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Aug. 25 update: The official results from Monday's Powerball drawing have been finalized and tickets in the game can again be checked and cashed. The estimated jackpot amount for tonight's Powerball drawing has also been updated.
The official results from last night’s Powerball® drawing have been delayed, meaning that tickets in the game can’t currently be checked or cashed in Iowa. This issue only involves Powerball – tickets in all other Iowa Lottery games can be processed as usual.
The Powerball drawing was held last night and the winning numbers from it are posted. But for the official draw results to be finalized, security protocols have to be met by all 48 lotteries in the game. Two lotteries outside of Iowa needed additional processing time. That has caused the current delay, and without the official results, the next estimated jackpot in the game can’t be set.
If you have a Powerball ticket, please hang onto it and we’ll provide an update when tickets in the game can be checked and cashed again.
We gave you the preview back in May, and now the time is almost here: Powerball’s first Monday drawing will happen next week.
Powerball is moving from two drawings per week up to three. The game will still have drawings on Wednesdays and Saturdays like it always has, and now Mondays will be part of the mix, too.
The changes in the game are designed to produce more winners and generate larger, faster-growing jackpots. But remember that while the additional drawings will create more chances to win, they won’t change Powerball’s prize levels, odds of winning, or ticket price.
Players in $2 Powerball will still choose their first five numbers from a pool of 69, and another number – called the Powerball – from a separate pool of 26. The Power Play® option is available for an extra $1 per play.
With the Monday drawings almost here, the countdown on advance plays in Powerball also will end soon. Normally, you can buy Powerball tickets for up to 10 consecutive drawings in advance in Iowa. But when a major change is made in one of our games, a standard part of the process is that advance plays are limited until the change takes effect. The procedure is designed to ensure that you have valid tickets for all upcoming drawings, both before and after the change.
Advance plays in Powerball are limited through tomorrow night. Once sales end for tomorrow’s night’s Powerball drawing, things will reset and you’ll be able to buy tickets for up to 10 drawings in advance again here in Iowa.
We’re gearing up for a busy day at the Iowa State Fair! Here are the details about where to find us today and what we’ll have at our booth.
As you can see in the image here, the Iowa Lottery is in a big white exhibition tent along the Grand Concourse. The map at the end of this blog entry highlights our location in front of the Fair’s Service Center.
Our State Fair booth will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. today! We’ll be selling and cashing lotto, scratch and InstaPlay tickets, and we can help you enter our promotions if you need those details.
If you buy at least $10 in tickets at our booth, you can spin the wheel for a chance to win a merchandise prize.
We’ll have all 15 scratch games eligible for our Million Dollar $ummer promotion and we’ll also have the games eligible for our Prize Zone promotions for a Brett Young concert package or tickets on the Iowa Lottery Ironmen Patio for the Hawkeye football game Oct. 9 against Penn State or Nov. 13 vs. Minnesota.
Monday is Veterans Day at the Fair, and we’ll be spreading the word about the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund, one of the significant recipients of lottery proceeds each year. Please join us in thanking and honoring veterans to make their day at the Fair that much more special!
I talked with a player this week about the concept of random numbers and what exactly that means for her lotto tickets. Here’s the background involved, in case you’ve ever wondered the same thing!
The woman said that she buys easy-pick tickets in Powerball®, Mega Millions® and Lucky for Life®. (In an easy-pick play, the lottery terminal or self-service kiosk randomly assigns the numbers on the ticket.)
The woman said she noticed that the same numbers can end up on different tickets, and that concerned her. She thought that if the numbers were randomly selected, they would all be different, or repeat extremely rarely. I explained that what she was describing is in fact not random.
When numbers are chosen at random, any outcome is possible: You can have multiple plays with all the same numbers. You can have plays with no repeat numbers. Or, you can have plays where some of the numbers repeat. If you put parameters on the numbers they won’t be random.
Perhaps the way to look at it is that you can’t apply reason to random.
As I shared with the woman, the only way to avoid repeats in the numbers on your lotto tickets is to choose the numbers you play.
We’ll be at the Iowa State Fair next Monday, and hope to see you there!
The first Monday of the Fair is known as Veterans Day at the State Fair, and it will be our chance to join all Fair-goers in honoring veterans while we spread the word about one of the most important beneficiaries of Iowa Lottery proceeds: the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund.
