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.

Comments

[Wade Frank Standifer]

The time period to select the payment option for the Lotto America jackpot should also be 180 days.

[Mary Neubauer]

Hi, everyone. Appreciate you sharing your thoughts regarding the upcoming change to the claim period. As I had said in an earlier comment, we anticipate that the change will be made in March, and we'll have more information as that time comes closer. Regarding the idea of some tickets never expiring, that concept is not possible from a security or an I.T. perspective. Lottery equipment today can't process plays from years ago, so it would not be possible for tickets from the early days of the lottery to even be scanned and paid today. And regarding the question of folks who travel during the winter, a 180-day claim period is essentially six months, so that would still allow plenty of time for someone traveling for just a few months.

[Ray Garris]

I do not like it. We were thinking about heading South, for 3 Months, this change would NOT work for us, because we sometimes buy tickets before we leave.

[Paul Horning]

This is a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist.
There is no benefit to players in this. The reality is it is to make the lottery employees jobs easier.

Iowa is 1 of only 14 lotteries with a 365 day expiration?
So what?
Who should care what anyone else does?
The Iowa Lottery shouldn’t feel it has to follow along and do as everyone else does just to clear up the books six months earlier.

[devereaux wachtel]

I truly think that a jackpot ticket should never expire, i new a person years ago who had misplaced a ticket worth many 1,000 of dollars and never recovered the ticket before the expiration date had occurred. of course to late to cash the ticket, and to afford to get the better health care and living conditions for a seriously sick relative. I won't say what state this ticket was purchased in.