ialottery blog

See You Tonight & Tomorrow At The Knoxville Raceway!

We’re headed to the Knoxville Raceway for a weekend of sprint car racing -- and lottery giveaways to add to the fun!

We’ll have a booth tonight and tomorrow at the Raceway for the World of Outlaws races. You’ll be able to find us in the Fan Walk area under the Main Grandstand, near the space where the racers have their trailers displayed. The Iowa Lottery’s booth is open from 3-7:30 p.m. tonight and from noon-7:30 p.m. tomorrow.

Both days, we’ll sell scratch tickets, lotto tickets and InstaPlay tickets. You can get free lottery swag for stopping by our booth. You can spin the prize wheel with a lottery purchase and we’ll have Luke Combs T-shirts with qualifying purchases. (Please note that our booth will be cash only.) Some of the games are eligible for entry into the lottery’s current promotions, so be sure the check out those details as well.

On Saturday, you’ll also hear us on a radio remote from noon-2 p.m. at the track with KRLS/KNIA Radio in Knoxville. And as a fan bonus, Brian Brown, the Knoxville Raceway 2022 Sprint Car 410 champion, will periodically stop by the Iowa Lottery's booth during our visit to the track. So you may be able to meet him, too!

We look forward to seeing you at the Sprint Car Capital of the World!

Only 3 Months Until The Deadline For Unclaimed $1 Million Mega Millions Prize

Will we solve the mystery and find the winner of an unclaimed $1 million Mega Millions® prize by the deadline? Only time will tell!

Click on the video above to see the details of our visit to the Ames convenience store where the winning ticket was purchased back in September 2022. And please, double-check your tickets!

Lottery’s Summer of Music = Your Chance to Win Tix to Big-Name Concerts in Iowa

We started off the season by giving you a chance to win prize packages to some of Iowa’s top auto-racing events, and now we’re turning our attention to music. And specifically, giving you the chance to win ticket prize packages to big-name concerts this summer in Iowa.

The Iowa Lottery’s eight-week Summer of Music promotion opened for entries this morning. Players can enter it with nonwinning tickets in the $10 “Wild Cherry” scratch game for a chance to win prize packages to 14 Iowa concerts by headline artists at the Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend in Newton and the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

The promotion will have two entry periods, with the first for race-and-concert packages at the Iowa Speedway in Newton, and the second for Iowa State Fair concert packages.

Up for grabs in the promotion’s first drawing date on July 6 (from entries accepted through 9:59 a.m. July 5) will be 95 prize packages to the IndyCar race and Carrie Underwood and Kenny Chesney performances on July 22, and 95 prize packages to the IndyCar race and Zac Brown Band and Ed Sheeran shows on July 23 in Newton. Players will select the Race Weekend concert of their choice when they enter tickets in the promotion.

For each day of the IndyCar Race Weekend, 20 prize packages will be in a VIP suite and 75 will be grandstand prize packages. Winners will receive tickets for that day’s IndyCar race as well as the pre- and post-race concerts at the Speedway.

The promotion’s second drawing period runs from 10 a.m. July 5 through 9:59 a.m. July 31. Up for grabs in the promotion’s second drawing date on Aug. 1 will be 20 VIP grandstand concert prize packages at the Iowa State Fair for these artists:

• For King + Country
• Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line
• New Kids on the Block
• Eric Church
• The Black Keys
• Lindsey Stirling
• Maren Morris
• Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges
• The Chicks
• Jason Aldean

Players will select the Iowa State Fair concert of their choice when they enter tickets in the promotion.

Entries will not carry over from the first entry period to the second. However, a player could win a concert prize package in each category drawing they enter.

Join Us Tuesday In Ames: Free Plays & Fun As We Highlight $1 Million Unclaimed Prize

If you’re in the Ames area on Tuesday, join us as we highlight a $1 million Mega Millions® prize won there that has only three months until its expiration date.

The $1 million-winning Mega Millions ticket was purchased at The Filling Station/Gateway Expresse, 2400 University Blvd. in Ames, for the game’s drawing on Sept. 6, 2022.

That drawing took place just after the long Labor Day holiday weekend, with Labor Day 2022 being celebrated on Sept. 5. And that same weekend, Iowa State won its 2022 football season opener at home against Southeast Missouri State. There may have been a lot of folks visiting the Ames area that weekend who aren’t regularly there.

The Filling Station/Gateway Expresse is a combination kitchen-bakery-convenience store along University Boulevard, a busy thoroughfare near several large hotels on the south side of Ames.

