ialottery blog

$2 Million Powerball Winner: Ticket Was In Car’s Sun Visor

In a slice-of-life moment, a northeast Iowa woman realized she’d left a $2 million-winning Powerball® ticket tucked into the sun visor of her car.

Karla and Keith Elenz of New Hampton claimed the $2 million prize today at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. Karla said they first got a head’s up about the big news when an email was sent Tuesday to all employees at the auto-parts manufacturing facility where they work. The Iowa Lottery had announced earlier that day that a $2 million prize was won in Monday’s Powerball drawing with a ticket purchased in the Chickasaw County community of about 3,500.

Karla, 53, said that in the email, her company shared the details about the lottery announcement and said they hoped the winner would be someone they knew. That prompted Karla to run out to her car in the parking lot, where she’d left a Powerball ticket in the sun visor.

She said she brought up the winning Powerball numbers on her mobile phone and compared those to the numbers on the ticket. Then she knew she had to find her husband.

Keith Elenz, 55, said he could tell Karla had something big to share, but in the rush of the moment, they understandably had a little trouble getting all the words out. He said his wife told him they won and he kept asking, “Won what?” When she told him she thought the prize was $2 million, Keith said his reaction was: “Noooo.”

The couple said they somehow kept the news to themselves for the rest of the afternoon, and then their communications difficulties took another amusing turn when they shared the details that evening with their family. Karla said her mom initially thought they’d won a $2,000 prize. Karla told her that she needed to keep adding more zeroes.

Karla and Keith both say that they plan to invest their winnings, continue working, and help local charities.

Karla bought their $2 million-winning ticket at Casey’s, 615 N. Linn Ave. in New Hampton. She chose her own numbers, playing a set that are significant to her. Their ticket was just one number away from having at least a share of Monday’s $26.8 million jackpot, initially matching the first five numbers but missing the Powerball to win a $1 million prize.

But Karla also added the Power Play® option to the purchase, which multiplies the prize at the Match 5 level to $2 million. The New Hampton ticket was the only one in the country to win a $2 million prize in Monday’s drawing.

Monday’s winning numbers were 14-17-18-21-27 and Powerball 9. The Power Play option was 2. Casey’s will receive a $2,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the $2 million-winning ticket.

Exciting Start To 2022: New Hampton Ticket Wins $2 Million Powerball Prize

Someone who bought a Powerball ticket in northeast Iowa won a $2 million Powerball prize in last night’s drawing.

The $2 million-winning ticket was purchased at Casey’s, 615 N. Linn Ave. in New Hampton. The ticket came within one number of having at least a share of last night’s $26.8 million jackpot.

The lucky ticket initially matched the first five numbers but missed the Powerball to win a $1 million prize. But whoever bought the ticket also added the Power Play® option to the purchase, which multiplies the prize at the Match 5 level to $2 million.

The New Hampton ticket was the only one in the country to win a $2 million prize in last night’s drawing.

Last night’s winning numbers were 14-17-18-21-27 and Powerball 9. The Power Play option was 2. No one matched all six numbers to win the jackpot, so the big prize climbs to an estimated $38 million annuity ($26.4 million lump-sum option) for the game’s next drawing tomorrow night.

Casey’s will receive a $2,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the $2 million-winning ticket.

Prizes of $2 million must be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. The lottery’s offices are open Monday through Friday, and prize claims are currently available by appointment. The winner or winners of the New Hampton prize can call the lottery at 515-725-7900 to make an appointment to claim it.

This Time, You Can Enter InstaPlay Tickets For A Chance To Win More Prizes

This time, InstaPlay games are in the spotlight in a promotion that gives you the chance to enter tickets for a chance to win more prizes -- A LOT more in prizes. To be specific, the InstaPlay promotion that began this morning has a total of $228,000 in prizes on the line!

We’re applying the “max bet” concept in this Play It Again® promotion, meaning that the size of the prize you could win increases with the purchase price of the ticket you enter.

There are five categories in the promotion based on the ticket price point involved:

• $20 tickets are eligible for a $20,000 prize.
• $10 tickets are eligible for a $10,000 prize.
• $5 tickets are eligible for a $5,000 prize.
• $2 tickets are eligible for a $2,000 prize.
• $1 tickets are eligible for a $1,000 prize.

