ialottery blog

As Pball Continues To Climb, Iowa Sees Two Winners of $50K In A Week

The Powerball jackpot is still on its big climb, but two Iowa tickets were so, so close to winning the giant prize in the past week. They each won $50,000, and the details about the stores that sold those tickets are below. 

The Powerball jackpot stands at an estimated $545 million annuity, $392.1 million lump-sum option, for tonight’s drawing. It’s the 10th largest jackpot in the history of the game.

In the past week, two Iowa tickets were just one number away from winning the big prize. The tickets each matched four of the five white balls and the Powerball to win a $50,000 prize.

First came a ticket purchased at Casey’s, 2070 NW 100th St. in Clive, which won a $50,000 prize in last Wednesday’s Powerball drawing. Then in Saturday’s drawing, a ticket purchased at Git-N-Go, 209 E. Oskaloosa St. in Pella, won $50K.       

We’re excited to meet those winners -- and to see just how high the jackpot will go! Powerball’s grand prize hasn’t been this big since January, when dueling jackpot runs produced a $731.1 million Powerball jackpot won in Maryland and a $1.05 billion Mega Millions jackpot won in Michigan.

Good luck, and remember, you only need one ticket to win!

Lottery Equipment & Ticket Checking On Mobile App Will Be Offline For A Time This Weekend

Update on Sunday, Sept. 26: The Iowa Lottery's new statewide gaming system went live a little before 3 p.m. today. You can now buy and check tickets in all Iowa Lottery games, and all functions are working again on the lottery's mobile app. Thank you again for your patience during this once-a-decade project! It's a huge undertaking every time, and we do our best to keep interruptions at a minimum for our players and retailers.      

A head’s up as we head into the weekend: Lottery terminals, self-service kiosks, self-checkers and ticket-checking on our mobile app will be down from 11:59 p.m. Saturday through about noon on Sunday. During the outage, players won’t be able to purchase lotto or InstaPlay tickets, check any tickets, or claim any prizes. 

The downtime will occur as the Iowa Lottery transitions to a new central gaming system, which links lottery equipment in the state in real time. That kind of system upgrade only happens about once every 10 years here in Iowa.    

Like any other electronic system, the equipment used to sell and cash lottery tickets needs to be replaced over time. The central gaming system here in Iowa has been in use since 2011 and the lottery’s contract for it expired this year. We’ve been working on the new system for about 2½ years.

At the store level, the change-over means that the previous red lottery terminals have been replaced with new black-and-white terminals. This weekend, the communications backbone that links all the lottery terminals, self-service kiosks and self-checkers in Iowa will be updated.

Any major system project involves occasional outages – think of the updates to your Internet service or mobile phone. But the end result will be the latest technology with faster processing speeds to help your lottery transactions be completed as smoothly as possible.   

We apologize in advance for our construction dust! We’ll have our new system up and running as soon as we can.

One Has Been Hit, The Other Is Still Going!

Update on Thursday, Sept. 23: The Powerball jackpot continues to climb, now at an estimated $523 million annuity, $379 million lump-sum option, for Saturday's drawing. It's the 10th largest jackpot in the history of the game. Someone who bought a ticket in central Iowa came VERY close to winning Wednesday's jackpot. The lucky ticket was just one number away, matching four of the white balls and the Powerball to win a $50,000 prize. It was purchased at Casey's, 2070 NW 100th St. in Clive.        

In the giant jackpot race, one of the big prizes has been hit but the other is still climbing.

Last night’s $431 million Mega Millions® jackpot was won by a ticket in New York, but the Powerball® jackpot continues to rise into the stratosphere.

The Powerball jackpot for tonight’s drawing is an estimated $490 million annuity, $355.1 million lump-sum option. This is the point where the jackpot tends to jump by big amounts between drawings as people all across the country are buying tickets, so it’s always fun to see if the jackpot has topped the advance estimate by the time the drawing takes place!  

This is the highest the Powerball jackpot has been since January, when dueling jackpot runs produced a $731.1 million Powerball jackpot won in Maryland and a $1.05 billion Mega Millions jackpot won in Michigan.

The Powerball jackpot has been rolling for more than three months. It was last won in Florida in the drawing on June 5.

Good luck with your tickets, and remember, it only takes one to win!

They're Going To VEGAS!

Here’s a quick look at the whirlwind of excitement as our “Fly with Cy” winners got ready for their weekend trip to Las Vegas to watch Iowa State take on UNLV at Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. I think they were all ready for the lights and glitz of The Strip – and some football! @IowaStateAthletics @CycloneATH

Dueling Jackpots Rise To A Combined $815 Million!

For the past three months, Mega Millions® and Powerball® have been battling it out to see which jackpot will be hit first. The games’ jackpots have been growing for nearly the same length of time, so it’ll be interesting to see which one will be won first!

