If You Had To Say What The Iowa Lottery’s Most Popular Game Is …

I can answer that in one word: Crossword.

I’m not ignoring any of our other games or the giant jackpots in Powerball® and Mega Millions®. And those DO grab a ton of attention when they climb into the stratosphere. But from a day-to-day sales perspective, it’s Crossword scratch tickets here in Iowa. And it has been for nearly 25 years!

The Iowa Lottery introduced its first Crossword scratch game on March 13, 2000. It immediately leapt to the top of the list among our scratch tickets. We’ve had at least one Crossword game on the market ever since, and Crossword is always among our top games.

Scratch games are the Iowa Lottery’s biggest product category, so that’s really saying something.

DEFINITELY Not Just One Crossword Game Today

The first Crossword game here in Iowa was a $3 ticket, and for years, we stuck with that price point. But over time we branched out, and right now, we've got five Crossword games available:

• 20,000 Crossword, a $2 game
• $30,000 Crossword, a $3 game
• $50,000 Super Crossword, a $5 game
• $100,000 Mega Crossword, a $10 game
• Ruby Red Crossword, a $30 game

And if those aren't enough, we've even varied the theme a bit with the Scrabble™ Crossword Game, a $10 ticket that hit the market in February.   

Players say they like Crossword because it takes time to play. They like uncovering the words on their tickets, even if they don’t win. Not that anyone is turning down the chance to win, but they appreciate the process along the way with Crossword!

We hear you: You can definitely expect that we’ll keep Crossword among our scratch games here in Iowa!

Comments

[Sam]

Hi, Lawrence. We don't send winning tickets anywhere. Winning tickets are randomly distributed throughout each scratch game, and even we at the Iowa Lottery don't know when or where the winning tickets will surface. This is one of many security procedures we have in place to protect the integrity of our games.

Your odds of winning a prize are exactly the same no matter where you buy your ticket, but it stands to reason that there will be more winners in places where more tickets are sold.

[alice kaye risden]

Win or lose, the crossword puzzles give us more time to spend with scratch offs. Who knew a person could win $30,000.00 on a $3.00 crossword? Yep, I am a believer when I won.

[lawrence sellers]

I live in atlantic IA and I've been buying scrach tickets ever since the lottery started I play the $10 $20 $30 I buy about $100 every week but I can't win I don't think you guys send winning tickets here!

[Mary Neubauer]

Hi, Sara! Glad to hear you like that version of Crossword! And you're so right. Crossword rules here in Iowa! :)

[Sara Morgan]

Ruby Red Crossword, a $30 game