We got an interesting question this week from a woman on Facebook who wondered about the distribution of tickets in our scratch games – and specifically, the top-prize winning tickets. We figure everybody wants to know about those, so here’s the background on our exchange with her.
The woman asked this question: “For scratch tickets, does the lottery release the grand prizes at once in various locations or send them out in phases, like a few at the beginning of the month and then the rest later? Any insight would help satisfy my curiosity.”
There generally are more than a million tickets in one of our scratch games. Tickets are distributed over time, with the initial supply of tickets at retail locations across the state replaced as they sell out. Winning tickets – including grand-prize-winning tickets – are randomly distributed throughout the entire supply of tickets in a particular game, so they’re available in retail locations over time as the game is for sale.
There’s not a particular point in time that tickets are distributed once a game has gone on sale – the process is determined by the availability (or lack thereof) of tickets in that game. No one knows when the next big one is going to hit, and that’s a necessary security feature designed to protect the integrity of our games.
Interesting point that you have raised, Chuck. It's an issue we just blogged about last month. Here is the link to that entry:
http://www.ialotteryblog.com/2016/05/no-one-from-insert-place-ever-wins.html
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | June 09, 2016 at 04:46 PM
upon back tracking through the "winners" list it appears their are more winning tickets sold in the central location of the state of Iowa. seldom if ever do we see a major winning ticket amount sold in scott or sorrounding counties.
Posted by: chuck clark | June 09, 2016 at 07:55 AM
For the questions relating to the distribution of tickets in our scratch games: 1. Yes, there have been top-prize winners in the initial tickets distributed to retailers in a particular game. We've seen a top-prize winner on the first day that a game began sales. It's all random and you never know when the next big one is going to hit. 2. Crossword tickets are some of the lottery's most popular scratch games. We do our best to keep a Crossword game in our line-up at all times because we know people like them! The Bonus Crossword game (No. 892) started sales in May 2015 and there are still tickets available in that game. It's always popular, and new tickets are distributed in it as supplies in retail locations sell through. Great questions, guys!
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | June 07, 2016 at 10:15 AM
Great comments, everyone! To the folks who spoke about spreading the wealth around in lotto games, I will pass your comments along to the game-planning group. But the interesting thing that comes into play there is that people's behavior reflects the exact opposite of what you've expressed here. Sales follow the jackpot up -- as the jackpot climbs higher, sales go higher, too. People are voting with their pocketbooks on that issue and they definitely seem to like the big jackpots! But that also is why we offer different types of games. All or Nothing, for example, has better odds and a top prize of $100,000 while Lucky for Life offers a top prize of $1,000 a day for life. We keep variety in our games so hopefully we'll have something for everyone.
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | June 07, 2016 at 09:59 AM
I agree with John Bartles comment. I would
be very happy with a million and a better chance at winning again. People would be
happier to think there chances are better with the smaller jackpots. If you can't live on a million dollars something is very wrong with your budget.
Posted by: Arlis Bartley | June 06, 2016 at 11:18 PM