The promotion will have two drawings. They’ll be held on Feb. 3 and Feb. 24, with 15 cash prizes awarded in each. That works out to 3 prizes per category in both drawings.

So, in the Feb. 3 drawing, there will be 3 winners of a $20,000 prize, 3 winners of a $10,000 prize, 3 winners of a $5,000 prize, 3 winners of a $2,000 prize and 3 winners of a $1,000 prize. That same thing will happen in the Feb. 24 drawing.

Only recent InstaPlay tickets can be entered. Any nonwinning InstaPlay ticket purchased on or after Jan. 3 of this year is eligible for entry into the promotion. And remember that you’ll need to be a member of the lottery’s free VIP Club to enter.

You can enter tickets for the first drawing until the morning of Feb. 1, and then entries will start over for the second drawing, with its entry period open until the morning of Feb. 22. Entries will not carry over from one drawing to the next.

You can win a prize in each category you enter. (Yes, the odds of that happening are long, but we’ve seen players win multiple prizes before in our drawings.)

Good luck, thank you for playing, and we hope you have fun with this moment in the sun for our InstaPlay games!

Technical Snag Preventing Ticket Checking On Mobile App For Players With This Phone

We’re working on an update to our mobile app to fix a snag that players with a certain type of smart phone are having when they try to check the results of their tickets.

The technical glitch only appears to impact Samsung® Galaxy S21 mobile phones with the Android 12 operating system. We began hearing from players about the snag after a recent update to those phones.

The players involved say they can’t use the lottery’s mobile app to check the results of their tickets. The difficulty is only impacting the ticket-checking function on those phones -- all other features on the lottery's app, including players' ability to enter tickets into lottery promotions, continue to function as normal.

We’re working on an update to resolve the issue, but we don’t yet have a release date. With any technology, updates and changes over time can cause unexpected tangles. But we know you like the convenience of the mobile app and we want to have all the features on it up and running!

Please bear with us while we continue to work on this fix.

Powerball Jackpot Split By Tickets in CA & WI, Mega Millions Continues To Roll

Update on Jan. 6: Last night's Powerball jackpot, which ended up being even higher than the latest estimates heading into the drawing, was split by tickets in California and Wisconsin. The $632.6 million jackpot was the 7th-largest in the history of the game. Meanwhile, the Mega Millions® jackpot continues its run, currently at an estimated $278 million annuity, $193 million lump-sum value for that game's next drawing tomorrow.         

Maybe it’s the cold weather sweeping across much of the country that’s got people looking for a chance to daydream, but something DEFINITELY has folks thinking about the jackpots in Powerball and Mega Millions.

The jackpots in both games have been raised even higher today, pushed up by strong sales across the country. Tonight’s Mega Millions jackpot is now an estimated $253 million annuity, $175.6 million lump-sum option.

And the Powerball jackpot for tomorrow night’s drawing is now an estimated $610 million annuity, $434.2 million lump-sum option. That’s the seventh largest jackpot in the history of the Powerball game.

3 Prizes Of $50K, 1 Of $20K Currently Unclaimed In Iowa

Now is a good time to remind you to double-check your tickets. And be sure to look for the other prizes you may have won, not just the jackpot! Three Powerball prizes of $50,000 and a Mega Millions prize of $20,000 won within the past six months are currently unclaimed in Iowa.

Each of the $50K-winning tickets was just one number away from the jackpot, matching four of the five white balls and the Powerball. And the $20K-winning Mega Millions ticket initially matched four of the five white balls and the Mega Ball to win a $10,000 prize. But the player who bought the ticket also added the Megaplier option for an extra $1, which multiplied the prize to $20,000.

Here are the details about the unclaimed prizes involved:

• $50K-winning ticket purchased at Casey’s, 3434 Nebraska Ave. in Council Bluffs, for the July 21 drawing.
• $50K-winning ticket purchased at Kum & Go, 629 S. Division St. in Stuart, for the Oct. 23 drawing.
• $50K-winning ticket purchased at Kwik Star, 205 N. Maryville St. in Calmar, for the Dec. 29 drawing. This prize was claimed Jan. 5. #WooHooForYou
• $20K-winning ticket purchased at Casey’s, 4400 128th St. in Urbandale, for the Nov. 12 drawing.

