ialottery blog

A Day To Say: Relax!

Today’s national designation calls to mind the daydreaming aspect of playing the lottery. It’s National Relaxation Day!

The designation comes from the National Day Calendar™, the website that tracks zany national days that often are observed just for fun.

People have told us they like playing the lottery because it gives them a chance to take a break and think, “What if?” Maybe a fun daydream is something you can enjoy as you celebrate this day of relaxation. The $1 “Luau Loot” scratch game seems to fit in with that, because attending a luau on a beautiful beach would definitely be relaxing!   

According to the Day Calendar, this particular national day was proposed back in 1985 by a 9-year-old boy in Michigan. He suggested that people should spend a day not doing anything of real value. And he noted that cleaning and real work are not part of relaxing.

Sounds like a great definition to me! :)

Player Mail: What About The Withholding On Lottery Prizes?

One of our recent big winners had some follow-up questions for us this week about taxes, and it’s a topic I’ll cover here on the blog today to share the background involved. Taxes may not be anyone’s favorite topic, but it’s important that we understand the details! 

The player’s questions have to do with the withholdings that apply to lottery prizes. Here in Iowa, a state withholding rate of 5 percent is applied to all lottery prizes of more than $600. And for prizes of more than $5,000, federal withholding of 24 percent also applies.

This particular winner has done exactly what we always suggest by consulting a tax advisor to help her map out the tax implications of her winnings.

The winner said that the withholdings applied to her prize won’t be enough to cover her full income-tax implications. She wondered why we couldn’t have withheld more.

A big part of the answer is that state and federal withholding rates are established by law. So, we can’t withhold at a different rate -- we have to follow the law.

In general, withholdings are designed to help cover the tax implications you may have from gambling winnings, but the precise taxes that you will have as an individual are dependent upon your circumstances outside of winning the lottery.

In some cases, the withholdings may not be enough and in other cases they may be too much. We don’t know each of our winner's individual circumstances, so that’s why we always suggest that they consult a financial planner or lawyer who can help them determine their full tax implications.

Two Gifts, A LOT Of Winnings

Two of our biggest winners this month both got their lucky ticket as a gift from a family member!

First up was Terry Dennis of Boone, who claimed the eighth and final top prize of $100,000 in the “Diamond 9s” scratch game. Terry says her son, Troy, bought the ticket when he took her out for coffee. While they were out, they stopped at a local convenience store, where Troy bought some tickets and gave one to his mom.

Terry said she played it and quickly realized she’d won the game’s top prize. She says she was very shaken and very excited, and her son ran back in the store to give the clerk a big hug for selling him the $100,000-winning ticket. They drove straight to Iowa Lottery headquarters to claim the prize.

Next up was Keesha Parker of Sioux City, who claimed the first top prize in the “Wild Bingo” scratch game. Keesha says she got her $25,000-winning ticket from her husband, Kevin. He bought a pair of tickets at a local convenience store and they both scratched one later that night.

Keesha said she initially thought she’d won $500, but they went back to the store to check the ticket and learned the prize was a lot more than that! She said she plans to save part of her winnings, donate some, and buy back-to-school supplies for her grandchildren.

Thoughtful family members for the WIN, indeed!

Iowa’s Biggest Lottery Winners Were Here (And Here, And Here …)

Another month of 2019 is in the books, so it’s time to look back at the biggest lottery winners in Iowa during July. 

The map here shows all the Iowa Lottery prizes of $600 or more that were claimed in July. There are a total of 390 dots this time, compared to 315 on the June map.

In the first seven months of the year, Iowa Lottery players claimed a total of 2,717 prizes of $600 or more. 

Click here for a direct link to this map in an interactive format where you can see the details involved. Each dot shows the retail location where the winning ticket was purchased, the prize won, the game involved, and the date the prize was claimed.

The dots are in different colors for the four types of lottery games here in Iowa: scratch games, lotto games, InstaPlay games and pull-tab games. Scratch tickets have always been the Iowa Lottery’s leading product and they’re represented on the map by red dots, so there are a lot of them!

As always, remember that our maps only show those big prizes that have been claimed. They don’t include those prizes won but not claimed yet.

