Player Question: What Determines The Top Prizes In Your Scratch Games?

A recent Facebook exchange about the top prizes in our scratch games was a reminder for me to highlight that issue here on the blog and share the details about how the Iowa Lottery determines those grand-prize amounts.

Some of the details are identified as we plan out our games, but a big part also is determined by population.

The planning part comes as we do our best to keep a variety of games in the marketplace to meet player tastes. Our goal is to have different game designs, colors, price points, themes and prize structures, understanding that what works for one person may not interest another at all. Variety counts!

Sometimes that means that games at the same price point will have different top prizes because players have their own preferences in the tickets they choose to play.

Take our current $20 scratch games as an example. The “Aces High” game has a top prize of $250,000, while the “Jewel Game Book” and “Super 20s” games both offer a top prize of $100,000. All three games have very different play styles and themes. And while Jewel Game Book and Super 20s both put emphasis on extended playing time with a greater number of prizes that aren’t quite as high, the $250,000 Riches game more concentration on the top prize.

Through the years, we’ve heard from some folks who want to play for bigger prizes while others prefer a better chance to win a prize at any level. We hope that by having a variety of games out there, you’ll find something that you like.

Population is the other big factor when it comes to determining the prizes that can be offered in a particular game. A lottery in a state with a larger population can design a game with bigger prizes and more of them simply because that state will have so many more people playing. A greater population base means larger sales overall, and that in turn supports higher prizes.

With a population of 3.1 million, Iowa is fairly small compared to states like California (39.5 million) or Florida (21.6 million). But we can still be creative when it comes to game planning!

Comments

[Mary Neubauer]

Hi, Bruce. It's interesting to see the different types of lottery games offered around the country, isn't it? There are loyal player followings for the lotto games we offer here in Iowa, with different players migrating to the games that have the playing options that they prefer. We're aware of the games you have referenced and it's possible that some day they may be added to our line-up here in Iowa as well. But as I had referenced in this blog post about scratch-game prizes, population is a huge part of the picture when it comes to lotto games as well. Iowa may not be as big a state as Florida and California, but we consider ourselves small and mighty!

[Mary Neubauer]

Hi, Linda. We have example images of tickets in our scratch, pull-tab, and InstaPlay games on our website so that players can have up-close images of the tickets and learn the details of how to play them. But we do not have demo tickets on the website that would involve visually playing them online. Here are direct links to pages for three of our games so you can see ticket images I have referenced. Scratch game: https://ialottery.com/Pages/Games-Scratch/ScratchGamesDetail.aspx?g=523 Pull-tab game: https://ialottery.com/Pages/Games-Pulltab/PulltabGamesDetail.aspx?g=15 InstaPlay game: https://ialottery.com/Pages/Games-InstaPlay/InstaPlayGamesDetail.aspx?g=141

[Bruce Nedd]

I was wondering how come you don't have the pick 2 and Pick 5 like Florida and California

[linda petersen]

so where on ia lottery is the demo tickets