you won the particular prize involved in order to claim the money. And it’s for good reason: If we didn’t require people to actually present a ticket to claim a prize, we’d be in the position of having to pay prize money to anyone with a good enough story. And then imagine how you’d feel if someone else walked away with the prize you’d legitimately won on your ticket.

You’ve got to have a lot of safeguards in place when there are millions of dollars on the line!

Now, about that unclaimed jackpot: We’re coming up on the six-month mark and there’s still no word from the person who bought the ticket in Des Moines that won a $16.5 million Hot Lotto jackpot back in December. Whoever won that prize has now waited longer to claim it than any lottery jackpot winner in this state.

As a quick recap, here are the details: The ticket was purchased at Quik Trip, 4801 N.E. 14th St. in Des Moines. It matched all six numbers in the Dec. 29 Hot Lotto drawing to win the grand prize. The winning numbers that night were: 3-12-16-26-33 and Hot Ball 11. We don’t release a ticket’s date or time of sale for security reasons, but we can tell you that the jackpot-winning play was on a ticket that spanned five Hot Lotto drawings from Dec. 25 to Jan. 8.

Hot Lotto tickets in Iowa expire a year from the date of the drawing in which a prize is won, so there’s still plenty of time for the jackpot to be claimed. It’s just unusual that we haven’t heard from anyone yet.

VIP Club: Having Trouble Entering Your Numbers?

Last week, we told you about the “Play It Again” promotion that gives you the chance to win one of 46 cash prizes. Well in the past few days, we’ve heard from some folks who have had trouble entering the promotion. It turns out they’re trying to enter an incorrect number, so here are the details you’ll need to know as you enter your tickets:

After you’ve become a member of our VIP Club and logged into your account, you’ll be ready to enter the Play It Again drawing using nonwinning tickets from the list of eligible scratch games. There are two numbers you’ll need to enter from each ticket. And this is where there’s been some confusion.

In the past, the lottery has asked that players enter a nine-digit code near the bottom on the front of each scratch ticket. But if you enter that nine-digit code for Play It Again, you’ll get an error message.

The 10-digit entry number you need for Play It Again is found under the latex area on the front of your scratch ticket and it can't be seen until the ticket has been scratched off. Be sure to scratch off all the latex on the ticket, not just the part in the immediate play area.

You’ll know you have the right number for entry when you find a 10-digit code with three digits inside a rectangular box. After entering that number from the front of your ticket, you’ll flip it over and enter the ticket number on the back.

We’ve included ticket images here from a couple games as a reference. You’ll also find another helpful illustration by clicking on the “Which Numbers Do I Enter?” link on our VIP Club home page. 

And one other thing: Don’t try to enter winning tickets in the promotion! If you do that, you’ll get a message saying that you’ve used an invalid entry. Only nonwinning tickets are eligible for Play It Again.

Two Million-Dollar Powerball Prizes In Iowa In Two Months

Iowa Lottery players now have won two million-dollar Powerball® prizes in two months!

A lottery player who bought a ticket at a Boone convenience store won a $1 million Powerball® prize in Saturday’s drawing. That follows the big win by Eric Shaffer of Marion, who claimed a $1 million Powerball prize from the March 9 drawing.

The latest $1 million-winning ticket was purchased at Casey’s, 1127 Story St. in Boone. It was one of two tickets nationwide to win a $1 million prize in Saturday’s Powerball drawing. The other was purchased in Ohio.  

The Boone ticket originally matched the first five numbers but missed the Powerball to win a $200,000 prize. But the player who purchased the ticket also added the Power Play® option to the winning play, which 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.

The winning numbers in Saturday’s Powerball drawing were: 6-13-15-32-41 and Powerball 3. The Power Play number was 2. No one won Saturday’s $25 million jackpot, so the prize increases to an estimated $36 million for Wednesday’s drawing.

Prizes of $1 million have to be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Des Moines, and our prize-claim office is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. If the winner or winners need information before coming forward to claim the prize, they’re welcome to call the lottery at 515-725-7900.