ialottery blog

Mega Millions And Powerball Push Even Higher

The Mega Millions® and Powerball® jackpots have made it through another round of drawings and are in the Top 5 for each game. Mega Millions has the second-largest prize in the history of that game, while Powerball now has the fourth-largest prize in that game.

Three Iowa tickets – one in Mega Millions and two in Powerball – were just one number away from having at least a share of the weekend jackpots and each won a sizeable prize.  

This is the first time the jackpots have simultaneously topped the $700 million mark.

Mega Millions has the next drawing up, at 10 p.m. Tuesday. It now stands at an estimated $850 million annuity, $628.2 million lump-sum option. The Mega Millions jackpot was last won on Sept. 15 with a ticket purchased in Wisconsin, and it hasn’t been this big for more than two years.

Powerball’s jackpot now stands at an estimated $730 million annuity, $546 million lump-sum option for its next drawing at 9:59 p.m. Wednesday. The game’s top prize was last won Sept. 16 with a ticket purchased in New York, and it hasn’t been this big for nearly two years. 

Iowa Tickets That Came Close This Weekend

Three Iowa tickets were just one number away from a jackpot this weekend.

A ticket purchased at an eastern Iowa convenience store was just one number away from Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot, matching four of the first five numbers and the Mega Ball. That ticket, which won a $10,000 prize, was purchased at Kwik Star, 803 Seventh Ave. in Camanche.    

And two Iowa tickets were just one number away from Saturday’s Powerball jackpot. They each won a prize of $50,000 by matching four of the first five numbers and the Powerball. They were purchased at Kwik Star, 3350 U.S. Highway 71 South in Spirit Lake; and Kum & Go, 2303 Muscatine Ave. in Iowa City.

The three prizes must be claimed directly from the Iowa Lottery. With its offices closed on weekends and on Monday in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Tuesday is the earliest that the prizes can be claimed.

What’s That About ‘Coverage’?

By tracking sales, lottery officials can estimate how many of all the possible combinations have been purchased for a particular drawing. (The odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball are about 1 in 292.2 million because there are about 292.2 million ways that the numbers in the game can be combined to make a play. And in Mega Millions, the odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 302.6 million because that’s how many ways the numbers in the game can be combined in a play.)

Nearly 30 percent of the combinations were purchased in Saturday’s Powerball drawing. And, the coverage estimate for Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing is about 36 percent.

General Pointers

Remember that the deadline in Iowa to buy tickets for the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings is at 8:59 p.m. the night of the drawing. If you buy a ticket after that deadline, it will be for an upcoming drawing and you won’t be in the running for that night’s giant prize. 

And, please remember to play responsibly. You only need one ticket to have a chance to win. 

We also want everyone to be safe and continue following social distancing guidelines when you’re out and about. Think about buying your tickets if you’re already out running errands so you don’t have to make a special trip to get them.

(I’ve posted lots of other jackpot details here on the blog this month, so feel free to check those out. I’m doing my best to keep providing new angles as the jackpots continue to grow.)

Mega Millions and Powerball Jackpots Now Both In The Top Five

They just keep rollin’! The jackpots in Mega Millions® and Powerball® continue to grow, with both now in the Top 5 for each game.  

The Mega Millions® jackpot is currently the second largest in the history of that game. Not to be left out, Powerball® has the fifth-largest jackpot in that game.

Mega Millions has the next drawing up, at 10 p.m. tomorrow. Its jackpot currently stands at an estimated $750 million annuity, $550.6 million lump-sum option. The Mega Millions jackpot was last won on Sept. 15 with a ticket purchased in Wisconsin, and it hasn’t been this big for more than two years.

The next Powerball drawing will be at 9:59 p.m. Saturday. The game’s jackpot currently stands at an estimated $640 million annuity, $478.7 million lump-sum option. Powerball’s top prize was last won Sept. 16 with a ticket purchased in New York, and it hasn’t been this big for more than four years.

How Close Are We To The Records?

While the jackpots have both been growing for months, there’s still a lot of room to go before they would reach the overall record amounts.

Powerball holds the current record for a U.S. lottery prize. That jackpot of $1.586 billion was won in the drawing on Jan. 13, 2016, split by three tickets in California, Florida and Tennessee.

The largest jackpot in Mega Millions is close behind. That prize of $1.537 billion was won in the drawing on Oct. 23, 2018, by a ticket purchased in South Carolina.