Expiration Date Coming Close For $50,000 Powerball Prize In Central Iowa

A $50,000 Powerball prize in central Iowa will expire in about a month if it isn’t claimed in time and we’re reminding players to double-check their tickets.

The $50,000 unclaimed prize was won in the drawing on Sept. 1, 2018, with a ticket purchased at Fareway, 5500 E. University Ave. in Pleasant Hill. The ticket came close to winning that night’s $90 million jackpot, matching four of the first five numbers and the Powerball to win a $50,000 prize. The winning numbers that night were: 11-54-55-61-66 and Powerball 9.

Players in Iowa have up to 365 days from the date of the drawing to claim prizes in the Powerball game. But if the expiration date falls on a weekend or holiday when the lottery’s offices are closed, the winner has until the close of business on the next business day to turn in the ticket.

The Pleasant Hill ticket would have expired Sept. 1, but since that date is a Sunday and Sept. 2 is the Labor Day holiday, the winner or winners have until 4 p.m. Sept. 3 to claim the $50,000 prize at a lottery office.

The money from prizes that expire in Iowa without being claimed goes into the lottery’s prize pools for future games and promotions, so it will be used to pay prizes, just not those prizes that have expired.

He’s Already Won, Whether Or Not His Ticket Wins A Prize

A northwest Iowa man has had some good luck all because he signed his lottery tickets.

The story comes from the manager of the Iowa Lottery’s Storm Lake regional office. His name is Bill and while he was at a local gym there this week, one of his friends told him that he’d recently had to go to the hospital for a medical procedure. The friend said that when he got home, he realized he was missing his money clip that had more than $200 in it.

The next day, the friend got a call from the hospital, asking if he’d lost something. He said he had: his money clip. Someone at the hospital had found it, and the only way they knew it belonged to him was because he also had a couple lotto tickets in the clip, and he’d signed his name on the back of them. That’s an easy security procedure we always suggest players follow to identify their tickets as belonging to them.

So in the end, Bill’s friend got back his money clip, his cash AND his lotto tickets! And it proves two things in my book: 1.) There still are honest people in this world; and 2.) Even if his tickets don’t win a prize, his friend is already a winner!

34 Years In The Making: Iowa Lottery Sets Records

The Iowa Lottery has just posted the best annual results in its 34-year history.

Lottery sales, proceeds to state causes, prizes to players, and retail commissions all set records in fiscal year 2019, which ended June 30. We think the results deliver on our promise to responsibly raise revenues for the state causes that are important to us all.

Click on the video above to see our thank-you message to our players, our retailers, and really, anyone who has an interest in the Iowa Lottery.

Our preliminary figures out today show that the Iowa Lottery generated a record $92.8 million in proceeds to state causes in FY 2019. Annual lottery sales were a record $390.9 million, while prizes to players totaled a record $241.9 million. Lottery sales commissions to the local businesses across Iowa that sell our tickets totaled $25.4 million, also a record.

Scratch games have always been the lottery's leading product category and led the way again in FY 2019, with those games accounting for a record $250.6 million in sales in Iowa. 

The lottery retailer with the most sales in Iowa was again the Hy-Vee store at 20 Wilson Ave. in Cedar Rapids. That location has been the No. 1 lottery retailer in Iowa for five straight years, and it sold nearly $950,000 in lottery tickets in FY 2019.

The largest prize won by an Iowa Lottery player in FY 2019 was a $343.9 million Powerball jackpot, and six other prizes of at least $1 million also were won in the state during the year. 

Couple Both Buy Their Own Lottery Tickets And Both Win (But She Wins More)

Here’s a story out of South Carolina to give us all a smile: A husband and wife both bought tickets in the same lottery scratch game and both won. But she won more – a lot more.

The couple in Lancaster, S.C., both bought tickets in a $5 scratch game there called “Giant Jumbo Bucks.” He won $200. She won one of the game’s top prizes of $150,000!

As she claimed her prize, the wife told officials at the South Carolina Education Lottery that her hubs threw a fit when he realized she’d won so much more than him!

Hey, they’re definitely a lucky household in my book!

