I recently had a conversation with a lottery colleague from Washington, D.C., that had us both laughing when we realized that we both hear the same urban myth, it's just regionalized to fit our particular areas of the country. I'm guessing that the same conversation takes place around the world and it's just localized so that you can insert your state or country's name to suit your purpose.
I was on the telephone with someone at the D.C. Lottery when we began talking about recent Powerball and Hot Lotto winners. I told her that at the Iowa Lottery, we repeatedly hear that no one from Iowa ever wins the jackpot. (It's not true, but that doesn't stop the stories.) She immediately started to laugh.
She said the the word in her area is that no one from Washington, D.C., ever wins, it's always "those players from Iowa." Then I started to laugh.
In reality, there have been multiple jackpot winners from both places. People just seem to believe the opposite, and the story appears to be localized from area to area.
I think the inaccurate legend stems from the fact that in truth, players won't every truly be satisfied until they have won the jackpot, no matter how many people from their area already have won. I jokingly have told Iowa players that they might want all of the jackpots to be won by residents of our state, but that wouldn't make the other lotteries in the game very happy!
Once we've addressed that first myth, another argument sometimes pops up. The comeback is that no one from here ever wins the big ones. In fact, Iowa Lottery players have won some of the biggest jackpots ever offered in both Powerball and Hot Lotto. Just FYI:
Iowa Lottery players have won six Powerball jackpots through the years. The grand prizes involved total $398.6 million. The winners are:
- Tim and Kellie Guderian of Fort Dodge, who claimed a $200.8 million jackpot in October 2006.
- Hugh Hawkins of Des Moines, who claimed a $113.2 million jackpot in December 2005.
- Jacquelyn Moore of Omaha, Neb., who won a $14.4 million jackpot in October 2004. (She bought her ticket at a convenience store in Carter Lake in western Iowa.)
- The Larry Hasken family of Sabula, who claimed a $31.8 million jackpot in January 2000.
- Tim Schultz of Des Moines, who won a $28 million jackpot in February 1999.
- Ed Brown of Washington, who split a $10.4 million jackpot with a woman from Missouri in December 1992.
Iowa Lottery players also have won six Hot Lotto jackpots, and the grand prizes involved total $31.11 million. The winners are:
- John Hall of Indianola, who won a $19.97 million jackpot in January 2007. It was the largest prize offered in the game to date.
- Moses Bittok of West Des Moines, who won a $1.89 million jackpot in September 2005.
- Danny Good of Des Moines, who won a $1.65 million jackpot in December 2003.
- Todd Brobston of Fort Madison, who won a $1.3 million jackpot in November 2003.
- Don Sporrer of Denison, who won a $2.7 million prize in December 2002.
- Darlene Becker of Dubuque, who won the first jackpot ever claimed in the game, a $2.6 million prize in the drawing on July 10, 2002.
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