ialottery blog

Why Was The Jackpot Increased?

Last week, you may have noticed a change in the Powerball jackpot that doesn’t happen all that often.   

The jackpot for the Powerball drawing on Wednesday (Feb. 3) was originally set at an estimated $108 million. But before the drawing happened, that amount was raised to an estimated $115 million.  

The last time we had done something like that was during Iowa State Fair time, when the jackpot reached $259.9 million before it was won in the drawing on Aug. 19.

Some of you have asked us how the jackpot amount can go up for the same drawing. And whose decision is it anyway?

The answer to the jackpot question can be found in the Powerball Game Rules section on our Web site. First, it helps to know where the Powerball jackpot money comes from. From all the tickets that are sold for a particular drawing, 49.5 percent of the money is dedicated to paying prizes until the jackpot prize is funded at the guaranteed annuitized amount. In other words, the prize pool consists of 49.5 percent of sales until the full estimated jackpot amount is reached.

If sales exceed that amount, the money can either be held over for the next drawing’s prize pool or the jackpot amount for the current drawing can be raised. In instances like last week when sales were high due to the start of cross-selling in Powerball and Mega Millions, the decision was to increase the jackpot amount for Wednesday‘s drawing to $115 million.

And just who makes that decision? You likely know that Iowa is just one member of the Powerball game. The Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which is based in Urbandale, Iowa, oversees the game on behalf of the lotteries that sell Powerball tickets. The directors of all the lotteries that are members of the Powerball game serve on the MUSL Board. It is that Board that makes the decisions concerning the jackpot amount in Powerball.   

And in case you’re wondering, tomorrow night’s Powerball jackpot is an estimated $20 million. The $141.4 million jackpot in Saturday night’s drawing was won in North Carolina.  

More, More, More Today!

We can’t get enough of the Mega Millions® news! Tonight is the very first drawing that will include tickets purchased in Iowa.

The estimated jackpot for tonight’s drawing is $12 million. This comes after a ticket purchased in Texas claimed the estimated $144 million jackpot for last Friday’s drawing.

As we’ve said before, the jackpots start at $12 million and grow until they’re won, so Iowans will have plenty of chances to win playing Mega Millions, along with Powerball and Hot Lotto.

Two Giant-Jackpot Games For Iowa

There’s huge lottery news in Iowa this weekend! Starting Sunday, you can buy tickets in both of the country’s premier big-jackpot games when Mega Millions® joins Powerball® on the list of lotto games sold in Iowa.

The addition means players in Iowa will be able to play for even more big lotto prizes.  With Mega Millions drawings on Tuesday and Friday nights and Powerball drawings on Wednesdays and Saturdays, you’ll have four chances each week to hit it big!

With more people playing, we expect the Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots to grow bigger and faster than they would have on their own. And, we expect more winners to be taking home more prizes.

Powerball and Mega Millions are both lotto games with jackpot prizes that have climbed into the hundreds of millions of dollars. But to date, the games have been sold by separate groups of lotteries. U.S. lottery directors reached an agreement in October to allow what’s being called “cross-selling” of the two games.

Here in Iowa, we think the biggest impact will be felt in eastern Iowa, and specifically along our border with Illinois. Illinois is the only state bordering Iowa that’s been a member of Mega Millions rather than Powerball, so when the two games’ jackpots have been big, players have driven back and forth to buy tickets. Now Iowa Lottery players will be able to buy all their tickets right here at home.

The Iowa Lottery has had six Powerball jackpot winners. The largest Powerball jackpot won in Iowa was a $200.8 million prize claimed in October 2006 by a Fort Dodge couple. Now we’re looking forward to seeing who will be our state’s first Mega Millions jackpot winner!

Lottery Proceeds To Veterans Causes Near $4 Million

In just a year and a half, the Iowa Lottery has raised nearly $4 million to help Iowa veterans and their families, and we owe you a big thank-you for that success!

Gov. Chet Culver signed a law in March 2008 that authorized the lottery to create two new instant-scratch games and two additional pull-tab games each year, with all profits from the games dedicated to the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. Lottery tickets for the cause were introduced in July 2008 and since that time, nearly $4 million has been provided to the Veterans Trust Fund from the sale of tickets.

The newest scratch game dedicated to the cause is “Veterans Cash,” which began sales Monday, while the newest pull-tab game to benefit the Trust Fund is “Star Spangled Bucks.” It was introduced on Jan. 11. Both are $1 games with a red, white and blue theme.

The Iowa Veterans Trust Fund was created to provide assistance to qualified veterans and their families. Currently, funds are used for unemployment or underemployment assistance due to service-related causes; assistance with vision, hearing, and dental care, durable medical equipment and prescription drugs; counseling and substance abuse services; housing repair; and transitional housing in an emergency. Trust Fund expenditures are approved through the Iowa Veterans Commission.

Offsets Explained

It can be an uncomfortable subject to tackle, but we’ve had a lot of questions about set-asides (commonly known as offsets) lately, so we’re taking this opportunity to explain them further.
Sometimes winners come into our offices who owe money to the state for whatever reason; sometimes money is owed for judicial fines, court costs, child support, etc. By law, the Iowa Lottery is required to withhold those debts from the player’s winnings.

Here’s how it works:

An offset database that is available to all state agencies and even some city agencies (if they’re owed money). Within state government, there is an offset department that collects the debts and distributes the money to the appropriate agencies when they are paid.

