ialottery blog

These Are Things You Really Should Know Before You Play

Ever complained that we got the odds wrong? Thought your ticket should have won when it didn’t? Wondered if a message you got is actually a scam? We’ve got new info. to help you find answers.

The new details are all designed to build your lottery know-how and make informed decisions when you buy tickets.

You’ll find it all on our new website page called Know Before You Play.

When you click on one of the topic lines on that page, it will expand to provide that content, but you’ll stay on the same page so you can easily keep going to other topics. When you click on a different topic, the previous section “rolls back up” so only one subject is open at a time.

There are 8 topics on the page, all with real-world examples and scenarios from a consumer-awareness perspective.

The Know Before You Play topics are:

• Know Your Limits
• Know What The Odds Mean
• Know Where You Can Buy Tickets
• Know The Details On Your Ticket
• Know How To Spot Scams & Fraud
• Know How To Play In A Group
• Know What To Do When You Win
• Know When To Take A Break

Player Question: Why Does My Powerball Ticket Say It’s For A Monday Drawing?

Here’s a question from a player that proves time really does fly. The woman bought a Powerball® ticket this month and wondered why it showed that her play was for a Monday drawing.

The short answer is that’s because Powerball has drawings 3 nights a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Monday drawings were added to the game in August of 2021.

But if you’re only an occasional player, or if you’ve had the habit of only buying tickets for the game’s Wednesday and Saturday drawings, maybe you haven’t played on a Monday before.

But Monday drawings have been part of the game for nearly 4 years! It’s not a typo on your ticket when you see that.

So play on Monday if you’d like. Or Wednesday, or Saturday. Or all 3! It truly is your choice.

Iowa Lottery Winners Featured On HGTV Show As They Search For Vacation Home

An eastern Iowa couple’s search for a vacation home is featured on a new episode of an HGTV show, about 6 months after they won a big lottery prize.

Mike and Lori Blaser of Bellevue are shown as they search for a lake home on Season 17, Episode 12 of HGTV’s My Lottery Dream Home. Host David Bromstad joins them in Missouri to tour properties at the Lake of the Ozarks before they make their choice!

Mike Blaser claimed a $250,000 prize in early November in the “Winter Winnings” scratch game. He was the first top prize winner in that game, which was available during the holiday season. 

The episode of the show featuring Mike and Lori is called "Ozark Lake House."

It's A Throwback For Our 40th Anniversary

Forty years after we did it the first time, the Iowa Lottery is inviting you again to Scratch, Match & Win!

You read that right: The lottery is turning 40 this year. And to celebrate the moment, a throwback version of our very first game has just arrived in stores.

Tickets in 2025’s version of the Scratch, Match & Win game feature artwork of a hand holding a coin to scratch a ticket, a lot like the lottery’s original scratch game from August 1985. But today’s version is a $5 game with instant prizes of up to $50,000. And its tickets are a lot bigger than those from 40 years ago!

If you don’t win a cash prize on your Scratch, Match & Win ticket, you can enter it into a promotion for a chance to win concert prize packages to the Iowa State Fair Grandstand or cash prizes of up to $100,000.

The Scratch, Match & Win promotion has just opened for entries today. You can enter eligible tickets through the morning of Sept. 17.

The promotion will have 2 drawing dates. The first on July 22 will be for 87 concert prize packages to 2025 performances at the Iowa State Fair Grandstand. Each Grandstand ticket prize package includes 4 concert tickets, 4 Iowa State Fair admission tickets, a parking pass for the Fair, and $400 spending money.

The promotion’s second drawing date on Sept. 18 will be for 51 cash prizes ranging from $1,000 up to the grand prize of $100,000.

By The Numbers, 40 Years Of Lottery

Legislation allowing a lottery in Iowa was signed into law on April 18, 1985, and Iowa Lottery sales began a little more than 4 months later with a kick-off celebration on Aug. 22, 1985, at the Iowa State Fair.

By the numbers, here’s a look at 40 years of a lottery in Iowa.

