ialottery blog

Where To Find The Details About The Prizes Still Out There In Our Lottery Games

Here’s something we weren’t expecting when we posted on social media earlier this month about our scratch games out there with only 1 top prize left.

Some people were shocked that we were willing to share that information. But it’s part of our job to provide details like that about our games, and in fact, they’re updated daily on the Iowa Lottery’s website.

On the Remaining Prizes page of our website, you’ll find a list of the larger prizes in our scratch, pull-tab and InstaPlay games. The list is broken out by how many of the prizes have already been claimed and the number that are still unclaimed.

We also have an Unclaimed Prizes page where you can see all the prizes of more than $600 won Iowa that still haven’t been claimed in lotto and InstaPlay games. You can search the list in several ways – by game, place of purchase, prize amount, date won, and expiration date – whichever you prefer.

We know those are important reference items that provide insight into the games we have on the market. So if you haven’t seen the details yet, please check them out!

Claimed A Big Lottery Prize Last Year? The Tax Form You’ll Need Is Being Processed

If you claimed an Iowa Lottery prize of more than $600 in calendar year 2024, the form you’ll need as you file your income taxes is being processed for mailing.

The document most winners will receive is the W-2G form. It lists the total prize amount won along with any federal and state withholdings applied to the prize. (Lottery winners who aren’t U.S. citizens receive a document called Form 1042S.)

If you claimed multiple Iowa Lottery prizes of more than $600 in 2024, you’ll get multiple forms from us, one for each prize claimed.

The deadline for all W-2G forms to be in the mail is this Friday (Jan. 31). We’re processing the forms now! Depending on the delivery time, you should receive your form in early February.

If you think you should get a tax form from us for winnings in calendar year 2024 and you've moved since you claimed your prize, please let us know your new address as soon as possible. If we don’t get that update, your tax form will be sent to the address provided when you claimed your prize.

You can call the Iowa Lottery at 515-725-7900 or email us at [email protected] if you have questions. Be sure to include your name, old address, new address, and telephone number in case we need to contact you.

Thank you again for playing the Iowa Lottery. And congrats to all our winners!

What Do YOU Call These Tickets?

We asked this question in the lottery's social media contest this month, and the split in the answers tells us to keep asking.

So, we want to know: What do you call the lottery tickets where you scratch off the security coating to see if you’ve won a prize?

Nearly 2,700 people shared their answers during our social media contest Jan. 13-15. Here’s the split:

• Scratch tickets:     50 percent (1,336 answers)
• Scratch-offs:         33 percent (885 answers)
• Scratchers:           17 percent (450 answers)
• Scratch cards:      0.8 percent (21 answers)

A few other people posted comments with even more responses, including: scratchies!

There are 48 U.S. lotteries, and there appear to be nearly that many names for this product, depending on where you live.

We asked the question because we’re curious about what Iowa players say. We don’t want to call our games something that causes confusion or doesn’t mean anything to you.

Under state law, the technical name for the product is “instant ticket” because you can find out instantly if you’ve won a prize. But through the years, that name has fallen by the wayside for more every-day references.

I don’t think we’re wrong to call them scratch tickets, but we may work in the other names from time to time!

Do YOU call those tickets something else?

Less Than A Week To Go For An Unclaimed $50,000 Powerball Prize Won In Bettendorf

Head’s up in the Quad Cities! A $50,000 Powerball® prize won months ago in Bettendorf will expire in less than a week if it isn’t claimed in time. 

The $50,000-winning ticket was purchased at Kwik Star, 2283 53rd Ave. in Bettendorf. It matched 4 of the 5 white balls and the Powerball in the game’s July 29 drawing to win a $50,000 prize. The winning numbers that night were: 11-27-30-33-44 and Powerball 16.

The prize will expire next Monday (Jan. 27) if it isn’t claimed in time. So if you've got a ticket you haven't checked yet, the clock is ticking!    

The $50,000 prize can be claimed at any Iowa Lottery office, and our prize-claim hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. So the functional deadline for this prize to be claimed is before 4 p.m. next Monday.

Players in Iowa have 180 days from the date of the drawing to claim Powerball prizes. If the prize expiration date falls on a weekend or holiday when lottery offices are closed, the winner has until the close of business on the next business day to turn in the ticket.

The money from lottery prizes won in Iowa that expire 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.

In the last fiscal year (FY 2024), nearly $5 million in lotto and InstaPlay prizes expired in Iowa without being claimed.

If you have questions about the unclaimed prize in Bettendorf, please feel free to reach out to us at the lottery at 515-725-7900 or [email protected].

2 New InstaPlay Games Debut Sunday While Another Will End Soon

Update on Tuesday, January 21: The final progressive jackpot in the Jumbo Bucks Progressive InstaPlay game had reached $23,551.75 when it was won yesterday with a ticket purchased in Stacyville. So that game now has ended.   

Hey, InstaPlay fans! Here’s a head’s up that 2 new games will debut on Sunday, while a long-time existing game is on the list to end.

These updates are the final pieces of a refresh in our InstaPlay product line that’s been underway since September. In the months since then, we’ve introduced more than a dozen new InstaPlay games while a corresponding number of older games have ended.

It’s the first major update to our InstaPlay lineup since we began offering the product back in 2016. And it’s been fun to introduce new games for you to check out and have a shot at new prizes!

The updates continue on Sunday when ticket sales begin in the Big Money Doubler Progressive and Ultimate Winnings InstaPlay games.

As the name indicates, Big Money Doubler Progressive (a $5 game) has a progressive jackpot that starts at $5,000 and grows with each ticket sold statewide in the game until it’s won. Other prizes in the game range from $5 up to $1,000.

