Truth or Myth: Iowa's Age Limit To Buy Lottery Tix Is Higher Than In Most States

Here’s another entry in our Truth or Myth series to see how well you know the lottery. 

Truth or Myth: The minimum age to buy lottery tickets in Iowa is higher than for most other U.S. lotteries.

That one is true … but it wasn‘t always.

Today in Iowa, you have to be at least 21 years old to buy a lottery ticket. There are three other U.S. lotteries where that’s also the case: Arizona, Louisiana and Mississippi. And in Nebraska, the minimum legal age to buy lottery tickets is 19. The other 44 U.S. lotteries all have a minimum purchasing age of 18 for lottery tickets.

When the Iowa Lottery started in 1985, the legal minimum purchasing age was 18 for lottery tickets in our state. That remained the case for nearly a decade.

But in March 1994, as part of legislation involving several gambling issues, lawmakers raised the minimum purchasing age to 21 for lottery tickets in Iowa so there would be a universal age for all forms of gambling in our state. That age limit still applies today.

We’ll have another Truth or Myth update next month! It’s part of our efforts to keep you up on lottery details. Whether you play the lottery or not, we want everyone to have an accurate understanding of how the lottery works.