$10.4 billion	Total Iowa Lottery sales
$6.1 billion	Total prizes won by Iowa Lottery players
$2.5 billion	Total lottery proceeds raised for Iowa causes
$722.5 million	Total lottery sales commissions paid to the local Iowa businesses that sell lottery tickets
$343.9 million	Largest lottery prize won in Iowa. A Redfield woman claimed that Powerball® jackpot on Nov. 5, 2018.
6.4 million	Number of lottery tickets sold during the lottery’s first week of sales
2,500	Number of retail locations in Iowa that sell lottery tickets
189	Number of Iowa Lottery tickets to date that have won prizes of $1 million or more
9	Number of Powerball jackpots won to date by Iowa Lottery players

Player Question: Can I Win A Different Amount Than The Game's Prize Levels?

Here’s a question we occasionally get from players digging into the details of our games: Can I ever win a different amount than the prize levels in the game, particularly the top prize amount?

The latest inquiry came from a man who was playing the Xtreme Multiplier Progressive InstaPlay game, but the answer to the question applies to tickets in any of our games.

If you have a winning ticket in one of our games, your prize will match one of the designated prize levels in the game. No other amount is possible.

The player who contacted us this week was looking at the symbol on his ticket that would multiply the prize amount shown. It’s also a game where you can win more than once on a ticket, with the amounts involved adding up to one of the prize levels in the game.

That’s one of the play styles in our games. But on tickets in other games, you may win just one prize amount on your ticket.

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

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

JURASSIC WORLD Second Chance Promotion from the Iowa Lottery

Dinosaurs and lottery prizes together? Yep, it’s happening in Iowa!

Two new games featuring iconic dinosaur-themed images have hit stores this week and a promotion tied to them will give you even more chances to win. The JURASSIC PARK Progressive InstaPlay game debuted Sunday here in Iowa. Tickets in the JURASSIC WORLD scratch game are beginning to arrive in stores today and will be available statewide by the end of the week.

The 2 games are tied to the JURASSIC WORLD Second Chance Promotion from the Iowa Lottery that will award 10 prizes of $10,000 and 2 trip packages to Hawaii where the winner will participate in an exciting event with the chance to win up to a $1 million prize!

Tickets in the JURASSIC PARK Progressive InstaPlay game and JURASSIC WORLD scratch cost $10 each, with multiple ways to win instant prizes. The scratch game features a top prize of $100,000, while the InstaPlay game has a progressive jackpot that starts at $10,000 and grows with each ticket purchased statewide until it is won.

How The Promotion Works & The Prizes Involved

The new promotion opened for entries at 10 a.m. today. Members of the lottery’s free VIP Club can enter it with nonwinning tickets in the JURASSIC PARK Progressive InstaPlay game or the JURASSIC WORLD scratch game. The entry period runs through 9:59 a.m. on Oct. 1, and the promotion will have 2 drawing dates.

On Aug. 14, the Iowa Lottery will select 5 promotion prize winners of $10,000 each. And on Oct. 2, the lottery will select 5 more winners of $10,000 each along with the 2 trip prize winners.

Each trip package, valued at nearly $17,000, includes:

• roundtrip airfare for 2 from any U.S. international airport to Honolulu, Hawaii (November 2026)
• a 5-night hotel stay (double occupancy) in Oahu, Hawaii
• $2,500 in spending money
• a welcome reception and choice of curated tour or activities in and around Oahu
• ground transfers between the destination airport and hotel, and if necessary, between hosted activities and events
• the winner’s participation along with other U.S. lottery trip winners in the $1,000,000 JACKPOT CHALLENGE Event, for a chance for all trip winners to win cash prizes of up to $1 million.

The Drawing Details

Players will choose the prize category they prefer at the time they make an entry into the promotion. Entries will not carry over from one drawing to the next.

And, while the odds of this happening are long: If you enter each promotion category, you could win a $10,000 cash prize on each drawing date and a trip prize package.

Here are the promotion’s key dates:

Entry Period	Drawing Date	Prize	Number of Winners
10 a.m. June 3 - 9:59 a.m. Aug. 13	August 14	$10,000	5
10 a.m. Aug. 13 - 9:59 a.m. Oct. 1	October 2	$10,000	5
10 a.m. June 3 - 9:59 a.m. Oct. 1	October 2	Hawaii trip and $1,000,000 JACKPOT CHALLENGE Event	2

© Universal City Studios LLC and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Universal is not a sponsor or administrator of this Promotion.

