ialottery blog

These Small-Town Iowans Are Lovin’ NYC!

Update following drawing: The winner of the $1 million prize in the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year® drawing was the contestant from North Carolina, but we think Iowa's Chris Manuel gets the award for the feel-good story from her trip to New York. Chris, thank you for sharing the fun with us!    

I blogged earlier this week about our winners from tiny Swan, Iowa, who were headed to New York City – and the update today is that they’re taking it ALL in while they’re in the Big Apple!

#LifeGoals. Seriously.

Chris Manuel of Swan, a Marion County community of 76, won the trip as Iowa’s contestant in the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year drawing. She and her husband, Randy, get to see the iconic New Year’s Eve ball drop tomorrow night during an exclusive Times Square party and Chris will have a chance at the $1 million prize in the special drawing.

But for now, Chris and Randy are out and about in NYC. They’ve done a double-decker bus tour of the city, they’re seeing a performance of the Radio City Rockettes this afternoon and they’ve also got Ellis Island and Lady Liberty on their list of things to see and do.

We love to see them having so much fun!

The $1 million winner in the special Powerball drawing will be announced live on air just after midnight EST during ABC’s broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2023.”

If you want to follow along with tomorrow night's festivities, here are the times you could see Chris and the other contestants in the drawing. (All times below are for the central time zone, when we’ll see the broadcast here in Iowa.)

7 p.m. – The live broadcast on ABC begins.
7:18 p.m. – The first Powerball segment is shown.
7:55 p.m. – The first drawing is held to select 5 finalists from among the 29 nationwide contestants.
8:41 and 10:20 p.m. – On-air interviews are broadcast with the 5 finalists.
11:16 p.m. – The $1 million drawing takes place.

Good luck, Chris! We're pulling for you!

A Lottery Winner’s Trip From Swan, IA, To NYC & A Chance At $1 Million

A lottery winner from a tiny central Iowa community will spend New Year’s Eve in New York and have a chance to win a $1 million prize in a special Powerball® drawing.

Chris Manuel of Swan is among 29 nationwide finalists for the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year® drawing. The $1 million winner will be announced live on air just after midnight EST during ABC’s broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2023” from New York’s Times Square.

Chris says she’s excited for the trip, but still worries she’s being punked!

Chris, who’s 60 and a locksmith, has had a trying yet successful year, undergoing cancer surgery and radiation treatments. She said she hopes that in February, she’ll find out she’s cancer free. She said that winning the $1 million prize would mean she could retire early and enjoy time with her husband.

This is the fourth consecutive year for the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year promotion, and it’s the first time since the inaugural edition in 2019 that finalists get to travel to New York City for the event.

Chris says she’s heard from nearly everyone in her Marion County community of 76 about her sure-to-be-memorable New Year’s plans. She said there will be a lot of people watching the drawing that night!

Each of this year’s finalists won an exclusive trip for two to New York valued at more than $28,000. It includes round-trip airfare; a three-night hotel stay in Times Square; two tickets to a theater performance and other iconic NYC excursions; all meals while in New York; $1,000 spending cash; and New Year’s Eve festivities including a Times Square party and viewing of the iconic ball-drop.

Chris says that while she and her husband, Randy, are both the “camouflage and blue jeans” type, she’s gotten a manicure with dark, sparkly polish for their trip and they both went clothes shopping.

They plan to take in a lot of New York: dinner at Carmine’s Italian Restaurant in Times Square, a performance of the Radio City Rockettes, a double-decker bus tour of the city, and a ferry ride to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

They also plan to fulfill their grandson’s request for M&Ms® in every color from the M&Ms World Times Square store.

Randy Manuel, who‘s 61 and retired, describes himself as “a totally country boy.” But he says he’s looking forward to New York, even if he is a bit nervous.

Randy says he initially thought something was wrong when his wife told him she had news to share in October. But then she said they were going to New York.

