ialottery blog

WOW!! 0-0-0-0 Hits In Pick 4, Big Prizes Won All Across The State

Wow, today’s Pick 4 results! They show just how popular “quads” are in the game.

The winning numbers in today’s midday Pick 4 drawing were 0-0-0-0, and multiple Iowa Lottery players matched all 4 numbers to win prizes ranging from $6,000 up to $60,000! There of course were lots of smaller winners as well, but those were the top of the list.

Plays in Pick 4 cost 50 cents up to $5. The more you bet, the more you can win. The largest prizes in today's drawing were won with plays ranging in price from $2 up to $5. One ticket for today's drawing had two $5 plays on it, and each won a $30,000 prize.

I’ve blogged before about the popularity of plays containing identical numbers in our Pick 3 and Pick 4 games. Those are combinations like 2-2-2 in Pick 3 and 5-5-5-5 in Pick 4. They’re called “trips” in Pick 3 and “quads” in Pick 4, and they’ve always been some of the most popular plays in those games.

When those winning numbers are selected in a drawing, the results can be eye-catching, just like today. It’s happened before, like when 7-7-7-7 hit in Pick 4 back in October, or 5-5-5-5 hit in Pick 4 2021.

Here are the locations of the big winners in today’s midday Pick 4 drawing:

$60,000 prize
Hy-Vee Drugstore, 1520 Sixth St. SW in Cedar Rapids

$30,000 prize
QuikTrip, 2300 ML King Jr. Parkway in Des Moines

$24,000 prize
Casey’s, 2245 Karr Ave. in Early

$12,000 prize
Kwik Star, 10912 Douglas Ave. in Urbandale
Athertons Phillips 66, 2900 W. Broadway in Council Bluffs

$6,000 prize
Macs, 1530 N. Second St. in Clinton
QuikTrip, 2300 ML King Jr. Parkway in Des Moines
Liquor Tobacco & Vape, 122 S. Second St. in Clinton
QuikTrip, 4575 NW Second St. in Des Moines
Kwik Star, 1800 Blairs Ferry Road NE in Hiawatha
QuikTrip, 849 Army Post Road in Des Moines
QuikTrip, 1424 E. Euclid Ave. in Des Moines
Hy-Vee, 1107 SE Army Post Road in Des Moines
Hy-Vee, 1990 Grand Ave. in West Des Moines
Neighborhood Mart, 2100 Lafayette St. in Waterloo

Players have up to 90 days from the date of the drawing to claim Pick 4 prizes in Iowa.

How Are The Jackpot Amounts Determined In InstaPlay Progressive Games?

A man reached out to us this week with a question about the jackpot amounts in our progressive InstaPlay games, and I’m sharing our answer here in case you’ve wondered the same thing.

The man specifically asked how the jackpot amount is determined in the Super 7s Progressive InstaPlay game. But the same process applies to the jackpots in any of our progressive InstaPlay games. You may already know this, but those games are called progressive because their jackpots have a starting amount (just like the jackpots Powerball® and Mega Millions®) and grow progressively larger with each ticket sold statewide until they’re won.

The Details Of The Jackpot

In the case of Super 7s Progressive, its jackpot starts at $50,000 and grows from there, increasing by $3 with each ticket sold statewide in the game.

InstaPlay games are like scratch games, but their plays are left in electronic form rather than having a pre-printed supply of tickets. An electronic file of plays exists in an InstaPlay game, and winning tickets are randomly distributed throughout that file. When you buy an InstaPlay ticket, you get the next available play at the top of the file.

The exact amount involved when the jackpot is won in a progressive InstaPlay game depends upon where the jackpot-winning ticket is within the electronic file. Some jackpots won in the game will be larger, based upon where that particular jackpot-winning ticket falls within the file, and some will be smaller, for the same reason.

As a security feature, not even those of us who work at the lottery know where the winning tickets are within our games, so no one can predict when or where the next big winner will hit.

The jackpot in Super 7s Progressive is therefore a combination of the game’s starting jackpot amount and the number of tickets purchased up until that particular jackpot is won.

And remember that as with any of our games, the top prize is just one of the prize levels available. For example, in addition to the jackpot players can win prizes in Super 7s Progressive ranging from $30 to $10,000, so a big percentage of the money spent on tickets in the game goes to pay prizes.