Easy Pick vs. Your Own Numbers

There is debate about which option has a better chance of winning: an easy-pick ticket where the lottery terminal randomly selects the numbers involved, or a ticket where the player chooses the numbers. The answer? The odds are the same for every ticket in the game. There are more easy-pick winners because most tickets purchased are easy picks. In recent drawings, for example, more than 90 percent of the plays purchased in Iowa were easy picks.

Annuity vs. Lump-Sum Option

The jackpot winner gets to choose whether to claim the prize in annuitized payments over time or in the lump-sum option. Lotteries give estimates for both amounts in the lead-up to the drawings. The lump-sum value is the amount of money on hand from the sale of tickets in the game. The annuitized value is the amount the winner would receive in graduated payments over time. If you are buying tickets as part of a group that wins a jackpot, the entire group must decide on one option. Some members of the group can’t choose the lump sum while others choose annuity.

(I’ve posted other jackpot updates here on the blog this week, and those earlier posts include additional details you may also want check out. I’m doing my best to keep providing new angles for us all to consider as the jackpots continue to grow.)

All The Latest: Mega Millions Keeps Growing, Powerball Drawing Tonight

The Mega Millions® jackpot has made it through another drawing and is now the 2nd-largest prize in the history of that game. Not to be left out, the Powerball® jackpot is currently the 9th-largest in that game.

Details About The Next Drawings

Powerball has the next drawing up, at 9:59 p.m. tonight. The Powerball jackpot currently stands at an estimated $550 million annuity, $411.4 million lump-sum option. The game’s top prize was last won Sept. 16 with a ticket purchased in New York, and it hasn’t been this big for more than four years.

And, nobody won last night’s giant Mega Millions jackpot, so it has grown even further. It now stands at an estimated $750 million annuity, $550.6 million lump-sum option for its next drawing at 10 p.m. Friday. With sales going strong across the country, it’s likely that amount will increase again before the drawing occurs. The Mega Millions jackpot was last won on Sept. 15 with a ticket purchased in Wisconsin, and it hasn’t been this big for more than two years.

This is just the second time that the jackpots have simultaneously topped the $500 million mark. The first time that happened was in October 2018 when the Mega Millions jackpot reached a record amount in that game of more than $1.5 billion. 

Why Don’t You Just Divide It Up?

We’ve heard this week from some folks who say that with the jackpots this high, the money should just be divided up among more winners. A couple details about that: Overall sales in the games would appear demonstrate a different mindset. Sales have always followed the jackpots up, so it seems that a whole bunch of folks do want a chance at a giant prize.

And, the rules in Powerball and Mega Millions don’t speak to the jackpots being divided up. Lotteries couldn’t just decide to do something different this time around – people have already purchased tickets under the current rules. We do pay attention to input and ideas, though, so please keep the feedback coming.

For Newcomers (Or Those Needing A Refresher)

Giant jackpots attract the attention of a lot of first-timers and bring occasional players into the mix as well. If you need a refresher or crash course, the Iowa Lottery keeps how-to-play videos on its website to give everyone the key details in just a couple minutes.     

Keep Your Group Play Hassle-Free      

We also see people pooling their money to buy tickets together, whether at work or with family and neighbors. And we’ve had groups win prizes in the past that then needed to go back through their own records to figure out just who was in the money.  

We have a list of reminders on our website to help you keep group play hassle free. Please check them out, especially if you’re the person buying tickets for your group.

General Pointers

Remember that the deadline in Iowa to buy tickets for the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings is at 8:59 p.m. the night of the drawing. If you buy a ticket after that deadline, it will be for an upcoming drawing and you won’t be in the running for that night’s giant prize.

And, please remember to play responsibly. You only need one ticket to have a chance to win. We also want everyone to be safe and follow social distancing guidelines when you’re out and about. Think about buying your tickets if you’re already out running errands so you don’t have to make a special trip to get them.

All The Latest: The Powerball and Mega Millions Jackpots Both In Top 10

UPDATE on Tuesday, Jan. 12: The jackpot for tonight's Mega Millions drawing has been raised further. The new details are included here.

The Mega Millions® and Powerball® jackpots are both now in the Top 10 for each game, with a combined total of more than $1 billion.  

Mega Millions has the next drawing up, at 10 p.m. Tuesday. The Mega Millions jackpot has been raised again and now stands at an estimated $625 million annuity, $458.8 million lump-sum option. That is the fourth-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history. The game’s jackpot was last won on Sept. 15 with a ticket purchased in Wisconsin, and it hasn’t been this big for more than two years.

