As you’re out and about traveling this summer, here’s a quick reminder about where you can claim lottery tickets.
We heard from a man in Georgia earlier this week asking if he could claim the prize he won on an Iowa Lottery scratch ticket at his local lottery retailer in that state. The quick answer is no. Here’s why:
If you buy a lottery ticket in Iowa, you’ll need to claim any prize you win from that ticket here in Iowa. And if you buy a ticket in another state, you’ll need to claim any prize won from it in that state.
There’s an enormous amount of technology that goes into running a lottery today, and each state lottery has its own computer system to track the tickets it sells. Because each state lottery individually tracks its tickets, sales and prizes, the computer systems involved are independent from each other. That means the equipment here in Iowa can’t read tickets from out of state, and vice versa. In addition, the money raised from the sale of lottery tickets in each state stays in that state to support valuable causes there.
If visiting an Iowa Lottery retail location or one of our offices just won’t work for you, remember that we always offer players the option of claiming most prizes through the mail. (There are a few exceptions to that. For example, if you win a jackpot, that prize has to be claimed in person at our headquarters location in Clive.)
Many other state lotteries also offer players the ability to claim prizes by mail. Check with the respective state lottery from which you purchased your ticket about the details in that regard.
Safe travels this summer! And good luck on any lottery tickets you buy along the way!
Hi, Mike. The lottery games we offer here in Iowa pay a specific percentage of prizes and provide specific odds of winning. We do our best to provide all those details on the pages for our individual games so folks can easily access the information. Game design is a matter of balancing the amount of money going to a game's top prize and its smaller prize amounts. The more you allocate to smaller prize levels, the smaller the game's top prize can be. The definition of gambling involves consideration (meaning something of value that you provide); chance (meaning the chance to win); and winnings. When you receive a $5 prize in a game where tickets cost $5, you are winning a prize, as opposed to a nonwinning ticket where nothing is won.
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | July 17, 2017 at 10:46 AM
Why are there so many "break even" scratch tickets in Iowa.It seems that all I buy are losing tickets and break even tickets?Are break even tickets considered by the Iowa Lottery to be winning tickets?If so,why?If you buy a $5 dollar ticket and scratch off a $5 dollar prize,how can you justify calling this ticket a winner when all you did was give the person their money back?
Posted by: Mike Byrne | July 14, 2017 at 09:58 PM