The Details For Each Progressive Game

Here are the jackpot details in all of the Iowa Lottery’s progressive InstaPlay games:

• In the $30 Super 7s Progressive game, the jackpot starts at $50,000 and grows by $3 with each ticket sold statewide until it is won.
• In the $20 Extreme Green Progressive game, the jackpot starts at $20,000 and grows by $2 with each ticket sold.
• In the $10 JACKPOT PARTY® Progressive game, the jackpot starts at $10,000 and grows by $1 with each ticket sold.
• In the $5 MONOPOLY™ Game Tokens Progressive game, the jackpot starts at $5,000 and grows by 35 cents with each ticket sold.
• In the $5 Jumbo Bucks Progressive game, the jackpot starts at $5,000 and grows by 35 cents with each ticket sold.
• In the $2 Cherry Twist Progressive game, the jackpot starts at $2,000 and grows by 15 cents with each ticket sold.
• In the $1 Loose Change Progressive game, the jackpot starts at $650 and grows by 8 cents with each ticket sold.

Those amounts are programmed into the prize structure of the game itself, and the lottery does not adjust the prize structure once it has been implemented.

2023 ® & © Light & Wonder, Inc. or one of its subsidiaries.
MONOPOLY TM, ® & © 1935, 2024 Hasbro

I accidentally tore my ticket! Can I still claim my prize?

A player reached out to us this week who was worried about a damaged ticket. He wanted to know: Can a ticket still be checked or cashed if the QR code on it that normally would be scanned is damaged or missing?

Many times, yes. But there are limits.

The player said that as he was playing his ticket, he scratched it a little too hard. He ended up accidentally tearing the QR code on the ticket that usually is scanned to check the results. He worried he wouldn’t be able to claim his prize without that code.

In his case, we were able to help and he claimed his prize!

Here is the background about how that happened.

Each lottery ticket has identifying numbers on it that manually can be entered on a lottery terminal to check the results of the ticket if its QR code is damaged or missing. (In the image of the damaged ticket you can see above, we put a blue box around the identifying numbers.)

As a player, you can’t key in the numbers on your own by using the lottery’s mobile app on your smart device or at a self-service kiosk or self-checker in a store. The QR code is required in each of those instances.

But if the QR code can’t be read and the rest of the ticket is still in good condition, a clerk in a retail location or a staffer at one of our lottery offices should be able to check the results by manually entering the ticket’s identifying numbers on a lottery terminal.

If the clerk at your local store doesn’t know how to do that, they can always call the Iowa Lottery’s retail hotline for help. And you’re always welcome to visit one of our offices or send your ticket to us at the lottery for us to try to check it.

But there are limits!

If a ticket is too badly damaged, not even we’ll be able to determine its results.

Through the years, we’ve seen tickets that were just a ball of mush after being put through the wash. Others were ripped up, and the player only had a small piece of the ticket that didn’t have any identifying numbers on it. A woman once microwaved her lotto ticket after getting water on it, thinking that would dry it out. It worked – but also turned the heat-sensitive paper solid black.

In each of those examples, there was no way for anyone to read the results of the tickets involved.

We’ll always do our best to help, but as is the case with any paper product, lottery tickets can be damaged. It’s important to keep your tickets in as good of shape as possible so you can claim any prize you’ve won!

As He’s Planning To Open A New Business, Storm Lake Man Wins Nearly $300K

A Storm Lake man says his big lottery win has come at the perfect time, just as he’s planning to open a new business.

Alexander Perez won an InstaPlay prize of nearly $300,000! He says the moment got him thinking about the dreams he has together with his wife and family.

Alexander, who is 50, currently own his own garage in Storm Lake to service and repair vehicles, but is in the process of switching fields, planning to open a new business in heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

The story of Alexander’s lottery win began on Monday with a need for coffee. They were out of coffee at home, so he stopped that morning at Midtown, 1100 E. Fifth St. in Storm Lake, for some java. While he was there, he bought a ticket in the Extreme Green Progressive InstaPlay game, then went on to work.

He checked his ticket after he arrived and kept looking at the results to try to believe what he was seeing. Then he thinks he may have had a brief panic attack because he was having trouble breathing. Alexander says he called his wife, who got him to calm down.

Alexander won the Extreme Green Progressive jackpot, which at the time had climbed to $295,300. The game’s big prize had been growing for more than three months to reach that level. Prior to his win, it was last hit Feb. 2 with a ticket purchased in Norwalk.

Alexander says he was so shaky and distracted after realizing he’d won that he decided to shut his garage for the day. He went home and walked around, trying to absorb what a different kind of day it was!

As he claimed his prize yesterday at lottery headquarters in Clive, Alexander said his lottery win was sinking in. He said the idea of winning the lottery is something that’s always in your mind – that maybe someday it could be you. And this time, it IS him!

Player Question: The Megaplier seems to come up a lot as 3. Is something wrong?

A player who called us this week thought something had gone wrong with the Megaplier® option in the Mega Millions® game. The short answer is: Nothing is wrong. But here’s the background involved, in case you’ve ever wondered about the same thing.

