ialottery blog

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.

State Fair Wrap-Up

  My, how time flies by. It seems like just yesterday we were telling you about the upcoming 2009 Iowa State Fair Lottery booth. And now as cleanup has begun, we’re taking a look back at how it all went.

We had another wonderful year at our booth inside the Varied Industries building. Crowds for this year’s fair hit 1,006,501, just shy of breaking last year’s record by 100,000 people.

During most of the fair duration the Powerball jackpot grew reaching over $250 million! So you can guess what most players visiting our booth were asking for. During the jackpot run three of our four terminals inside our booth became the top selling terminals across Iowa! Needless to say we kept pretty busy.

But not only were players wanting to buy Powerball tickets, they were also playing Hot Lotto as its jackpot grew becoming the second largest Hot Lotto jackpot since its inception. The highest jackpot to date for Hot Lotto is $19.97 million which was won by John Hall of Indianola, Iowa!

We were also able to witness first hand some big winners inside our booth. One player hit the top prize of $12,000 playing the “King of Cash” scratch game! Another lucky lady bought her winning Pick 3 ticket at our booth which turned out to win $3,000. There were also several other prizes won from $1 up to $500. And that’s just the ones we know about!

Players enjoyed the “get caught with a dot” on your pull-tab ticket. For some players it was a bonus they were unaware of until we validated their tickets. They really enjoyed the “good, clean, fun” stain-remover pens. The deck of cards and especially the $5 turkey coupons were a hit as well.

The “Winning Wheel” drew in crowds of players everyday waiting to see if their name would be drawn. We had several players win $200 spinning the wheel! At the end of the fair we put the names from each of the drawings top prize winners into a drawing to win $500 cash! The big winner was Steve Bruns from Alexander, Iowa!

There were so many things to keep our players entertained this year like always. And as always we enjoyed getting to meet our players and watch them have fun playing our games and winning!

Get Ready To “Rock The Stadium”!

The lottery’s latest promotion gives you the chance to win some sweet football tickets AND help Iowa’s veterans at the same time.

The promo is called “Rock The Stadium For Veterans” and you can enter it now for the chance to see the Army-Iowa State football game and win season tix for the Cyclones’ 2010 football season!
 
To enter, just visit the Iowa Lottery’s Web site at www.ialottery.com and key in the serial number from a nonwinning ticket in “The Freedom Rock™” instant-scratch game. Entries will be accepted through noon on Wednesday, Sept. 9. You have to keep all the tickets you enter and you can use each ticket only once as an eligible entry.

The promotion’s preliminary drawing will be on Sept. 10. Ten semifinalists selected that day will each win four tickets to the Army-Iowa St. football game Sept. 26 at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames. They’ll also get to attend a pre-game picnic, have a parking pass for the game and win $100 spending cash! The game will mark the first time that the United States Military Academy football team has played in Ames. 

The “Rock The Stadium” final drawing will be held during the pre-game picnic in Ames. The semifinalists will be eliminated one by one in a reverse drawing until just one person remains. That grand-prize winner will take home two season tickets for the 2010 Iowa State football season and $1,000 cash! All state and federal withholding taxes will be paid by the Iowa Lottery.

I said earlier in this entry that you have to keep each ticket you enter in the promotion and here’s why: If you’re one of the semifinalists, you have to show your ticket to the Iowa Lottery so you can be eligible for the final drawing.

Here’s the part about how you can help veterans through the promo: Proceeds from the sale of tickets in The Freedom Rock game are dedicated to the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund, which directly benefits Iowa veterans and their families.

Tickets in The Freedom Rock game are easy to find: They have a red, white and blue theme and feature artwork of this year’s version a huge boulder in Adair County that’s painted by Ray “Bubba” Sorensen II, a Greenfield artist. Players can win up to 10 times on each ticket and prizes range from $2 to $7,777.

Your Chance To Be Taken Out To the Ballgame!

Our latest promotion offers you the chance to take in a baseball game in the Windy City! Check out this video about the “Chicago Baseball Getaway” promotion.  

Be On the Lookout For Us In Your Area!

The Iowa Lottery's schedule is in full gear and you may see us at a retail location in your area! Why should that be important to you? Because when we show up, it means we've got prizes with us, and who doesn’t want to win a prize?

The spring, summer and early fall are a busy time for us here at the lottery. We use the warm weather as a perfect reason to put on events around the state. It could be your chance to spin the wheel and win a prize!

The lottery's on-the-road schedule is a great way for us to get out into the state and meet with our players and retailers. And the promotions running during our events give you the chance to win free tickets, lottery hats and T-shirts, and even food and drinks or fuel discounts from the locations we visit.