Settlement Reached In Lawsuit Stemming From Long-Running Jackpot Investigation Case

A settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit stemming from the long-running lottery jackpot investigation that ended with three men being sentenced after admitting that they cooperated to commit lottery fraud.

The Iowa Lottery was not a party to the lawsuit, but we view this as a moment to look back and take pride in our work along with that of other Iowa officials who led the investigation. That effort ultimately led us all to this point where there can be a settlement for affected players.

The $4.3 million settlement in the case of Culler et al vs. the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) will provide refunds to those with nonwinning lottery tickets linked to the lottery fraud case that centered on Eddie Tipton, an Iowa man who worked for years in information-security at MUSL.

The settlement will allow refunds for the cost of tickets purchased in some lottery drawings between November 2005 and May 2013 in certain games sold around the country.

It’s our understanding that once the settlement reached by MUSL is approved by the court, a settlement website will be set up. That is the place where players who made purchases for the lottery drawings involved will be able to submit claims online or access claim forms that they can print out and submit by mail. We don’t have information yet about the settlement website, but we’ll share it when the details are provided to us.

Attorneys in the case say there will a mechanism for players who no longer have their tickets to file a claim.

The jackpot investigation case began with a lottery ticket purchased in December 2010 in Des Moines and culminated in 2017 with guilty pleas from three men who admitted they illegally claimed prizes by rigging lottery drawings in five states. Eddie Tipton, the man at the center of the investigation, worked at MUSL, an organization within the lottery industry, and installed malicious computer code that allowed him to predict winning numbers in some lottery drawings.

Tipton ultimately pleaded guilty to three felony charges in Iowa and Wisconsin and was sentenced in August 2017 to up to 25 years in prison. He had conspired with friends and family to claim lottery prizes in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. He also tried to claim a lottery jackpot in Iowa, but it was not paid after the Iowa Lottery’s security questions went unanswered. 

Tipton’s younger brother, Tommy Tipton, also pleaded guilty in the case, as did Tipton’s long-time friend, Robert Rhodes.

Burlington resident Dale Culler is among at least three people who filed lawsuits naming MUSL in connection with the rigged games. A Polk County District Court judge granted Culler's request to seek damages on behalf of other lottery players in a class-action suit.

Checking An Item Off His Bucket List

 A northern Iowa man is planning a trip he’s always dreamed about now that he’s won a $100,000 lottery prize.

Brian Staudt says he’ll use some of his winnings for a trip to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. The 60-year-old Charles City man says he’s always wanted to go there, and this is a fine opportunity to do it.

Brian claimed one of the $100,000 top prizes in the “Spectacular Riches” scratch game this week. And get this: He says absentmindedness set the stage for his big win. He says he meant to buy a ticket while out getting groceries, but forgot. Then on the way home, he stopped to buy another item on his shopping list, but again forgot to buy a lottery ticket. He finally went to a local Casey’s store and bought a handful of scratch tickets, including the Spectacular Riches ticket where he won big. He says that being forgetful pays off sometimes!     

All of us at the Iowa Lottery send you our congratulations, Brian. Now just don’t forget to go to Cooperstown! :)

Happy World Emoji Day!

If you’re a fan of emojis (and that’s pretty much all of us these days), today is for you. It’s World Emoji Day!

That’s according to the National Day Calendar™, the website that tracks unusual holidays and has a day for just about everything. Today is for celebrating the emoji: those small, digital pictures or icons that are used to express ideas, concepts, and emotions in electronic communications.

"Emoji" is a Japanese expression that roughly translates to: picture word. When Apple released the first iPhone in 2007, an emoji keyboard was embedded in it to help appeal to the Japanese market. But users all around the world quickly found the keyboard and began to use it!

Here at the Iowa Lottery, our favorite emojis of course are those that involve money, happy faces, celebrations and good luck!

The website emojipedia.org tracks emoji updates across all platforms and operating systems. It shows that there are now more than 1,800 emojis, with more being created all the time.

The suggested emoji to use as you celebrate today is the green-and-blue symbol of the earth to highlight that it's WORLD Emoji Day.