We’ll be at the store Tuesday morning to highlight the $1 million unclaimed prize and remind players to double-check their tickets. The Lottery’s Summer Street Team will set up a promotion tent outside the business and have our prize wheel on the scene from 9 to 11 a.m. Tuesday, giving you the chance to win lottery merchandise with a qualifying lottery purchase at the store.

We’ll also give out free plays in Mega Millions and Powerball® while supplies last.

We’ll go live on Facebook at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday from the store, so if you can’t join us in person, you can see the event online.

Right now in Iowa, 10 prizes ranging from $10,000 up to $1 million are unclaimed. Please double-check your tickets!

The winner or winners of the $1 million prize have until the close of business on Sept. 6 of this year to claim it at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive.

Will we find the winners of the unclaimed prizes? Only time will tell! Help us spread the word!

Is Your VIP Club Account Up To Date So You Can Claim A Prize?

As we were helping a member of the lottery’s VIP Club find his monthly free play recently, he noticed that some of the contact information in his account was out of date. He took the time to bring it up to current, which is important for his ability to claim a prize he may win in an Iowa Lottery promotion.

It’s spring cleaning time, so please follow that player’s lead and tidy up the details in your VIP Club profile if you’re a member of our player’s club. If anything has changed since the last time you checked in, please update your profile! You could miss out on a prize if you’ve entered one of our promotions or contests and we can’t reach you through your VIP Club account.

One of our VIP Club members almost missed out on a prize in a recent contest because her information was out of date.

When we initially reached out to our contest winners, the woman didn’t see our email because it had gone into her spam folder. We then tried to call her, but the phone number she listed in her account was no longer in service. Luckily, we were able to finally make contact with her so she didn’t miss out on the prize before the claim period expired. But if your information is out of date, you could end up in the same situation!

To review/update your VIP Club profile, just log into your account and click on the “Account Management” link on the left side of the screen. That will take you to a page with a list of options to update your account, including changing your email and updating your profile.

If you have any questions about updating your account, feel free to email us at [email protected] and we can help you through the process.

Player Question: Are The Multipliers Really Random?

A player just sent us a question you may have wondered about as well when it comes to the multiplier option in our lotto games, and how that number is selected.

In Powerball®, the multiplier feature is called the Power Play®; in Mega Millions®, it’s the Megaplier®; and in Lotto America®, it’s the All Star Bonus® option.

In each of the games, adding that option to your play will multiply any prize you win (except the Match 5 prize in Powerball and the jackpot in any of the games) by the multiplier number in that night’s drawing.

If the multiplier is 2X, the prize you win will be doubled. If it’s 3X, the prize will be tripled, and so on. Each of the games has its own probability for the multiplier feature.

Let’s use a real-world example from the Powerball game: A Powerball ticket costs $2 per play, and you can add the Power Play multiplier option for an extra $1 per play. For the Powerball drawing involving your ticket, you match four of the first five numbers but miss the Powerball. The Power Play number that night is 4X. You normally would win $100, but because you added the Power Play option to your ticket, your prize would be multiplied to $400.

The details about the multiplier feature are included in the game rules for Powerball, Mega Millions and Lotto America. The multiplier option in each game is selected from its own pool of numbers that is separate from the rest of the drawing.

Here is how the numbers look for the Megaplier option: There are 15 numbers in the Megaplier pool. Of those 15 numbers, 5 are 2s, 6 are 3s, three are 4s, 1 is a 5. Here’s what that looks like in table form:

15 Total Numbers In Megaplier Pool
        2X = 5
        3X = 6
        4X = 3
        5X = 1

So, does it stand to reason that the Megaplier number will more often be a 2 or 3? Yes. But the other multipliers also have a shot.

What To Do If The Ticket You're Trying To Buy Doesn’t Print Or Dispense

We got an email this week from a player who did exactly what we would suggest if you’re ever trying to buy a ticket and it doesn’t print from the lottery terminal or dispense from a self-service kiosk.

The player reached out to us right away and was able to provide details about the time and date he'd been at the store involved. We, in turn, were able to research what happened and help the player and the store.

In that particular instance, the player tried to buy a scratch ticket from a lottery self-service kiosk and the ticket didn’t dispense. He ultimately bought other tickets from the machine but emailed us the same day to ask about the ticket he hadn’t been able to purchase. We sent a service technician to check the machine and it turned out that the ticket had gotten hung up inside the kiosk.

In a few other instances, players were trying to buy tickets from a lottery terminal when the machine ran out of paper. In those instances, the players and/or the retail location reached out to us and we were able to research what happened and help provide a resolution.  

