A quick scheduling reminder for the next few days: Iowa Lottery offices are closed until Monday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
I hope that you have a chance to unwind this weekend, spend time with family and friends, and just enjoy the moment.
If you have a ticket winning a prize of more than $600 or need our assistance with anything else, our offices will be open again for business at 8 a.m. Monday (Nov. 29).
Happy Thanksgiving!
A familiar name just claimed $75,000 in lottery prizes – for the second time in two months!
Wiley Tuley of Cedar Rapids is someone I would describe as a true Pick 4 aficionado: He likes to think through his plays and the numbers he chooses. And he’s now won big multiple times.
Wiley, who is retired, won prizes totaling $150,000 in the Oct. 6 evening Pick 4 drawing. He claimed half that total on Oct. 7. He said he originally planned to wait until 2022 to claim the rest, but changed his mind and instead claimed the winnings this month.
Wiley bought multiple plays of different amounts with differing types of bets for the Pick 4 drawing where he won big. He matched all four numbers in the exact order drawn: 7-3-2-5. He said he chose his own numbers representing the employee I.D. number from his job before he retired. He plans to put his winnings into savings.
Wiley is no stranger to big wins in Pick 4. Back in 2014, he won 42 Pick 4 prizes totaling $200,000, all in one drawing. He said his latest win was just as sweet. He recalled looking at his ticket and just thinking, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
If you aren’t familiar with Pick 4, it’s a numbers game with a long history along the East Coast. But it’s also offered by lotteries across the country, including the Iowa Lottery. Pick 4 players choose combinations of four numbers from 0000 to 9999. The prize that a player could win depends on the type of bet they make.
Players can choose the option of winning a prize only when their numbers match the winning numbers in the exact order selected in the drawing. That’s called a straight play. Or, players can choose the option of winning a prize if their numbers match the winning numbers in any order. That’s called a box play.
It’s statistically harder to match the numbers in the exact order drawn, so the odds of winning on a straight play are higher and the prizes that players can win with that option are larger.
Pick 4 players tend to be loyal to a particular set of numbers and sometimes play them multiple times in a particular drawing, just as Wiley did.
Congratulations, Wiley! Thank you for giving us a feel-good story this Thanksgiving week!
There’s never a bad time to win a lottery prize. So here's a reminder from us that more than a dozen large lottery prizes are currently unclaimed in Iowa — so please double-check your tickets!
On our Unclaimed Prizes list on the Iowa Lottery website, you can see all the prizes of $600 or more in Iowa that are still unclaimed in lotto and InstaPlay games. You can sort the list in several different ways — by game, place of purchase, prize amount, date of win and date of expiration — to key in on the details that matter most to you.
As of today, there are a whopping 19 prizes of $10,000 or more that are waiting to be claimed. At the top of the list is a Lucky for Life prize of $25,000 a year for life (or a $390,000 lump-sum option) that was won with a ticket purchased at Casey’s, 641 Edgewood Road NW in Cedar Rapids.
As for prizes on that list that will expire the soonest, you’ll note that there are numerous prizes expiring on Jan. 3, 2022. That includes a $12,000 Pick 4 prize that was won in the Oct. 3 evening drawing on a ticket purchased at Price Chopper, 4343 Merle Hay Road in Des Moines.
All prizes on the list must be claimed at a lottery office or by mail. The Lucky for Life prize must be claimed at lottery headquarters in Clive. If you have any questions about claiming a prize, give us a call at 515-725-7900 or email us at wmaster@ialottery.com.
A player who reached out to us about our InstaPlay games had a question you may have wondered about as well: What determines when the next winner will hit in one of the games?
InstaPlay games in many ways are scratch games left in electronic form. Rather than printing hard-copy tickets in advance, lottery terminals around the state instead print out the next available play when someone purchases a ticket in that particular InstaPlay game.
You as the InstaPlay player are getting the next available play in the game, and winning tickets are randomly distributed throughout the supply of tickets in an InstaPlay game just like they are in a scratch game.
So, we never know when or where the next big winner will hit – it’s all random. It may be in a small town, or it may be right where you are.
The Iowa Lottery is ending sales in one of its holiday scratch games after a review showed that some tickets in the game appear to have been misprinted.
The lottery takes seriously its responsibility to provide its players with accurate information and quality products. And while we have received only one report of difficulties with a ticket in the “Reindeer Games” scratch game with more than 122,000 tickets in it already distributed, we’re removing the game from sale in an abundance of caution.
A player contacted the lottery yesterday, asking about the results of a Reindeer Games ticket. The lottery’s review found that some of the numbers in the play area on the ticket appeared to have shifted to the side as the ticket was being printed. As a result, a portion of the numbers in the play area were obscured.
After receiving the player inquiry, the Iowa Lottery immediately worked with its vendor that printed the game on a larger review. The lottery chose today to remove Reindeer Games from sale because the game does not meet our expectations. The lottery has notified its retail locations that tickets in the game should be removed from sale.
Any players who have questions about the results of a Reindeer Games ticket should contact Iowa Lottery Security at 515-725-7900 or wmaster@ialottery.com. Although Reindeer Games tickets are being removed from sale, players can continue to claim prizes in the game as normal.
As part of the lottery’s standard verification procedures before a game begins sales, a sampling of the tickets ordered in Reindeer Games were reviewed and tested by lottery staffers. However, any of our scratch games involve hundreds of thousands if not millions of tickets, and with any printed product, there can occasionally be a misprint.
The Reindeer Games scratch game debuted on Sept. 27. It is a $20 game with a holiday theme and multiple play areas on the ticket. Players try to match numbers, letters and symbols in the game to win a prize. Prizes in Reindeer Games range from $20 up to $25,000.