Reminders For Office Pools

When the jackpots really get up there, a lot of folks start pooling their money to buy tickets as a group with co-workers, neighbors, or friends and family.

We keep reminders about group lottery play as a permanent feature on our website, so please check out those details.

For example, one of our quick tips is for the person buying tickets on behalf of a group to keep a careful list of everyone who pitches in, how much money they contribute, and when! That can help answer any questions later about who was “in.”

Powerball Jackpot Raised Even Higher, 3 Prizes of $50K Currently Unclaimed In Iowa

It seems like Powerball® is top of mind for a whole lot of folks right now! Strong sales across the country during the New Year’s holiday weekend have pushed the jackpot even higher for tonight’s drawing.

Tonight’s jackpot is now an estimated $540 million annuity, $384.3 million lump-sum value.

There Are Monday Drawings?

And with the jackpot in the spotlight, we’ve gotten questions today from some people who didn’t realize Powerball has a Monday drawing. That change was made in August of last year. Powerball now has drawings every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The first Monday drawing in the game was held on Aug. 23, 2021.

Reminders For Office Pools

This is the point where a lot of folks decide to pool their money to buy tickets with co-workers, neighbors, or friends and family.

We keep reminders about group lottery play as a permanent feature on our website, so please check out those details.

For example, one of our quick tips is for the person buying tickets on behalf of a group to keep a careful list of everyone who pitches in, how much money they contribute, and when! That can help answer any questions later about who was “in.”

3 Powerball Prizes of $50K Currently Unclaimed In Iowa

Three Powerball prizes of $50,000 won within the past six months are currently unclaimed in Iowa, and at the Iowa Lottery, we remind all our players to double-check their tickets!

Each of the $50K-winning tickets was just one number away from the jackpot, matching four of the five white balls and the Powerball.

Here are the details about the Powerball tickets involved:

• $50K-winning ticket purchased at Casey’s, 3434 Nebraska Ave. in Council Bluffs, for the July 21 drawing.
• $50K-winning ticket purchased at Kum & Go, 629 S. Division St. in Stuart, for the Oct. 23 drawing.
• $50K-winning ticket purchased at Kwik Star, 205 N. Maryville St. in Calmar, for the Dec. 29 drawing.

The $1 Million Winner Was From Pennsylvania, But What A Fun Night!

If you watched the broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest,” you saw that a Pennsylvania player was selected as the $1 million winner in the special New Year’s Powerball® drawing live on air. But Iowa’s two finalists in the drawing say it was a fun night from start to finish. And they won prizes for being one of the five nationwide finalists.

In the images here, you can see Rob Long of Waterloo during the national television broadcast along with his wife, Heather, and their daughter, Rylie. And up in Titonka, Shari Beenken and her husband, Rod, were on TV with their children Jack, Madison and Katelyn.

THANK YOU to Rob and Shari for enjoying the moment and making the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year® drawing a ton of fun. After all, this was the first time that any state had more than one finalist for the $1 million prize!

Iowa’s finalists had two very different stories. Beenken, from a Kossuth County community of about 500, entered Powerball tickets in the drawing she purchased on her own, while Long entered tickets he bought on behalf of a group of his co-workers, friends and family who pool their money to buy tickets. He calls the group Lotto 22.

Rob, Shari and the other nationwide finalists received a $10,000 cash prize and a home party package also valued at $10,000, including a 70-inch LED TV, karaoke system and premium laptop computer. And then in the New Year’s drawing, Brian Mineweaser of Honey Brook, Pa., was selected as the $1 million winner.

#PBTwinWinsInIA
#PowerballRockinEve

The Countdown Is On: Will Iowa Have The $1 Million New Year’s Powerball Winner?

UPDATE on Jan. 1, 2022: The $1 million winner was the finalist from Pennsylvania. Brian Mineweaser of Honey Brook, Pa., was selected in the drawing for the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year®.

Friday can’t come soon enough for these two Iowans who are waiting to learn if they’ll be the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year®.

Congratulations to Shari Beenken of Titonka and Rob Long of Waterloo, two of the five nationwide finalists for the $1 million prize! The winner will be announced live on air during ABC’s broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest” from New York's Time Square. The drawing will be held about 12:15 a.m. EST in the new year. 