We've added to the mix this year with our Powerball Prize Patrol that's visiting local festivals and fairs to give away coupons and special offers from some of the biggest attractions around the state. But, the Prize Patrol will only give you a goodie if you’ve got a Powerball ticket on you, so buy your ticket before heading out!

We have a link on our home page to our events and Prize Patrol stops, and that information also is available under the "Promotions" tab on our Web site. We also send out e-mails for upcoming events to members of our VIP Club, so join it today to get the inside scoop!

Do You Have A $20 Bonus Coming?

As you may have heard, there was an issue with our “Big Beepin’ Deal” promotion over the weekend that kept it from working for a couple days. A lot of people bought Powerball® tickets during the outage and should have been eligible for $20 bonuses from the lottery, but didn’t receive them. 

We’ve identified the tickets that were involved, but we don’t know who bought them all, so we decided the only way to ensure that a bonus is available to everyone who should have received one is to open the process up to anyone who bought an eligible ticket during the timeframe involved.

The promotion was not functioning from 12:01 a.m. Sunday (May 24) until 11:28 a.m. Tuesday (May 26). If you bought a Powerball ticket during that time that had five Powerball plays with the Power Play – a $10 purchase – you are eligible for a $20 bonus from the Iowa Lottery!

Just complete an Iowa Lottery claim form and mail the completed form along with your ticket to: Iowa Lottery, P.O. Box 10474, Des Moines, Iowa 50306. You have until May 27, 2010, to claim the bonus from the lottery.

Click here for all the details on how you can determine if your ticket is eligible for a $20 bonus. 

Powerball Prize Patrol Alert!

Here's another reason to make sure you have a Powerball ticket on you this summer: the Powerball Prize Patrol!

I've been sharing details with you here about the "Keep Your Ticket Handy" project we're working on this summer with the Iowa Tourism Office. The Prize Patrol is part of that initiative.

Our Prize Patrol team will visit local festivals, fairs and other big events during May and June in Iowa and they'll have prizes and special offers for anyone who has a Powerball ticket on them! You never know when someone may come up and ask if you’ve got a Powerball ticket. If you do and you can show it to them, you'll get a prize or a coupon with a special offer on the spot!  Prize Patrol members are pretty easy to spot because they'll usually be driving our "Powerbug," which you see in the pic here.  

This past weekend, our Prize Patrol had fun surprising people at Kites Over Grinnell. And this coming weekend, our team will be making folks happy at the Muscatine Boat Show and at the races at the Iowa Speedway.

So, remember there could be something in it for you if you do what our slogan says: Keep Your Powerball Ticket Handy!

We'll be adding our Prize Patrol stops to the list of lottery events we keep on our Web site, so be sure to check the list to see if our team will be coming to your area!

The Latest Special Offers In “Keep Your Ticket Handy”

Remember to take advantage of the special offers being made to Iowa Powerball players through the “Keep Your Ticket Handy” initiative!

The second round of offers is currently underway and you’ll need a nonwinning ticket from Wednesday night’s drawing to be eligible. Another round of offers will kick off Sunday, so be sure to have a ticket for this Saturday’s Powerball drawing so you’ll be ready!

The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium is the current featured attraction in the campaign. It’s offering two free adult admissions worth a total value of $21! The Dubuque attraction features six large aquariums and exhibits that include giant catfish, turtles, otters, ducks, frogs, reptiles and the history of America's most famous river, the Mississippi River. Interactive exhibits and living history demonstrations bring its river-front campus to life. The facility also includes a riverboat museum, boatyard, wetland and a refurbished train depot.

As news about the travel initiative has spread, other Iowa events and businesses also have decided to make special, unadvertised bonus offers to Iowa Powerball players. So, right now, you also can visit the lottery’s Web site to see how you can use your nonwinning Powerball tickets to receive: 

• 1 free adult admission to Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, valid May 7–10.
• $10 in savings on a Blank Park Zoo Family Membership Pass valid May 7–15.
• 1 free adult admission to Living History Farms in Urbandale, valid May 10.
• Savings of $7.50 tickets to the Big Country Bash concert in Des Moines (regularly priced tickets are $27.50). The event is Sunday, June 28, and features Tracy Lawrence and John Michael Montgomery, among others.
• 1 free 20-ounce fountain drink at U-Stop convenience stores in Council Bluffs, Minden and Crescent valid May 7–July 10.
• 1 free Powerball ticket when you purchase five Iowa Lottery scratch tickets at The Cigarette Outlet locations in Cedar Rapids, Fort Madison, Marion, Muscatine, Ottumwa and Washington. Offer valid May 7–July 1.

