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!
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