While the lottery’s equipment has a high reliability record, any mechanical device can occasionally have a jam or other temporary complication. If you encounter an experience like that, you certainly can talk to employees at the business where the machine is in use to see if they can resolve the issue.

In addition, the retailer or you as the player can reach out to us at the Iowa Lottery for our help in researching what happened. Making contact quickly is key so you’ll clearly remember the details involved.

Here is the Iowa Lottery’s contact information: Our email address is [email protected] and our telephone number is 515-725-7900. You also are welcome to reach out to us on our social media pages.

In many instances, a member of the lottery’s Security Department will be involved in reviewing what occurred and helping to find an answer.

You CAN Use a Playslip as You Redeem Your Monthly Free Play in the VIP Club

Here’s a question that came our way about the free plays we send out each month to members of the Iowa Lottery’s VIP Club. We rotate the free-play offerings between our lotto and InstaPlay games, and the question focuses on the process of redeeming a free play for a ticket in a lotto game like Powerball® or Mega Millions®.

Some players wondered if they can choose their own numbers when redeeming their free play. The answer is yes, if you are at a lottery terminal. Here are the details:

When you present your free play to the store clerk at a lottery terminal, they will scan the code on it. The prompt shown in the image above then appears on the terminal screen.

The retail employee then has three options:

1. They can insert a completed playslip from the player, allowing the player to choose his or her numbers.
2. They can click the ‘Easy Pick’ button, which instructs the terminal to randomly assign the numbers to the free play.
3. They can click ‘Cancel,’ which cancels the transaction and allows the player to use the free play at another time.

Note that the ability to choose your own numbers can only be done at a lottery terminal. Players can redeem their free plays in lotto games at a self-service kiosk, but only for easy-pick plays. (And playslips are not used in InstaPlay games.)

The Iowa Lottery gives members of its VIP Club a free play every month. The free play is included in the VIP Connection newsletter that is delivered on the first business day of each month.

Player Question: Can I Ever Win MORE Than The Top Prize?

Here’s a question we just got that I can’t remember seeing before. It came from a player who was very happy that he’d won the top prize in one of our scratch games. But even though he’d uncovered that big prize, he said he kept scratching the rest of his ticket on the off chance there could be more prizes to uncover.

His question was: Can I ever win MORE than the top prize amount? The quick answer is no, but I can see the line of thinking involved.

In some of our scratch games, you can uncover multiple prizes that add up to the total amount you’ll win on a ticket. In other games, you may win just one prize amount on the ticket. That’s the case with the winning ticket you see here in the “Lucky 7 Bonus” game.

We vary the play styles in our games, knowing that different people like different things, and variety is good!

But in any scratch game, the maximum you can win on a ticket is the top-prize amount offered in the game. You can’t win the top prize AND smaller prize amounts that would add up to more than the top-prize figure.

That same detail applies in pull-tab games and InstaPlay games, too. The maximum you can win on each ticket is the top prize amount in the game.

Iowa Falls Woman Claims $500,000 Top Prize In Lottery Scratch Game

After driving by Iowa Lottery headquarters for years and wishing she had a reason to go inside, an Iowa Falls woman stopped in today to claim a $500,000 prize!

Carolyn Carson claimed the second of six top prizes available in the “$500,000 Ca$h” scratch game, which debuted in early April. A Davenport man claimed the first top prize in the game during its first week of sales.

Carolyn said she was running errands yesterday when she bought a $500,000 Ca$h ticket. She said a store clerk told her that it was a new game, so she decided to give it a try. She bought her ticket at Casey’s, 1008 Grand Ave. in Alden, then took it home and played it in her kitchen.

She said she looked at the ticket’s results and immediately thought, “Oh, my gosh, I think I won!”

Unable to believe her eyes, Carolyn double-checked the results by scanning her ticket with the Iowa Lottery’s mobile app on her smartphone. It confirmed her win.

But lots of disbelief continued: Carolyn said she showed the ticket to her husband, Mike, but he also didn’t believe the news. So she scanned her ticket again on the lottery app and it again showed that her ticket was a $500,000 winner. Next up were the couple’s adult children, who didn’t believe the news until she sent them a picture of the scratch ticket.

Carolyn, who is 75, said that even she is having trouble believing the big win is happening to her. “You hear about it, but you don’t think it could happen to you,” she said. “But it can!”

Carolyn said that she and Mike plan to invest the winnings.

As for her decision to try the $500,000 Ca$h game, she has these thoughts: “This was a spur-of-the-moment thought to go get that ticket. So, I don’t know: If you’ve got an inkling, go do it!