Good luck, Shari and Rob! We’re pulling for you!

#PBTwinWinsInIA #PowerballRockinEve

Do You Have To Live In Iowa To Win?

Here’s a timely question we just got with so many people making travel plans in the next few weeks: Do you have to be an Iowa resident or a U.S. resident to win an Iowa Lottery prize?

The answer in almost all cases is that anyone from anywhere can play the lottery and win. There is only one instance where you have to be from Iowa to win the prize involved, and I’ll cover that here.

I think there is definitely home-state pride involved when someone from Iowa wins big and it’s even more fun when someone from your county or your local community wins the lottery. But people from other states and countries can play and win in the Iowa Lottery’s games. The requirements are the same, no matter where the player is from: You have to be at least 21 years old to buy a ticket and a ticket must be legally purchased, legally possessed and legally presented to the Iowa Lottery to claim a prize.

By its very definition, a lottery is a game that can be won by anyone from anywhere, provided that they have a ticket. In any given year, the vast majority of Iowa Lottery prizes are claimed by Iowans. But our winners this year have also included a Minnesota woman who claimed a $300,000 prize, a Florida man who claimed a $50,000 prize and an Illinois man who claimed a $30,000 prize.

If you win an Iowa Lottery prize and you’re not a resident of this country, you may pay a higher amount in withholding than a U.S. citizen would, but it’s perfectly OK for you to play and win! That situation applies in reverse when we as Iowans play the lottery and win prizes as we’re traveling out of state or out of the country. And bottom line, Iowa Lottery sales provide proceeds to help our state, no matter where the person is from who made the purchase.

Folks from outside of Iowa also can enter our Play It Again® promotions and win prizes in them. (As with prizes in our games, the withholding difference may apply to prizes in our promotions if you’re not a U.S. citizen.)

The only time that Iowa residency is required is in our contests that offer actual lottery tickets as prizes. It’s illegal for us to mail or ship lottery tickets across state lines, so in those instances, you do have to be from Iowa to win.

Here’s a scheduling reminder if you’ve got a prize to claim at an Iowa Lottery office in the next couple weeks: Our offices will be closed on Thursday, Dec. 23, and Friday, Dec. 24, for the Christmas weekend and on Friday, Dec. 31, for the New Year’s holiday.

And as you’re buying tickets this holiday season, please consider our gentle reminder that lottery tickets as gifts should be reserved for the grown-ups on your list. Thank you for playing!

This Time, It’s A Little Different: You Can Still Enter For The $100,000 Prize

We switched things up a bit in our holiday promotion this year, and the change means you’ve got 2½ more weeks to enter for your shot at the grand prize of $100,000!

A lot of times in our promotions, entries for the grand prize drawing end at the same time as those in the last of the initial drawings. But that’s not the case with the Warehouse Dash® promotion.

The winners have been selected for the Warehouse Dash trips and the $5,000 prizes up for grabs in the promotion’s initial drawings, but the entry period for the $100,000 grand prize lasts until the morning of Jan. 4. You have until 9:59 a.m. that day to enter eligible tickets from our holiday scratch games for a chance to win that prize.

And, if you already entered tickets earlier in the drawing and those entries weren’t selected in one of the initial drawings, they also remain eligible for the grand-prize drawing for $100,000.
We’ll hold that drawing on Jan. 6.

So, congratulations to the 20 winners of $5,000 cash in the Warehouse Dash’s first four drawings and the four Warehouse Dash shopping spree winners:

     • Mike Thompson of Storm Lake
     • Shelby Nyweide of Tipton
     • Angela McClelland of Des Moines
     • Fawn Berstler of Marengo

We’re excited to see who will be selected as the $100,000 winner next month!

(We’ve heard from folks asking what it’s like to get to do the Warehouse Dash because they’ve had so much fun thinking about it. If you haven’t seen the videos of our 2012 winners, you can check them out here and here. As one of the winners says, there’s a whole lot of strategy and planning, but it all kind of goes out the window once the contestants start running!)

Warehouse Dash is a registered trademark of Hinda, Inc. Please note that sales in the "Reindeer Games" holiday scratch game ended Nov. 6, but any eligible tickets purchased in it can still be entered into the Warehouse Dash promotion.