Powerball ticket holders must use one ticket per coupon, or select which offer they wish to use.

Get Ready For First ‘Experience Iowa’ Offers

If you don’t have a Powerball ticket yet for Saturday night’s drawing, you’ll want to go out and get one!

The first special offers available to Iowa Powerball players in the “Experience Iowa” campaign begin Sunday, and you’ll need a nonwinning ticket from Saturday night’s drawing to be eligible. The whole campaign is a way for Iowans to help Iowans save money AND get out and play in our state.

Southern Iowa’s new Honey Creek Resort is the first major attraction that’s making special offers in the campaign. You can use your nonwinning Powerball tickets to get $20 complimentary certificates for any activities at the resort, including food, golf, lodging and its indoor water park.

Honey Creek is one of eight featured attractions in the summer travel initiative from the Iowa Lottery and Iowa Tourism Office. To take advantage of the Honey Creek offer and additional “bonus” discounts from other attractions, Iowa Powerball players who have a nonwinning ticket from Saturday’s drawing will be able to log onto the lottery Web site at www.ialottery.com, print off a coupon there starting Sunday, attach their nonwinning ticket, and then present the coupon to the participating attraction or business to receive the special deal. The initial round of offers will be available through Wednesday.  

Honey Creek is near Rathbun Lake in south-central Iowa. The destination spot offers a 105-room lakeside lodge and hotel, 28 luxury cabins, an 18-hole championship golf course, indoor water park, restaurant and lounge, RV park and boat and bike rentals.

And that’s not the only special offer in the campaign this week. As news of the initiative has spread, other Iowa businesses also have decided to make special, unadvertised bonus offers to Powerball players. So, starting Sunday, players also can visit the lottery’s Web site to find out how they can use their nonwinning Powerball tickets to receive:

• $30 savings on tickets to the North Dakota St.-Iowa St. football game on Sept. 3 in Ames (receive tickets for $10 each vs. $40 retail price).
• Up to $25 savings on tickets to the Principal Charity Golf Classic May 26-31 in West Des Moines (receive single-day tickets for $5 vs. $15 retail price, or a champions club single-day pass for $125 vs. $150 retail price).
• $7.50 savings on tickets to the Summer Jam concert June 27 in Des Moines (tickets for $20 vs. $27.50 retail price).
• A free 16-ounce coffee at U-Stop convenience stores in Council Bluffs, Minden and Crescent.
• A free 20-ounce fountain drink or coffee at all Country Store of Carroll convenience store locations in northwest Iowa.
• A free 20-ounce fountain drink at Fast Break convenience store locations in Fort Madison, Mediapolis, Muscatine and West Burlington.

Your Chance To Attend A Lottery Drawing

Some of the most fun we have at the lottery is during our drawings where we get to give away the big prizes. This Friday, you can be part of the fun while we're at it!

We'll hold the latest drawing in our "Midwest Millions" game at 11:30 a.m. Friday at Jordan Creek Town Center. Join us to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes into a lottery drawing! And if you entered a ticket in the drawing, you could see your name selected in person!

Midwest Millions is a joint instant-scratch game we've offered along with the Kansas Lottery. Some of you may remember that we debuted the initial version of the game in 2007. It was the first scratch game in the United States to be played by customers in two different states who competed for prizes as part of one big pool.

Midwest Millions was designed to test the "Powerball concept" that has proven so successful in lotto games. The idea is that by joining together in a game, lotteries can offer bigger prizes and more chances to win than they would have been able to do on their own. From a player perspective, we know that bigger prizes – and more of them – are always in demand, and we try to find ways to deliver those!

Friday's drawing also will help determine bragging rights between Iowa and Kansas! You see, Iowa Lottery players won both $500,000 prizes in the initial version of the game and a Kansas woman won the $500,000 prize in the first drawing this time around.

Will a Kansas Lottery player win the big prize Friday, or will it be someone who bought his/her ticket in Iowa? Come out and see!

We'll kick things off at 10:30 a.m. Friday with Big Ken and Colleen from Des Moines radio station KSTZ, Star 102.5. We'll be in the center court by customer service inside Jordan Creek, and the drawing itself will take place there at 11:30 a.m. Friday.

One player who sent in a nonwinning Midwest Millions ticket for the second-chance drawing will win a $500,000 prize and five other players will win prizes of $10,000 each. We'll have fun giveaways for the audience, too, so we hope to see you there!