The man said he noticed that the Megaplier number has come up as 3 a lot in recent drawings, and he wondered if that meant something is wrong. In reality, the Megaplier number is being randomly selected as usual in each Mega Millions drawing. But it is likely that the Megaplier will come up as 2 or 3 more often.

How The Megaplier Works

You may already know that you can add the Megaplier option to your play in the Mega Millions game for an extra $1, and it will multiply any prize you win, except the jackpot.

So, for example, if your ticket matches the five white balls but misses the yellow Mega Ball, you’d win a $1 million prize. But if you’ve added the Megaplier option to your ticket and the multiplier number that night is 3, your prize will be tripled to $3 million.

That’s similar to the Power Play® option in Powerball® and the All Star Bonus® option in Lotto America®. The details for each multiplier option are in the game rules available on our website.

But when it comes to Mega Millions specifically, why can 2 or 3 be chosen more often as the multiplier? It’s due to the universe of numbers available to be selected as the Megaplier option.

There are 15 numbers in the Megaplier pool. Of them, 5 are 2s, 6 are 3s, 3 are 4s and 1 is a 5. Here’s what that looks like in table form:

15 Total Numbers In Megaplier Pool
2X = 5
3X = 6
4X = 3
5X = 1

So, does it stand to reason that the Megaplier number will come up more often as 2 or 3? Yes. But the other numbers also have a shot.

The Power Play option in Powerball and the All Star Bonus option in Lotto America work in a similar way.

43 Total Numbers In Power Play Pool
2X = 24
3X = 13
4X = 3
5X = 2
10X = 1

32 Total Numbers In All Star Bonus Pool
2X = 15
3X = 10
4X = 4
5X = 3

Whether you play the lottery or not, we want everyone to have an accurate understanding of how the lottery works. Details like the ones we've provided here can help make that happen.

Check Your Tickets! Only 1 Month Left for $50,000 Powerball Prize

A $50,000 Powerball® prize won in Des Moines will expire in a month if it isn’t claimed in time, and at the Iowa Lottery, we’re reminding players to double-check their tickets!

The Des Moines prize is among five lottery prizes of at least $20,000 that are currently unclaimed in Iowa. They’ll all expire by early October if they aren’t claimed in time.

The $50,000 Powerball prize has the earliest expiration date on that list. It was won in the Powerball drawing on Dec. 16 and is set to expire on June 13. The winning ticket was purchased at Casey’s, 3725 Beaver Ave. in Des Moines, for the Powerball drawing on Dec. 16. It matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball to win a $50,000 prize.

The winning Powerball numbers in that night’s drawing were 3-9-10-20-62 and Powerball 25. The Power Play® number was 3.

What’s the largest current unclaimed prize in Iowa?

The largest prize currently unclaimed in Iowa is a $500,000 Powerball Double Play® prize won in March in Mason City. That particular prize is a little more unusual because Double Play is a new option in the Powerball game.

The Powerball Double Play option made its Iowa debut in November. For an extra $1 per play, players can add the Double Play option to their Powerball tickets. (A Powerball play costs $2, and with Double Play added, a ticket costs $3.) The numbers on that ticket are then eligible to win twice – once in the regular Powerball drawing, and once in a separate Double Play drawing that same night.

It’s possible for a player to win a prize in the regular Powerball drawing and the Double Play drawing on the same night.

In the case of the Mason City ticket, it matched the first five numbers but missed the Double Play Powerball in the Double Play drawing on March 16 to win a $500,000 prize. It was the only ticket in the country to win a $500,000 prize that night.

The lucky ticket was purchased at Kwik Star, 1502 Federal Ave. in Mason City. It will expire on Sept. 12 if the prize is not claimed in time.

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

Game	Drawing Date	Amount Won	Retailer	Expiration
Powerball	April 10, 2024	$50,000	Hy-Vee, Des Moines	Oct. 7, 2024
InstaPlay	May 10, 2024	$38,851.35	Kwik Star, Davenport	Aug. 8, 2024
Mega Millions	March 26, 2024	$20,000	Kum & Go, Ankeny	Sept. 23, 2024

While all of the prizes need to be claimed at an Iowa Lottery office, the $500,000 prize in particular has to be claimed at lottery headquarters in Clive. Prize-claim hours at lottery offices are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday, with offices closed on state holidays.

What happens to unclaimed prize money in Iowa?

In the last fiscal year (FY 2023), more than $1.7 million in lotto and InstaPlay prizes expired in Iowa without being claimed.

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.

Player Question: Am I supposed to get a receipt when I buy tickets?

Here’s a question we haven’t seen before, and the answer to it involves an interesting twist. A player reached out to ask if he is supposed to get a receipt when he buys lottery tickets.