The next Powerball drawing happens at 9:59 p.m. Wednesday. The Powerball jackpot currently stands at an estimated $550 million annuity, $411.4 million lump-sum option. That is the ninth largest jackpot in Powerball history. The game’s top prize was last won on Sept. 16 with a ticket purchased in New York, and it hasn’t been this big for more than four years.

This is just the second time that the jackpots have simultaneously topped the $500 million mark. The first time that happened was in October 2018 when the Mega Millions jackpot reached a record amount for that game of more than $1.5 billion. 

When the jackpots are this large, we often see people deciding to buy tickets together, whether as part of an office pool or with friends and neighbors. The Iowa Lottery keeps a list of reminders on our website to help your keep group play hassle free. Among them: Keep a careful list of who puts in money to buy tickets in your pool, and how much they contributed. And, send a photo of your group’s tickets to all pool members before the drawing so everyone can see the details involved.

Remember that the deadline in Iowa to buy tickets for the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings is at 8:59 p.m. the night of the drawing. If you buy a ticket after the deadline, it will be for an upcoming drawing, and you would not be in the running for that night’s giant prize.  

With all the weight and pressure we’ve been feeling during the ongoing public-health emergency, maybe it's nice to have something like these jackpots to think about and take a break to do some daydreaming. But as we at the Iowa Lottery have said so many times through the years, remember to play smart and be informed. It only takes one ticket for a chance to win.

And to all lottery players, please be safe and continue following social distancing guidelines when you’re out and about. Think about buying your tickets if you’re already out running errands so you don’t have to make a special trip to get them. First and foremost, we want everyone to stay safe during the ongoing health emergency.

We also have gotten questions from the “plan aheaders” out there – those folks who want to know what to expect if they win one of the giant jackpots. We’ve got a video about that, which covers everything from the taxes involved to what you would need to do to claim the prize. Check that out here.

Mega Millions & Powerball Jackpots Combined Are Pushing $1 Billion

The jackpots in Mega Millions® and Powerball® continue their way up and are both now in the Top 10 for each game. The two giant jackpots combined are pushing $1 billion, with the Mega Millions prize amount raised earlier today.

The estimated Mega Millions jackpot for that game’s next drawing tomorrow night now stands at an estimated $520 million annuity, $383.4 million lump-sum option. That’s the 8^th-largest jackpot in the history of the game.

Powerball is nearly as big. Its next drawing is Saturday night, and the jackpot currently stands at an estimated $470 million annuity, $362.7 million lump-sum option. That makes it the 10^th largest jackpot in the history of the game.

Both jackpots have been growing for nearly an identical length of time. Powerball was last won in its drawing on Sept. 15, while Mega Millions was last won on Sept. 16. And now that the prizes are really getting up there, sales are picking up across the country.

This is only the third time that the two jackpots have topped $450 million at the same time.

But like so much else these days, the jackpots have been impacted by the COVID-19 emergency. The jackpots are primarily sales driven, and for months now, folks in wide swaths of the country haven’t been able to run errands or buy everyday items (including lotto tickets) like they normally might in a non-pandemic time. That’s kept the jackpots in both games tamped down. And when the jackpots are lower, sales overall in the games are lower. It can become a bit of a repeating cycle.

So, it’s interesting that both jackpots are on a roll right now, and they’re really close in amount. Hopefully this can be something lighthearted to help give everyone a break to just daydream for awhile. And as we’ve said so many times through the years, remember to play responsibly. It only takes one ticket for a chance to win.

Remember that the deadline in Iowa to buy tickets for the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings is at 8:59 p.m. the night of the drawing. If you buy a ticket after that deadline, it will be for an upcoming drawing and you won’t be in the running for that night’s giant prize.

Iowa First: See-Through Scratch Tickets! They're In 'The Cash Game'

A lottery first is hitting store shelves this week in Iowa: clear tickets!

Tickets in “The Cash Game” are printed on a transparent surface. The new $10 scratch game just started distribution today, so you’ll see it soon at your local lottery retailer. While tickets in the game have colorful artwork on them, their background is see-through.

Players can win prizes of up to $100,000 in the game. Nonwinning tickets in it can be entered into The Cash Game promotion that also started today and has another $200,000 in prizes on the line.

Have fun with this new look for Iowa Lottery tickets!

For Only The Third Time: Jackpots Simultaneously Top $400 Million

UPDATE on Wednesday, Jan. 6: With no jackpot winner in Tuesday's Mega Millions drawing, that giant prize has risen further. Powerball's drawing is tonight! The new details are included here.