The Veterans Trust Fund is truly an Iowa success story, and not every state has something like it. The Trust Fund was established here in Iowa to provide state help to veterans and their families over and above the federal veterans benefits. Iowa veterans and their families who can’t find help through other programs can apply for help through the Trust Fund for things like dental care, job training, individual or family counseling, and emergency housing and car repairs.
To date, the lottery has raised nearly $32.4 million for the Veterans Trust Fund. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of all Iowa Lottery tickets is dedicated to the Trust Fund, and that’s money specifically for Iowa veterans and their families.
The Iowa Lottery will be at the State Fair on the Grand Concourse on Monday, Aug. 16, in the big white exhibition tent in front of the Service Center. Our booth will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. that day, and we’ll be selling and cashing tickets in our scratch games, lotto games like Powerball and Mega Millions, and InstaPlay games. If you buy at least $10 in tickets that day, you can spin the prize wheel to win merchandise prizes.
We’ll have all 15 scratch games available that are eligible for our Million Dollar $ummer promotion, which has a top prize of $1 million, just like the name says! We’ll also have the games eligible for our Prize Zone promotions for a Brett Young concert package or tickets at the Iowa Lottery Ironmen Patio for the Hawkeye football game Oct. 9 vs. Penn State or Nov. 13 vs. Minnesota.
We’ll be able to help folks that day who want to enter the promotions through our VIP Club.
And if you’re an Iowa veteran or the family member of a veteran looking for more information about the Veterans Trust Fund, here is quick background about how the Trust Fund process works: The Iowa Lottery raises proceeds for the Trust Fund, but it’s the Iowa Commission of Veterans Affairs that makes decisions about the grants that are given out from the fund.
Anyone who wants to apply for help from the Trust Fund will need to fill out an application at their county Veterans Service Office (there’s a service office in each of Iowa’s 99 counties).
You can learn more by going to va.iowa.gov, the website for the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs, and clicking on the “Benefits” tab. Or you can call the VA in Johnston at 800-838-4692.
Here’s a Q-and-A we had on Facebook with a man who wondered where Iowa Lottery scratch tickets are printed, and specifically, why some come from outside the United States.
The man was correct in his posting: Some of the lottery tickets we sell here in Iowa are printed in Canada. Overall, there are just a handful of companies in the entire world that meet the security requirements and have the advanced printing techniques necessary to print lottery tickets.
The Iowa Lottery has contracts to print scratch games with all three of the companies that supply those tickets in the U.S. market. Two of the companies are headquartered in the United States (in Georgia and Rhode Island specifically) and one is based in Winnipeg, Canada. Each of the companies has licensed products and patented processes that only they can provide. And to offer our players the widest variety in our games, we have working relationships with all three companies.
(The Iowa Lottery’s pull-tab games, by the way, are printed right here in Iowa in Council Bluffs by American Games.)
With Monday drawings being added later this month in Powerball®, remember that a countdown is underway on the number of drawings in the game you can buy tickets for in advance. It’s a standard procedure when a major update is made in one of our lotto games, and it’s aimed at ensuring you have valid tickets.
In lotto games like Powerball, you can buy tickets for just one drawing at a time or several drawings in a row. That decision is entirely up to you as the customer -- some people like to do their lottery shopping for multiple drawings all at once while others want to buy their tickets one at a time.
Normally, you can buy Powerball tickets for up to 10 consecutive drawings in advance here in Iowa. But with the countdown that started in late July and is still underway, after tonight’s drawing, that number will be down to five. And after Saturday’s drawing, it will be down to four.
The countdown on advance plays in Powerball will reach zero just before the first Monday drawing in the game, which will be held on Aug. 23. Once sales begin in the “new” Powerball that has three drawings each week, things will reset and you’ll be able to buy tickets for up to 10 drawings in advance again here in Iowa.
(Please note that the countdown on advance plays in Powerball does not impact the advance plays available in our other lotto games. It’s a Powerball-specific change for the next three weeks or so.)
One of the items we’re currently discussing is whether we can extend the number of drawings you can purchase plays for in advance in Iowa. We’re still looking at the details involved, but we know it’s a convenience feature for a lot of players.