At the lottery, we’re required to run our winners’ information against that database before we can write them a check. If the computer finds a set-aside in the database, that money is automatically deducted from the check. Our validations associates never get to see the database, and aren’t even aware of any set-asides until the check has printed. It is an automatic process that is required by Iowa law. 

If players feel they no longer owe money to the state, they are given a contact within the offset department or the agency requesting the set-aside to investigate the case and possibly refund that money.

Tech The Halls Winners Announced

We’ve held the drawing, completed all the procedures and now it’s time to announce the winners in our “Tech The Halls” holiday bonus promotion!

Two hundred prizes from Sony® are on the line along with 10 prizes of $10,000!

Click here to see the winning numbers and names we selected in the drawing, or click here to access videos that give the results. There were more than 405,000 entries in the promotion, so a lot of people wanted the prizes involved!   

If your entry was selected, you’ll need to present to the Lottery the signed ticket that you used to enter the promotion, along with a completedclaim form. Hurry, the deadline is 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 4!

And for those of you who do not see your number on the winning numbers lists, please hold on to your tickets. Please keep your tickets until all results are official and all prizes have been claimed. So, until you see that every prize has been claimed for the ticket you entered, hold on to your tickets.

Tax Forms For Lottery Winnings

When you win a prize of more than $600 in an Iowa Lottery game, the lottery sends to you a form that you will need to use to file your taxes for that calendar year. The document is called a W-2G form and it lists the gross amount you have won in lottery prizes during the year as well as any federal and state taxes that were withheld from those winnings.  

As you can imagine, with the millions of winners that the lottery has each year, it takes some time to process all of those forms and get them ready to send out. The Iowa Lottery begins to review the records of its winners and prepare the documents as soon as each calendar year ends.

The forms must be mailed by Jan. 31 of the new year and the lottery always meets that deadline. We try to have the forms processed before then if possible, but they are always mailed out no later than Jan. 31.

A Pot O’ Cash

What does the luck of the Irish have to do with the Iowa Lottery? Well, have we got a golden nugget for you!

On January 17 we’re starting our “Pot O’ Gold Raffle”! Players will be able to buy a $20 raffle ticket at all Iowa Lottery retailers where they buy Powerball. There will be a limited amount of raffle tickets available, and players can win up to an estimated $1 million playing this game!

No play slip is needed; just ask the cashier for the Pot O’ Gold ticket. Each ticket will show a unique, eight-digit raffle number. All numbers are randomly generated by the terminal, so you will receive the next available number.

The Iowa Lottery will only sell 120,000 of the tickets, so be sure to get yours as soon as you can! Prizes estimated at $1,000, $100,000 and $1 million will be available in the game.

Players will be able to purchase tickets between January 17 and March 13 (unless the tickets sell out before then). The raffle drawing is set for March 17. Make sure you hold onto your ticket until the drawing, because you’ll need it if you win!

Check ialottery.com for details after January 17.

$106 Million and Climbing!

Although most of us at the Iowa Lottery consider all Powerball jackpots huge, our players get very interested when the jackpot reaches into the hundreds of millions.

Well, it’s happened again! There was no Powerball jackpot winner in Saturday night’s drawing for the $92 million prize, so the current estimated jackpot is $106 million! And it comes at a great time – right around the holidays.

In case you don’t remember, the record Powerball jackpot was a $365 million prize that was won in the drawing on Feb. 18, 2006, by eight co-workers at a Nebraska meat-packing plant.

Past Iowa Powerball jackpot winners include:
• 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.

You could be next, so get out there and get your tickets! And don’t forget to add the Power Play to your Powerball ticket. It’s just an extra $1, but could multiply your win (except the jackpot) by two, three, four or even five times!

You can check winning numbers by watching the drawings live on television, checking the winning numbers on the lottery’s Web site at www.ialottery.com, check drawings results in your local newspaper, listen for lottery results on local radio stations, visit a lottery retailer to get a print-out of the winning numbers, or call one of our offices for the details. And Powerball drawing results just began livestreaming on www.powerball.com as well.

A Unique Party Gift

What is the perfect party gift for everyone? Is it hot cocoa in a mug, candy in a jar or chocolates in a box? All great ideas, but for the perfect gift, why not lottery tickets?

Did you know you can buy lottery tickets in bulk? It takes a little planning on both your part and the retailer’s, but it’s a fun and easy way to give a gift to everyone on your list at the office or even at home.

So just how many tickets do we mean by bulk? Well, as an example, you can purchase a $300 “pack” of tickets. All of our tickets are sold in packs. The price of the tickets determines just how many tickets you will get in each pack.

Each pack is worth $300. So, let’s say for example you wanted to buy a pack of $1 tickets; you would get 300 tickets in one pack. But, if you wanted to get everyone a $5 ticket, there would be 60 tickets in one pack.

Here are some things to keep in mind when ordering in bulk. First, know the date by which you’ll need to pick up the tickets from your retailer.

And second, you’ll want to speak with the retailer ahead of time to give them your order: how many tickets, which game you’d like to order and when you need the tickets. Then your local lottery retailer can place an order with their district sales representative for your tickets. The next time tickets are delivered, which is weekly, they can save your order to have it ready and waiting. Then all you have to do is hand out the gifts and watch them enjoy! You can do this anytime, for office parties, holidays, weddings or whatever large event you’re planning. Lottery tickets are an easy and fun solution.