A $500,000 Powerball® prize won in Mason City has reached the halfway point in its claim period, so if you’ve got a ticket you haven’t checked, now is the time!
The prize is a little unusual because it was won with Powerball’s Double Play® option, which just was added to the game in November in Iowa.
The $500,000-winning ticket was purchased at Kwik Star, 1502 S. Federal Ave. in Mason City. The prize will expire on Sept. 12 if it isn’t claimed in time.
What Is Double Play & How Does It Work?
Here’s a quick recap of Double Play: 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.
That night’s winning Double Play numbers were: 9-11-13-29-69 and Double Play Powerball 12. The Mason City ticket was the only one in the country to win a $500,000 prize that night.
Other Big Unclaimed Prizes
The Mason City prize is among four lottery prizes of at least $20,000 in Iowa that will expire by early October if they aren’t claimed in time. Here are details about the other three (listed by prize amount):
| Game | Drawing Date | Amount Won | Retailer | Expiration |
| Powerball | Dec. 16, 2023 | $50,000 | Casey's, Des Moines | June 13, 2024 |
| Powerball | April 10, 2024 | $50,000 | Hy-Vee, Des Moines | Oct. 7, 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.
If you’ve got a question about how to claim an Iowa Lottery prize, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] or 515-725-7900.
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.
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