ialottery blog

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?

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:

 

What’s In It For You At Lottery B-Day Party?

The Iowa Lottery is turning 25 this year and we’re celebrating with a summer travel project that will give you the chance to win cash prizes and rack up savings at businesses and local festivals across the state. The key to it all is our new $5 instant-scratch game, “The Silver Ticket.”

You can win instant prizes in the game from $5 up to $25,000. And if you don’t win a cash prize, there are a few different ways your ticket can be used for even more value:

• “Silver Ticket Savings.” Iowa Lottery players can use nonwinning tickets like a coupon for savings at Iowa events, businesses and attractions. A complete list of the special discount offers available to Silver Ticket customers will be available on the Tourism Office Web site at www.traveliowa.com beginning April 26.
• “Silver Ticket Cash Stops.” Lottery players can use nonwinning tickets in The Silver Ticket game for a chance to win cash prizes in contests the lottery will hold at 25 events across the state. Four cash prizes of up to $500 will be awarded during each contest for a total of $1,000 in prizes at each event.
• Finally, State Fairgoers can use their nonwinning ticket as an entry in the Silver Ticket Cash Stop festivities during the Tourism-Lottery project’s finale event, the Iowa State Fair.

Legislation authorizing a lottery in Iowa was signed into law on April 18, 1985, and the Iowa Lottery sold its first tickets during a kick-off celebration on Aug. 22, 1985, at the State Fair.

Your Chance To See Horse-Racing Elite

Prairie Meadows and the Iowa Lottery are giving you the chance to see horse-racing’s elite in person. It’s all part of our “Racing to Riches” game and promotion.

The $3 Racing to Riches scratch game started sales Monday. You can win instant prizes of up to $30,000! And if you don’t win an instant prize, you can use your ticket to enter the Racing to Riches promotion at Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Altoona.

There will be three drawings in the promotion for round-trip packages for two to the big horse races at Churchill Downs, Pimlico Race Course and Belmont Park.

To enter the promotion, put your nonwinning Racing to Riches ticket in the drawing drum at the Finish Line Show Lounge at Prairie Meadows. You’ll need to enter in person – tickets that are mailed in will not be accepted.

The first drawing on April 14 will be for a trip to Churchill Downs. Next up will be a drawing on April 28 for a trip to Pimlico Race Course. And on May 19, the drawing will be for a trip to see the races at Belmont Park.

Good luck and we hope that you’ll be off to the races!

Dreaming Has Never Been So Easy

You could say you've never had it so easy when it comes to the Iowa Lottery. That's because of three new ideas we've just unveiled that all are aimed at keeping it simple.

The first is "Did I Win?" a $1 scratch game that began sales this month. Its concept is simple: Players who find the word "yes" in the play area on their ticket win the prize shown for that game.   Prizes range from $1 up to $1,000.

And on Sunday, the "Lotto 12-Pack" promotion started, giving players a one-stop way to buy tickets for a special price in all three of Iowa's big-jackpot games. The promotion gives players a discount for buying tickets all at once in Powerball with Power Play®, Mega Millions with Megaplier® and Hot Lotto® with the Sizzler.

You can choose to buy all the games for a week and receive $12 in plays for only $10, or you can bundle your plays at a discounted price for two weeks ($24 value for $20), three weeks ($36 value for $30) or even four weeks ($48 value for $40) at a time. The Lotto 12-Pack promotion runs through May 22.

And, we can’t forget "Play 'Em All!" It lets you cover all the Powerball options or all the Mega Ball options for a particular drawing.

If you ask for the Play 'Em All option, you’ll get 39 plays in Powerball, one for each of the 39 Powerball numbers available. The Play ‘Em All option in Mega Millions is for 46 plays, one for each of the 46 Mega Ball numbers available.

New buttons for the Lotto 12-Pack and Play 'Em All options are being added to the screens on lottery sales terminals to make things easy for the retail employees selling tickets. We’re trying to make things simpler for both lottery players and retailers!

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!