Iowa Player Wins 15 Prizes Totaling More Than $45K In Same Drawing

A player came into the lottery’s main office yesterday with a stack of tickets to cash and when it all was done, she’d won a total of $45,250. It’s something we see a few times a year in our Pick 3 and Pick 4 games, and it’s always eye-catching!

The Des Moines woman won 15 prizes of at least $3,000, all in the same Pick 4 drawing. She bought 15 plays for the Pick 4 evening drawing on May 4, and on each ticket she chose the same numbers: 1-0-1-9.

Our Pick 4 and Pick 3 games have drawings twice a day, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. Both games are different than our other games that have drawings (like Powerball® and Mega Millions®) because you as the player choose the type of play you want to make. And that decision determines the prize you can win.

How You Play Makes A Difference

The Des Moines winner shows the impact that choice can make.

On 14 of her tickets, she bought a 50-cent play, the lowest-cost option available, and bet that she’d win only if the numbers on her ticket matched the winning numbers in the exact order they were selected in the drawing. And her numbers came through: On each of those tickets, she won a prize of $3,000.

On her final ticket, she bought a $1 play and bet that she could win by matching the winning numbers in the exact order drawn or in any order. And she won both ways, for a total of $3,250 on that ticket!

The Lingo Involved

It’s called a straight play when you bet that you’ll win a prize only if you match the winning numbers in the exact order. When you bet that you’ll win by matching the winning numbers in any order, it’s called a box play.

It's harder to match the numbers in the exact order, so the prizes you'll win on a straight play are larger. 

What Players Do

Players in both games often choose their own numbers rather than buying easy-pick tickets where the lottery terminal randomly assigns the numbers in the play. And because the players are loyal to their own numbers, when they win, they often hit BIG.

Maybe it’s the “max bet” concept, where they figure if they’re going to win, they want to win big. Maybe they have certain lucky numbers and they just really believe in them. There are probably as many reasons as there are players.

We just know it happens. And when it does, someone ends up with a lot of reasons to celebrate!

Time's Ticking Away: $50,000 Powerball® Prize Still Unclaimed!

The clock is winding down on a $50,000 Powerball­^® prize won in Iowa, and we're reminding players to double-check their tickets before it's too late!

The $50,000-winning ticket was purchased at Hy-Vee, 8701 Douglas Ave. in Urbandale, for the Powerball drawing on Dec. 28, 2024. It matched 4 of the 5 white balls and the Powerball to snag a $50,000 prize. The winning numbers that night were 6-31-51-54-55 and Powerball 12.

The deadline to claim this prize is 4 p.m. on Thursday, June 26. If the prize isn't claimed by then, it will expire.

Where the Prize Can Be Claimed

This prize can be claimed at any Iowa Lottery office. We are open for prize claims from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, with offices closed on state holidays.

If you have any questions about claiming a prize, feel free to reach out to us at 515-725-7900 or [email protected]. We're happy to help!

Other Unclaimed Prizes in Iowa

This isn't the only prize still awaiting a winner in Iowa. Here are a few other unclaimed lotto prizes set to expire in the coming months:

Game	Date won	Prize amount	Retailer	Expires
Powerball	March 1, 2025	$50,000	KC Brothers, Davenport	Aug. 28, 2025
Pick 4 (midday)	April 23, 2025	$6,000	Casey's, Center Point	July 22, 2025
Lucky for Life	April 3, 2025	$5,000	Kum & Go, West Des Moines	Sept. 30, 2025

A Quick Reminder

For prizes won in Iowa in multi-state lotto games including Powerball and Lucky for Life, players have 180 days from the drawing date to claim their winnings. In Iowa's Pick 3 and Pick 4 games, players have 90 days from the drawing date to claim their prizes. 

In fiscal year 2024, nearly $5 million in lotto and InstaPlay prizes expired without being claimed in Iowa. When a prize expires here, the money goes back into the lottery's prize pools for future games and promotions.

So check those coat pockets, glove compartments, sun visors and kitchen counters: You might have a big prize waiting for you!