Something pretty rare is happening right now in Powerball® and Mega Millions®. For just the third time ever, the games' jackpots have simultaneously topped $400 million.

The Mega Millions jackpot now stands at an estimated $490 million annuity, $372.3 million lump-sum option for its drawing on Friday. The game’s jackpot was last won on Sept. 15 with a ticket purchased in Wisconsin, and it hasn’t been this big for six months. It had reached $410 million in the drawing on June 9 when it was won with a ticket in Arizona.

The next Powerball drawing happens at 9:59 p.m. Wednesday. The Powerball jackpot currently stands at an estimated $410 million annuity, $316.4 million lump-sum option. The game’s top prize was last won on Sept. 16 with a ticket purchased in New York. And it hasn’t been this big for nearly a year. The jackpot had reached $396.9 million when it was won in the drawing on Jan. 29 with a ticket in Florida.

Like so much else these days, the jackpots in both games have been impacted by the COVID-19 emergency. The jackpots are primarily sales driven, and for months now, folks in wide swaths of the country haven’t been able to run errands or buy everyday items (including lotto tickets) like they normally might in a non-pandemic time. That’s kept the jackpots in both games tamped down. And when the jackpots are lower, sales overall in the games are lower. It can become a bit of a repeating cycle.

So, it’s interesting that both jackpots are on a roll right now, and they’re really close in amount. Hopefully this can be something lighthearted to help give everyone a break to have some fun daydreaming during this trying time. And as we’ve said so many times through the years, remember to play responsibly. It only takes one ticket for a chance to win.

Here’s something we’re still watching during the current jackpot run: Human beings procrastinate about lots of things, and that applies to lottery tickets, too. The day of the drawing in Mega Millions and Powerball always sees the highest sales, and in Iowa, the busiest stretch has usually been from about 4 to 6 p.m. that day as folks left work and ran errands on the way home. But with so many people working from home right now, we’re still tracking the numbers to see if purchasing patterns will have changed this time around. The commute home from work just doesn’t exist in many instances now.   

Remember that the deadline in Iowa to buy tickets for the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings is 8:59 p.m. the night of the drawing. If you buy a ticket after that deadline, it will be for an upcoming drawing and you won’t be in the running for that night’s giant prize.

After Their Christmas Gift Exchange, A $10,000 Winner!

After the holidays each year, we look forward to hearing winner stories that are specific to this season: Those folks who found a big prize on a lottery ticket they received as a present!

One of those folks this time around is a northwest Iowa woman. Anne Phillips of Boyden said she and her boyfriend, Mike Kruse, bought each other lottery tickets for Christmas, and as they were scratching the tickets together, he asked her to take a closer look at one of them. He said he thought they'd won something.

Anne took that closer look and realized they’d won a $10,000 prize! Just to be sure, they scanned the ticket on the lottery’s mobile app and it confirmed they’d won big in the “$100,000 Holiday Crossword” scratch game.

Anne said that their lottery win was a bright spot in an otherwise really difficult year. She said they plan to use the winnings to pay off bills and do some home repairs. Sounds like a sensible plan!

Congratulations, Anne and Mike! And, Happy New Year!!!

I Scratched My Ticket Too Hard, What Should I Do?

In the holiday and post-holiday rush this month, we’ve heard from a couple lottery players who both made the same mistake and wondered what to do next. 

The players had scratched their tickets a little too hard and in the process, they damaged the code on the ticket that normally would be scanned to claim a prize. They were worried that without the code, the ticket couldn’t be redeemed. But there’s another way that the information can be entered!

Each lottery ticket that we sell here in Iowa has identifying numbers on it that can manually be entered into a lottery terminal to check the results of the ticket. It’s not something you as a player can do using our mobile app – the ticket code is required on the app.

But if the code can’t be read for some reason, a clerk at a lottery retail location or a staffer at one of our lottery offices can key in the identifying numbers from the ticket to determine its outcome. If the clerk at your local store isn’t sure how to do that, they can always call the Iowa Lottery’s retail hotline for help.

If you’d prefer to have us at the lottery check your ticket for you, please make an appointment to visit one of our offices, or in most cases, you can mail the ticket to us if that would be easier.