Mega Millions has the next drawing, which happens tonight. The game’s jackpot stands at an estimated $383 million annuity, $277.3 million lump-sum cash option. The jackpot was last won on June 8 with a ticket purchased in Illinois.

The next Powerball drawing will be Wednesday night. That game’s jackpot stands at an estimated $432 million annuity, $313.5 million lump-sum cash option. Powerball’s jackpot was last won on June 5 with a ticket purchased in Florida. It hasn’t been this big since mid-January, when it had climbed to $731.1 million and was won with a ticket in Maryland.

While both jackpots continue to roll, there have been several close calls here in Iowa over the past week. Someone who bought a ticket in central Iowa was one number away from winning Saturday’s $388 million Powerball jackpot. The ticket ended up winning $50,000 by matching four of the first five numbers and the Powerball. That ticket was purchased at Git-N-Go, 4900 Urbandale Ave. in Des Moines.

Also, on Sept. 7, a Mega Millions ticket purchased at Kwik Star, 341 S. State St. in Denver, was one number away from capturing that night’s $345 million jackpot. The ticket, which matched four white balls and the Mega Ball®, initially won $10,000, but the prize was multiplied to $30,000 because the person who purchased it opted for the $1 Megaplier® option at the time of purchase.

Will you be Iowa’s next big winner? Good luck!

Social Media Scams: The Latest From Experts About How To Protect Yourself

We’ve been warning about scam attempts for years, and this week, national experts weighed in about some of the latest fakes they’re seeing that have cost victims millions of dollars in losses.

The “TODAY” show spoke with the FBI about social media scams in particular, and the ways you can protect yourself by learning to identify fake accounts. Some of those scammers have used the names of lotteries, lottery games, and lottery officials in their attempts to separate people from their money.

We keep reminders about lottery scams as a permanent feature on our website to arm you with information that can help. Check out our Player Security section to learn more.

20 Iowa Players Will Win $2,500 & One Could Ring In 2022 With A $1 Million Prize!

Playing Powerball® right now brings some extra fun to the mix. You’ll of course have a shot at the game’s big jackpots, and for the next three weeks, you can enter your Powerball tickets in the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year® promotion for a chance at 20 Iowa prizes of $2,500 cash plus the possibility of becoming the first Powerball millionaire of 2022!

The Powerball First Millionaire of the Year promotion started at 10 a.m. today, and the entry period runs through the morning of Sept. 28. Any Iowa Powerball ticket purchased on or after Sept. 1 is eligible for entry (winning and nonwinning tickets can both be entered).    

Please note this important detail: Simply buying a Powerball ticket during the promotion period won’t automatically get you entered. You’ll need to buy a Powerball ticket in Iowa and then enter that ticket into the promotion through your VIP Club account. (Click here to join if you’re not already a member.)

Each eligible Powerball ticket entered will count as one entry into the promotion, regardless of the number of plays on it or how many drawings those plays may span.

We’ll hold the drawing Sept. 30 to determine the 20 Iowa winners of $2,500 cash. Each of those winners will also be eligible to become one of the five finalists nationwide for the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year drawing. The five national finalists will each receive a Celebrate@Home prize package valued at $20,000 and one of those finalists will be chosen as the $1 million winner as the First Powerball Millionaire of the Year.

Just after the ball drops to bring in the New Year, Powerball’s First Millionaire of the Year will be announced live on the broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” And yes, it could be you!

Player Question: What’s The Number Mean That’s Listed After The Game Name?

Here’s a question that came our way this week about some of the numbers included on the webpage where the lottery lists the larger prizes in our scratch, pull-tab and InstaPlay games.  

A player noticed that there are numbers listed after the name of the games on that page and wondered what they meant.

Here’s the background: The Remaining Prizes page lists the prizes of $100 or more in our current games, and breaks them out by those already won and those not yet claimed. (The list is updated once daily, Monday through Friday.)

We list the games alphabetically but also include other details, such as the price per ticket and the game number. It’s that game number that prompted the player’s question.

While our games each have a name, like “Colossal Crossword” or “Silver Surprise,” to keep track of the details in our databases, each game also is assigned a number. So, “$100,000 Cash” is game No. 534 and "Aces High" is game No. 391. It’s simply an identifying number for that particular game and doesn’t signify anything else.

We list the game numbers on the page because we often have games with similar names, like these currently on the market: Cash Bonus, Cash Spectacular and Cash Time. The game numbers help differentiate the details involved so you as a player can more easily find the information you’re seeking.

$1 Million Winner Moves Up Life Plans

A northeast Iowa woman has been able to move up some major life plans after winning the $1 million top prize in the Iowa Lottery’s “Million Dollar $ummer” promotion! Click on the video above to hear Susie Blazek of Delhi tell her story.