Randy says Chris is pretty lucky, so he hopes her luck keeps going!

Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and New Year's Rockin' Eve are registered trademarks of DCP Rights, LLC. All rights reserved.

Scheduling Note: Iowa Lottery Offices Closed For A Few Upcoming Holiday Dates

A quick scheduling reminder: Iowa Lottery offices will be closed for a few holiday dates in the next two weeks.

Lottery offices will be closed tomorrow (Dec. 23) and Monday (Dec. 26) for the Christmas holiday weekend. And on Monday, Jan. 2, lottery offices will be closed for the New Year’s holiday.

I hope that in the coming days you can relax, spend time with family and friends, and celebrate the things you enjoy.

Happy, happy holidays!

Do I Need To Keep The Tickets I Entered? Can I Mail Them In For Your Promo?

We’ve gotten the same questions from a few different players about our “Holiday Cash Bash” promotion, so I’ll provide the answers here to share the details with everyone.

The specifics apply to any ticket you’ve entered in an Iowa Lottery promotion through your VIP Club account.

Some players have asked if they need to keep their tickets after they’ve entered them into the promotion. As in, will I need to present the ticket to claim a prize I might win in the promotion?

The short answer is no, you don’t need to keep a ticket for promotion purposes. Entering an eligible ticket into one of our promotions meets the requirement of presenting that ticket to the lottery. So, you don’t need to keep the ticket after you’ve entered it.

A couple folks also have asked if they could mail their tickets to the lottery for the promotion. The answer in that case is no. Entries into our promotions need to be made online, either through the Iowa Lottery’s website or by using our mobile app.

It’s been more than 13 years since any Iowa Lottery promotions have involved the mailing in of tickets. Our players have let us know that they prefer the convenience and time savings of online entry, so that’s what we have offered since 2009.

Such A Relatable Story: He Had To Check His Winning Ticket A BUNCH Of Times

This player’s story made me smile because it’s just so relatable. I think we can all imagine ourselves in his situation – and the disbelief we might have!

An eastern Iowa man who claimed a $10,000 prize at our Cedar Rapids office said that after he played his scratch ticket, he checked it and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. So, he scanned it three more times on the lottery’s mobile app and then went back into the gas station where he bought it to have them check it, too.

Louis Janecek II of Shellsburg said he just wanted to be sure! In the end, he realized he was the winner of a $10,000 prize. He claimed the eighth prize of $10,000 available in “The Perfect Gift” holiday scratch game.

Louis bought his winning ticket at Palo Mini Mart, 1204 First St. in Palo.

He said he plans to use his winnings to pay bills and buy Christmas gifts for his four children. Louis said his lottery win will just make everything that much nicer for the holidays.

Congratulations, Louis! I’m thinking that your big win may finally seem real by now!

Player Questions: What About The Odds In Your Holiday Games?

Now that our holiday-themed scratch games are in stores for the season, we’ve gotten player questions about the number of prizes available in them and their odds of winning.

Our holiday-themed games by design are only on the market for a short period of time – about four months. Many of our other scratch games are sold for a year or two or even longer.

We order smaller quantities of tickets in our holiday games, which means there will be a smaller number of prizes involved. But the key detail to note is that the odds of winning in our holiday games are very similar to those in our other games, so your playing experience won’t change.

“Crossword” games are always a favorite for players, so here is a list of this year’s four holiday-themed versions with their non-holiday counterparts. You’ll see how similar the odds are in them.

    • $2 games: $20,000 Holiday Crossword and Four Corners Crossword.
    • $3 games: Candy Cane Crossword and Bonus Crossword.
    • $5 games: Peng-win Crossword and $50,000 Super Crossword.
    • $10 games: Very Merry Crossword and $100,000 Mega Crossword.

In the $2 games, the $20,000 holiday game has overall odds of winning of 1 in 3.42 while its non-holiday counterpart has overall odds of 1 in 3.33.

