ialottery blog

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.

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?

Where Can I Watch The Drawing?

With the Powerball jackpot really getting up there (it’s climbed to an estimated $220 million for Saturday’s drawing), we’re getting questions from folks who want a refresher on where they can catch the drawings.

Powerball drawings are broadcast by nearly 100 television stations nationwide. Click here for a complete list of the stations in all the Powerball states.

Iowans can see the drawings on these stations:

Market	Station	Network	Channel
Davenport	KWQC-TV	NBC	6
Des Moines	WOI-TV	ABC	5
Kirksville, Mo.	KTVO-TV	ABC	3
Sioux City	KTIV-TV	NBC	4
Waterloo	KWWL-TV	NBC	7

Powerball drawings also are available live online and are archived on the Internet if you want to check them out later.

And don’t forget, Iowa retailers can print out a list of the winning numbers for you and drawing results also are available 24/7 on our Web site.

Good luck with your Powerball tickets!

An Hour Later, She’s A $250,000 Winner

This video introduces you to Barb Arrasmith, the latest top-prize winner in the “Lucky Diamonds” scratch game. But what the video doesn’t tell you is how quickly Barb claimed her $250,000 prize after she’d bought her ticket!

The story gets it start when Barb and her co-workers went out for lunch to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and stopped at a convenience store on the way back to the office. While they were at the store, some in the group bought Powerball® tickets, but Barb said she likes the scratch tickets, so she asked for Lucky Diamonds. She played the ticket when she got back to her desk and couldn’t believe her eyes.

Barb said she didn’t want to get her hopes up until the lottery could verify what she thought she saw. So, within about a hour of her win, she was already here at lottery headquarters so we could check it out.

Barb’s eyes did not deceive her: She’s a $250,000 winner. Happy Cinco de Mayo, Barb! We think you definitely had something to celebrate this year!  

Will Iowa Have A $2 Million Powerball Winner?

In the midst of the run of $1 million winners we’re seeing here in Iowa, now comes a chance for you to win up to $2 million with the Power Play option in Powerball!   

So the question is, will Iowa see its first $2 million Powerball® winner this month?

The thing that’s making it all possible is the Power Play 10X promotion. The Power Play® feature normally gives Powerball players the chance to multiply their non-jackpot Powerball winnings 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 as of Saturday, one of the four 5X multipliers in the Power Play feature has been replaced with a 10X. If the 10X is selected, that means Powerball prizes will be multiplied by 10 times. Here are a couple examples: If a player wins a $100 prize and the Power Play number is 10, that player would win $1,000. And, a $200,000 prize with the 10X would be multiplied to $2 million. (Jackpot prizes are not eligible for the Power Play option.)

The Power Play 10X promotion started with Saturday night’s drawing. The last eligible drawing will be Saturday, May 29, as long as the 10X has come up at least once during the month of May. If a 10X has not come up during that time, the promotion will continue until a 10X is drawn.

At the end of the promotion, the 10X will be removed, leaving the original 2X, 3X, 4X and 5X multipliers.

Iowa Lottery players have won 13 $1 million prizes since January 2008, and six of those winners took home their prizes from Powerball with the Power Play.

Here’s a breakdown of what 10X prizes look like for the promotion:

 

Is It You? We Wish We Knew!

We’ve written about it here before, but now we’re really serious: Time is running out for someone to claim a $200,000-winning Powerball ticket sold in Council Bluffs. Several other lotto prizes of up to $10,000 also are unclaimed in Iowa and will expire in the next few months if the winners don’t come forward.

Now is the time to double-check your tickets!

The $200,000-winning ticket was sold at Eddy’s at 3434 Nebraska Ave. in Council Bluffs for the Powerball drawing on Saturday, May 9, 2009. It came close to winning it all, matching the first five numbers but missing the Powerball to win a $200,000 prize. The winning numbers that night were: 4-15-32-49-58 and Powerball 21.

The winner or winners have until the close of business (4 p.m.) on May 10 to claim the prize at a lottery office. The Iowa Lottery has offices in Council Bluffs, Storm Lake, Mason City, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.  

We visited the Eddy’s location on Tuesday and put up some fun signs outside the store to get people’s attention. Maybe we’ll find the winner before it’s too late!  

In the lottery’s latest financial year, more than $1.3 million in prizes went unclaimed in Iowa 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 prize that’s expired.

In addition to the ticket purchased in Council Bluffs, tickets for these major Iowa Lottery prizes also are unclaimed and are set to expire in the next few months:

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

Pick 3
Prize Drawing	Amount Won	Retailer	Expiration
March 16, 2010	$1,800	Quick Shop, Clear Lake	June 14, 2010
March 20, 2010	$1,750	Quick Shop, Clear Lake	June 18, 2010

Introducing Iowa’s Newest Millionaire

Iowa is definitely on a hot streak when it comes to lottery millionaires!

In the past two years, 11 Iowa Lottery players have won prizes of $1 million. The latest big winner is David Lyons of Des Moines, who claimed his prize today.
 
David is an overnight stocker at Wal-Mart in Ankeny and bought his winning Powerball ticket early in the morning, which is lunch time for him. Click on the video above to see David’s story. Congrats, David!