Now In Effect: Prize-Claim Period Updated In 4 Popular Lottery Games

The prep work had been underway for about five months, and now a notable change in four lottery games has taken effect. When you buy tickets in Powerball®, Mega Millions®, Lotto America® and Lucky for Life® in Iowa, you now have 180 days from the date of the drawing to claim any prize you’ve won.

The change comes after analysis of prizes that expired in Iowa without being claimed. A review of recent drawings in the four games found that the vast majority of prizes were claimed within the first six months. In fact, less than 3 percent of prizes from those drawings were claimed after 180 days.

Until this weekend, the prize-claim deadline in the four games was 365 days from the drawing. After reviewing the prize-claim analysis, the Iowa Lottery worried that such a long prize-claim deadline was inadvertently causing some players to forget to claim their prizes. The passage of time may also have caused some tickets to be lost, damaged or thrown away.

The prize-claim change will hopefully mean that the maximum number of prizes won are claimed in the games.

As a lottery player in Iowa, here are the details that apply to your tickets.

In Mega Millions: Tickets purchased for Friday’s drawing (April 21) or before have a prize-claim deadline of 365 days from the drawing. Beginning with tickets purchased on Saturday (April 22), the prize-claim deadline is 180 days from the date of the drawing.

In Powerball, Lotto America and Lucky for Life: Tickets purchased for Saturday’s drawing (April 22) or before have a prize-claim deadline of 365 days from the drawing. Beginning with tickets purchased yesterday (April 23), the prize-claim deadline is 180 days from the date of the drawing.

The change has no monetary benefit to the Iowa Lottery: Under state law, the money from prizes that expire in Iowa without being claimed 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 lottery prizes that expired in Iowa without being claimed ranged from about $1.3 million to more than $1.7 million.

The prize-claim periods in the Iowa Lottery’s other games are unchanged. Here are those details:

• 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

[Pamela Hagedorn]

Why are these comments so nasty? Get a life people and stop complaining about everything.. people need to keep track if they won or not. Lottery can't keep waiting forever for them to claim their prize. I think all unclaimed money should go to the homeless, soup kitchen and the Veterans.

[Mary Neubauer]

Moderated because of bots that spam open sites, Tim. And prize money isn't used to pay employee salaries. State law requires that the money from lottery prizes that expire in Iowa without being claimed go 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.

[Tim Mitchell]

moderated? so if you dont like people posting the truth you wont post it... Nice going!

[Timothy Mitchell]

CFO $115,627; COO/Exec Director $130,915; VP External Relations $121,222; VP Marketing $107,557;V-P Legal $92,726; VP Security $107,557; VP Sales/VP Ops $96,907, here is where that money goes, don't blow smoke

[Mary Neubauer]

Hello, Dan. Here is the annual total of unclaimed prizes in Iowa -- meaning those prizes that expired without being claimed -- for the past five fiscal years. Note that that FY 2019 total is larger because that is the year that a $1 million Powerball prize expired without being claimed in central Iowa. The Iowa Lottery gave away that $1 million prize in a promotion that same year. FY 2022: $1.5 million, FY 2021: $1.3 million, FY 2020: $1.8 million, FY 2019: $2.6 million, FY 2018: $1.4 million.