Both of the $3 Crossword games have the exact same overall odds of winning: 1 in 3.52.

At the $5 price point, the Peng-win Crossword game has overall odds of winning of 1 in 3.34 while its non-holiday counterpart has overall odds of 1 in 3.53.

And for the $10 games, Very Merry Crossword has overall odds of winning of 1 in 3.29 compared to overall odds of 1 in 3.30 for the non-holiday version.

We do our best to keep the game designs in line with each other because we want you to have the same “feel” as you play them. We know that’s part of the fun.

Then there are the folks who say they like our non-holiday games and want to see them come back. And they will!

Our holiday-themed games will only be on the market until early January, and then our other games will cycle back onto store shelves when the holidays are over.

Powerball & Mega Millions Both Made List Of Top 10 U.S. Search Terms In 2022

Here’s an interesting new factoid: Powerball® and Mega Millions® both made the Top 10 List for U.S. search terms in 2022.

Google released its Year In Search details this week, and this is its list of Top 10 searches in the United States for 2022:

1. Wordle
2. Election results
3. Betty White
4. Queen Elizabeth
5. Bob Saget
6. Ukraine
7. Mega Millions
8. Powerball numbers
9. Anne Heche
10. Jeffrey Dahmer

The Google data shows that searches for Mega Millions spiked in July when the game’s jackpot was on its way to $1.337 billion for the drawing on July 29. That’s the second-largest jackpot ever offered in Mega Millions and the fourth-largest lottery jackpot in the world. Two people in Illinois claimed that prize.

Searches for “Powerball numbers” spiked in November when that game’s jackpot was on its way to a world-record amount of $2.04 billion for the Nov. 7 drawing. A ticket in California won that night’s giant prize.

It’s fun to see the things that got us all talking – and searching – in the past year!

Iowa Lottery Board Votes To Change Prize-Claim Deadlines in 4 Games

In an effort focused on prizes that expire without being claimed, the Iowa Lottery Board has voted today to change the Iowa prize-claim period in four multi-state games: Powerball®, Mega Millions®, Lotto America® and Lucky for Life®.

The Lottery Board’s unanimous decision will change the prize-claim deadline in those lotto games to 180 days from the date of the drawing. The current prize-claim deadline in those games is 365 days from the drawing date. That’s the longest in the United States and it’s outside the norm for the U.S. lottery industry.

The change will not take effect for some time yet. The lottery needs to successfully complete testing on its statewide gaming system before the change can be made. The lottery anticipates making the change in the first quarter of calendar year 2023 after providing notice to players.

The change has no monetary benefit to the Iowa Lottery: Under state law, the money from prizes that expire in Iowa without being claimed will continue to go back to players through the lottery’s prize pools for future games and promotions.

In the past three fiscal years, the annual total in Iowa Lottery prizes that expired without being claimed ranged from about $1.3 million to more than $1.7 million.

Lottery staff recommended the prize-claim change after nearly a year of research. The lottery’s review of recent drawings in the games found that the vast majority of claims happened within the first six months. In fact, less than 3 percent of prizes from those drawings were claimed after 180 days.

Iowa is currently one of only 14 U.S. lotteries with a 365-day deadline for a player to claim a prize in a multi-state lotto game. By contrast, 33 lotteries (including the three most populous U.S. states) require those prizes to be claimed within 180 days or six months (182 days).

The passage of time could lead some players to unintentionally throw away their tickets or for the tickets to become damaged or lost.

Time also is an important consideration from a security perspective. As time passes, it becomes more difficult for those involved to accurately recall the details of a ticket purchase and provide that information to the Iowa Lottery for verification purposes.

These are the prize-claim periods for other Iowa Lottery products, which will remain unchanged:

• Tickets in Iowa-specific lotto games (Pick 3 and Pick 4) are valid for 90 days from the date of the drawing.
• Tickets in scratch games are valid for 90 days after the announced end of the game.
• Tickets in pull-tab games are valid for 90 days after the announced end of the game.
• Tickets in InstaPlay games are valid for 90 days from the date of purchase.