(As background, the lottery ordered more than 377,000 Reindeer Games tickets, and more than 122,000 of those have been distributed as of today. The lottery asked its retail locations today to immediately remove Reindeer Games tickets from sale, and lottery sales representatives will pick up any tickets in the game from retailers in the coming week.)
There must be something in the water when it comes to the Lucky for Life game right now in Iowa!
Someone who bought a ticket at a Cedar Rapids convenience store won a prize of $25,000 a year for life in last night’s Lucky for Life drawing. The big win came just hours after a central Iowa man claimed that same prize from an October drawing in the game.
The Cedar Rapids ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Lucky Ball in last night’s drawing to win Lucky for Life’s second prize of $25,000 a year for life. The winning ticket was purchased at Casey’s, 641 Edgewood Road NW in Cedar Rapids. It’s Iowa’s 13th big winner in the game since its Iowa debut in January 2016.
The Cedar Rapids prize hit the same day that a central Iowa man claimed the game’s prize of $25,000 a year for life that he won in the Oct. 13 drawing. Michael “Micky” Pietz of Adel said he had his winning ticket in his wallet for a couple weeks before checking it and realizing he’d won big.
The winning numbers in last night’s Lucky for Life drawing were: 6-9-12-23-41 and Lucky Ball 8. Casey’s will receive a $500 bonus from the lottery for selling the winning ticket.
Prizes at the top two levels in Lucky for Life need to be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. The lottery currently offers prize claims by appointment at its offices. Full details are available on the lottery’s website here.
If the winner or winners of the Cedar Rapids ticket have questions before coming forward to claim the prize, they’re welcome to give us a shout at the lottery at 515-725-7900.
A central Iowa man admits he had no idea he was a big lottery winner for a couple weeks because he hadn’t checked his ticket yet.
Michael “Micky” Pietz of Adel claimed a prize of $25,000 a year for life on Thursday in the Lucky for Life® game. As he talked with officials at lottery headquarters in Clive, he recalled that he had a few tickets in his wallet by the time he decided to check their results.
Pietz, 37, who works in the gas and utilities industry, said he was using a self-checker at a local store and didn’t notice at first the amount that it displayed for one of the tickets.
“I was talking with the clerk and not overly paying attention,” he said. “I scanned it and he’s like, ‘Wait a minute, what did that say?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, probably something like $10.’ And I scanned it again and I thought, ‘That can’t be right.’ And I scanned it again and then I had him scan it.”
Still in disbelief, Pietz said he went home and asked his wife to scan the ticket using the lottery’s mobile app. All the results showed a ticket winning a prize of $25,000 a year for life.
Pietz won his prize in the Oct. 13 drawing of the Lucky for Life game. He is Iowa’s 12th big winner in the game since it debuted here in January 2016.
Lucky for Life is a $2 game with drawings each night. Its top two prize levels are described as “lasting as long as you do,” meaning that they are truly for life. The minimum guaranteed payout for those two prize levels is 20 years, and there is a lump-sum option for players who prefer that rather than lifetime annuity payments.
Pietz chose to receive his prize in a lump-sum payment of $390,000. He said that he and his wife planned to use the winnings to pay off debt, invest for their future, and establish educational accounts for their four children.
The winning numbers in the Oct. 13 drawing of Lucky for Life were: 13-16-18-23-33 and Lucky Ball 17. Pietz’s easy-pick ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Lucky Ball to win the game’s second prize of $25,000 a year for life.
He bought his winning ticket at Kum & Go, 409 Nile Kinnick Drive S. in Adel. Kum & Go will receive a $500 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the winning ticket.
With his own story in mind, Pietz has advice for other winners checking the results of their tickets.
“Pay attention to them,” he said with a smile.
Here’s a great player question that just came our way: Has an animal or a pet ever claimed an Iowa Lottery prize?
The quick answer is that only humans can claim lottery prizes, and specifically, humans with Social Security or tax I.D. numbers. But the player who contacted us went on to reference stories through the years of people who left their estates or large inheritances to their pets. And he wondered if the same had ever applied to lottery prizes.
People certainly have the prerogative to make the legal and financial arrangements they want for the time they pass on, but when it comes to claiming Iowa Lottery prizes, only humans can do that. Digger the dog and Harvey the horse are out of luck on that front!
Now that our holiday-themed scratch games are in stores for the season, we’ve gotten a player question about the number of prizes available in them and the odds of winning.
Our holiday-themed games by design will only be on the market for a short period of time – about four months. Many of our other scratch games are sold for a year or more.
We order smaller quantities of tickets in our holiday games, which means there will be a smaller number of prizes involved. The key detail, however, is that the odds of winning in our holiday games are very similar to those in our other games, so your playing experience won’t change.
“Crossword” games are a perennial favorite for players, so I’ll compare the three current holiday-themed versions with their non-holiday counterparts:
• $3 games: $30,000 Holiday Crossword and Bonus Crossword
• $5 games: $50,000 Holiday Crossword and $50,000 Super Crossword
• $10 games: $100,000 Holiday Crossword and $100,000 Mega Crossword.
Both of the $3 Crossword games have the same overall odds of winning: 1 in 3.52.
At the $5 price point, the $50,000 Holiday Crossword has overall odds of winning of 1 in 3.34 while its non-holiday counterpart has overall odds of 1 in 3.53.
And for the $10 games, the holiday version has overall odds of winning of 1 in 3.29 compared to overall odds of 1 in 3.30 in the non-holiday version.
We do our best to keep the game designs in line with each other because we want them to be fun for our players.
Then there are the folks who say they like our non-holiday games and want to see them come back. And they will! Our holiday-themed games will only be on the market until early January, and then our other games will cycle back onto store shelves when the holidays are over.