I’ll add this caveat to the details here: If your ticket is really badly mangled or damaged, it might not be possible for anyone to figure out the identifying numbers from it. And in that case, we might not be able to determine its outcome. As an example, a player who had spilled water on their Powerball tickets once microwaved them to try to dry them out. The tickets are printed on heat-sensitive paper, and you can probably guess what happened: Microwaving the tickets turned them solid black. There was no way for anyone to determine the details that had once been printed on them.

We’ll always do our best to help, but it’s important to keep your tickets in as good of shape as possible so you can claim any prize you’ve won!

Player Comment: No One From Here Ever Wins …

A player’s recent comment on social media about lottery winners in Iowa started a bit of a debate with other folks, and I’ll share the same background with you here that we provided to them that day.

The initial comment was from a woman who said that winners in our state are only in the Des Moines area or from the north, south or east of Des Moines. Another woman commented back that it’s rare to see a winner from central Iowa, or any of Iowa’s bigger cities for that matter. Other players then commented that they rarely see winners in their areas of the state. It became a bit of a round robin about who had fewer winners in their vicinity.

In reality, there are lottery winners every day in Iowa, all across the state. But the myth that “no one from here ever wins” remains, and seems to be based upon the area a person is from, no matter where that is.

Here's an example: When talking one day with the folks from the D.C. Lottery in Washington, we told them about the statement we hear that "no one from here ever wins." They started laughing and said they hear that "it's always those people from Iowa who win the jackpot." We think the root of the situation is that people will never be truly satisfied until they’re the ones who win a big prize.

The outcome of lottery tickets and drawings is based on random chance. The results of a particular ticket have no impact on an upcoming play. And no one – not even those of us who work at the lottery or the retailers who sell our tickets – can predict when or where the next big winner will hit. There's only one "formula" that works when it comes to playing the lottery: You have to buy a ticket to have a chance to win.

Everyone has the same chance of winning. But there will be more winners in places where more tickets are sold. That doesn’t mean those areas are luckier: It simply means that with a bigger volume of tickets being purchased there, you’ll see more winners in that spot as well. Another way of putting it is that if 5 percent of lottery tickets are sold in a particular area, you expect to find about 5 percent of overall winners there, and that's been the case with the Iowa Lottery.

In our most recent financial year (fiscal year 2020, which ended June 30), $236.3 million in lottery prizes were awarded in Iowa. That’s an average of $647,444 in lottery winnings per day. And so far in fiscal year 2021, Iowa Lottery winnings are running ahead of the previous year. Through November, the most recent month for which we have complete figures, $106.5 million in lottery prizes were awarded in Iowa. That’s an average of $696,374 in winnings per day!  

The Back-and-Forth Jackpot Race Is Still Going!

As 2020 draws to a close, a friendly competition has sprung up between the nation’s big-jackpot games, with Powerball® and Mega Millions® going back and forth for which one has the highest top prize. The games’ jackpots have both been growing for nearly the same length of time – since mid-September – and it’s become a bit of a race to see which big prize will be won first.

Mega Millions has the next drawing, which happens tomorrow night. The game’s jackpot stands at an estimated $330 million annuity, $252.8 million lump-sum option. The jackpot was last won on Sept. 15 with a ticket purchased in Wisconsin, and it hasn’t been this big for six months. It had reached $410 million in the drawing on June 9 when it was won with a ticket in Arizona.

The next Powerball drawing will be Wednesday night. That game’s jackpot stands at an estimated $321 million annuity, $247.1 million lump-sum option. Powerball’s top prize was last won on Sept. 16 with a ticket purchased in New York. And it hasn’t been this big for nearly a year. The jackpot had reached $396.9 million when it was won in the drawing on Jan. 29 with a ticket in Florida.

Like so much else these days, both jackpots have definitely been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The games’ jackpot amounts are driven by sales, and for much of this year, folks in wide swaths of the country haven’t been able to run errands or buy everyday items (including lotto tickets) as they normally might in a non-pandemic time.

That’s tamped down the jackpot amounts in both games. And when the jackpots are lower, sales overall in the games are lower, too. It becomes a bit of a repeating cycle, and that’s been the case for much of this year.

So, it’s interesting that both jackpots are on a roll right now, and they’re really close in amount. We’re calling them dueling jackpots, and it will be fun to see which one will go out first!

There was a close call here in Iowa on Saturday. Someone who bought a ticket in central Iowa was just one number away from winning at least a share of Saturday’s Powerball jackpot. The ticket ended up winning a $50,000 prize by matching four of the first five numbers and the Powerball. That ticket was purchased at Casey’s, 870 NE Alice’s Road in Waukee.