$1 million Mega Millions Prize in Ames Unclaimed & Approaching 3-Month Mark

A $1 million Mega Millions® prize that is still unclaimed in Ames will hit the three-month mark tomorrow, and the Iowa Lottery is reminding its players to double-check their tickets. Seven other prizes ranging from $10,000 up to $250,000 also are unclaimed in Iowa!

The $1 million-winning Mega Millions ticket was purchased at Gateway Expresse, 2400 University Blvd. in Ames, for the game’s drawing on Sept. 6. It was the only ticket in the country that night to match the five white balls but miss the yellow Mega Ball to win at the game’s second prize level.

The winning numbers in the Sept. 6 drawing were: 6-17-46-59-68 and Mega Ball 2. The Megaplier® number was 4.

The winner or winners of the $1 million prize have until the close of business on Sept. 6, 2023, to claim it at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive.

Gateway Expresse received a $1,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the $1 million-winning ticket.

Here are details about the seven other sizeable lottery prizes in Iowa that also are unclaimed (listed by prize amount):

Game	Prize Drawing	Amount Won	Retailer	Expiration
Powerball	Oct. 15, 2022	$250,000	Murphy USA, Cedar Rapids	Oct. 16, 2023
Powerball	Oct. 29, 2022	$150,000	Floyd Food & Fuel, Sioux City	Oct. 30, 2023
Powerball	Nov. 5, 2022	$150,000	Hy-Vee C-Store, Sheldon	Nov. 6, 2023
Powerball	Nov. 7, 2022	$100,000	Casey’s, Dubuque	Nov. 7, 2023
Mega Millions	May 6, 2022	$10,000	Gas & Goodies, Libertyville	May 8, 2023
Mega Millions	July 26, 2022	$10,000	Kum & Go, Marion	July 26, 2023
Super 7s Instaplay	Dec. 3, 2022	$10,000	Haddy’s, Center Point	March 3, 2023

If the winners have questions before coming forward to claim the prizes, they are welcome to call the lottery at 515-725-7900 or email to [email protected].

The lottery currently offers prize claims by appointment at its offices. Full details are available on the lottery’s website here.

In the last fiscal year (FY 2022), more than $1.5 million in lotto and InstaPlay prizes expired in Iowa without being claimed.

Time appears to be a factor. The Iowa Lottery reviewed plays from a sampling of recent lotto drawings and found that the vast majority of prize claims occurred within six months of the drawing date. Less than 3 percent of prizes from those drawings were claimed after that point. The Iowa Lottery will continue to review how it can best encourage and remind players to claim their prizes.

The money from lottery prizes that expire in Iowa without being claimed goes into the lottery's prize pools for future games and promotions, so it will be used to pay prizes, just not those prizes that have expired.

A Reminder for the Season: Is That the Right Gift?

With the holiday season underway, we offer this gentle reminder as you’re shopping.

We know that lottery tickets will be among the items that you may give as presents and put in stockings. And here at the Iowa Lottery, we’re glad to be included in the fun!

But please remember that our tickets – while colorful, entertaining and affordable – may not be something you want to give to those underage.

That’s true for lots of products: The content of some video games and movies may not be appropriate for all ages. Alcohol and tobacco-related products have their own age restrictions. Even toys have age-recommendation guidelines.

In Iowa, you have to be at least 21 years old to buy lottery tickets, and we’ve always considered our products something for adults. You are gambling when you play the lottery.

To minimize the risks associated with youth gambling, be sure to give youngsters age-appropriate gifts. And when you give lottery tickets as presents, please keep the person's age in mind.

As always, if you or someone you know is being impacted by problem gambling, help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week by text, live chat or calling 1-800-BETSOFF (1-800-238-7633) or visiting https://yourlifeiowa.org/gambling.