The answer to that part is no. The purchase price is clearly marked on the front of each ticket you buy, so you can easily determine if the tickets you’re buying add up to the total you’re asked to pay.

But receipts are involved when you check a ticket on a lottery terminal or self-service kiosk. The receipts are a security feature to help verify that you’ve been
paid the correct prize amount. If you ever have a question about the outcome of a ticket you've checked, remember to ask for your receipt.

In the case of a winning ticket, two receipts are automatically generated – one for the player and the other for the retailer. Both show the amount of the prize won on that ticket. In the case of a nonwinning ticket, only a player receipt is available.

How You Know The Receipt Matches Up With The Ticket

There are identifying numbers on the receipt and ticket that match up so you can check that the receipt you receive really is for the ticket you checked.

If the receipt is for a scratch or InstaPlay ticket, information on the receipt shows the game, pack and ticket number for the ticket involved. Those same numbers are printed on the back of each scratch ticket and at the top of each InstaPlay ticket, so you can check the receipt against the ticket to be sure they match.

If the receipt is for a lotto ticket in a game like Powerball® or Mega Millions®, the identifying serial number for your ticket is printed in the upper left of the receipt. That same serial number is printed in the middle of your ticket itself. So again, you can check the receipt against the ticket to be sure they match.

Receipts are not involved for the Iowa Lottery’s pull-tab tickets because they already include “built-in receipts.” Any prize won on a pull-tab is already printed under the tabs on the ticket so the amount involved is very clear.

New Lottery Promo Offers Chance To Win Tickets With Your Crew To INDYCAR Races + Concerts

Players in 3 Iowa Lottery scratch games have a chance to win tickets in a luxury suite at this summer’s Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race Weekend in Newton!

We’re calling our newest promotion Concerts & Cars with a Crew because the winners won’t just get tickets for themselves for INDYCAR racing and concerts at Iowa Speedway. They’ll win a set of 4 tickets so they can take their favorite crew with them for an exclusive day of fun!

We’re giving away 11 sets of 4 tickets in a VIP suite for each day of the Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race Weekend at Iowa Speedway.

The promotion’s entry period opened this morning and runs through 9:59 a.m. on June 19. We’ll hold the promotion’s drawings on June 20.

First up will be 11 sets of 4 suite tickets with food and full hospitality for the INDYCAR races on July 13 plus – new this year – VIP infield access near the stage for the pre- and post-race concerts. The headline performers that day are Luke Combs and Eric Church.

Then we’ll select the winners of 11 sets of 4 suite tickets with food and full hospitality for the INDYCAR races on July 14 plus VIP infield access near the stage for the post-race concerts. Kelsea Ballerini and Post Malone will both perform after that day’s races.

You can enter the promotion with eligible tickets from any of these $20 scratch games: Lucky 7 Bonus, Lucky Numbers Gamebook and Payline. You’ll select the Race Weekend date of your choice when you make a promotion entry.

Remember that to enter the promotion, you’ll need to join or already be a member of the lottery’s free VIP Club.

Good luck in the promotion, and maybe we’ll see YOU this summer at the INDYCAR Race Weekend!

Celebrating With 2 Repeat Lottery Winners In 2 Days!

Two big winners we’ve met before both came to see us to claim more prizes this week!

First up was Allen Walker of Algona, who claimed a top prize of $300,000 on Tuesday in the “Ruby Red Crossword” scratch game. He also won a $100,000 prize in a different Crossword game in November. Allen bought both of his winning tickets at the Hy-Vee store at 1500 U.S. Highway 169 N. in Algona.

Allen said he had a little trouble figuring out what he’d won on his latest lucky ticket. He knew he had a lot of words on his Ruby Red Crossword ticket, but as he tried to count them, he kept coming up with different numbers. So he got out a notepad and wrote them each down, and then he realized he’d won the game’s top prize!

Allen, a retired veteran, said he plans to invest most of his winnings, but will set some aside for home repairs and to buy a new vehicle.

The day after Allen claimed his prize, we got to again celebrate with Cheryl Singleton of Valley, Neb. Cheryl claimed a total of $29,250 in Pick 4 prizes yesterday. She won her prizes on three different plays for Tuesday’s evening Pick 4 drawing.

Cheryl said the numbers she played – 1-9-2-2 – have a special meaning for her: They represent the year that her great-grandmother was born. She said she plans to put her winnings into savings.

Cheryl also won $36,000 in Pick 4 prizes in a drawing in October. She bought the winning tickets that brought her big wins at two different Casey’s stores in Carter Lake and Council Bluffs.

Congratulations again to Allen and Cheryl! May your lottery luck continue!