And, Ultimate Winnings (a $20 game) features set-amount prizes ranging from $20 up to $100,000.

While we’re gearing up for those games, another InstaPlay game is scheduled to end. The $5 Jumbo Bucks Progressive InstaPlay game has been on the game-ending list since Nov. 30. But the exact date it will be removed from sale depends on when the game’s current jackpot is won.

To be fair to our players, we never want to end an InstaPlay game while its progressive jackpot is still growing. Someone should get to win that prize! So as soon as the Jumbo Bucks Progressive jackpot is won, the game will end.

As we move ahead, it will be the norm for new InstaPlay games to regularly be introduced and older games to end. But for now, the refresh over the past few months has created a fun, new mix of games for you to try!

Truth or Myth: Is There A Better Chance Of Winning When The Jackpot Is Smaller?

Here’s another Truth vs. Myth question to test your lottery smarts: Do you have a better chance of winning when the jackpot is smaller?

Some people say they think that’s true. But it’s a myth.

All the plays in a lotto game (including Powerball® and Mega Millions®) have the same odds of winning, no matter the size of the jackpot.

That’s because the odds are based solely upon the numbers available to play in the game. They DON’T change with the size of the jackpot or the number of people playing.

From a practical standpoint, how would lotteries ever be able to tell you the odds if they were based upon the jackpot amount or the number of tickets being purchased? The details would change from minute to minute.

How The Odds Work

Here’s an example of how the odds really work. In Powerball, the odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 292.2 million because that’s how many different ways you can combine the numbers available in the game to make a play. You choose 5 numbers from a pool of 1 to 69 for the white balls and another number from a separate pool of 1 to 26 for the red Powerball. There are 292.2 million ways those numbers can be combined.

Each play you buy contains 1 of those combinations. The winning numbers selected in the drawing also are 1 of those combinations. So, there are odds of 1 in 292.2 million that the numbers on your ticket will match all 6 winning numbers in the drawing to win the jackpot.

Those odds never change.

Whether or not you play, the Iowa Lottery wants everyone to have an accurate understanding of how the lottery works. This Truth vs. Myth series is part of that effort.

Minnesota Timberwolves & Iowa Wolves Ticket Packages On The Line In Lottery Promotion

Premium VIP basketball packages to see the Minnesota Timberwolves and Iowa Wolves are on the line in the new lottery promotion that opened for entries today.

The Iowa Lottery’s Feeling Lucky? It’s Timberwolves Time! promotion started at 10 a.m. today, with a total of 17 ticket prize packages up for grabs.

The promotion’s initial drawings will be for courtside-seat prize packages to 7 Iowa Wolves home games in Des Moines. And the grand-prize drawing will be for 10 VIP suite-ticket packages to the Minnesota Timberwolves-Phoenix Suns NBA game on March 28 in Minneapolis.

Members of the lottery’s free VIP Club can enter the promotion with nonwinning tickets from the “Feeling Lucky?” scratch game. Players can make promotion entries until 9:59 a.m. March 10, and there will be 3 drawing dates for the ticket prize packages.

All promotion entries not selected as winners of Iowa Wolves ticket packages will remain eligible to win the Minnesota Timberwolves ticket packages in the grand-prize drawing.

Please pay close attention to the entry deadlines involved. The Iowa Wolves games earlier in the season will be closed to entries once the deadline for them has passed.

The winners of the promotion’s first 6 prize packages will be selected in drawings on Jan. 23 and Feb. 11. Each of those prize packages is valued at nearly $1,400 and includes:

• 4 front-row seats at center court for the Iowa Wolves game the player selected when entering the promotion
• 2 VIP parking passes for that game
• Complimentary food and beverages in the Courtside Club.
  AND
• 4 courtside seats in a special Lotto Zone at the Feb. 28 Iowa Wolves game
• complimentary food and beverages in the Lotto Zone
• $500 spending money.

Also on Feb. 11, the lottery will hold a special drawing for an additional prize package to the Feb. 28 Iowa Wolves game. All entries not previously selected as a winner will be eligible for the special drawing. That prize package is valued at nearly $1,000 and includes:

• 4 front-row seats at center court for the game
• 2 VIP parking passes
• Complimentary food and beverages in the Courtside Club
• $500 spending money.

Then on March 11, the lottery will hold the promotion’s grand-prize drawing for 10 ticket prize packages to the March 28 home game of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Each of those packages is valued at more than $3,800 and includes:

• 2 suite tickets to the game at the Target Center in Minneapolis with complimentary food, water and soda in the suite
• 1-night stay with parking for the night of March 28 at a downtown Minneapolis hotel adjacent to the Target Center
• Exclusive meet-and-greet with Timberwolves center Luka Garza
• $1,000 spending money
• 2 co-branded shirts.

As part of the fun, the Iowa Lottery will sponsor Timberwolves Night on Feb. 28 when the Iowa Wolves take on the Osceola Magic in Des Moines. We’ll have more details soon about how VIP Club members can get in on that event!

Central Iowa Man Walked Around For Days With Big Winning Ticket In His Wallet

A central Iowa man walked around for days without realizing he had a lottery ticket in his wallet had won a prize of $25,000 a year for life.

Brandon Richey of Dallas Center claimed his prize today at lottery headquarters in Clive. He says he generally waits to check his lottery tickets until he has a few to scan at a time.

So nearly a week after the Lucky for Life® drawing where he won at the game’s second prize level of $25,000 a week for life, he finally checked his ticket.

Checking It Once, Checking It Twice 

Brandon says he had stopped for coffee on his way to work, and while it was brewing, he decided to check his lottery tickets.

But when the lottery self-checker displayed the amount he’d won, he had trouble believing it. So he took his ticket to another store and checked it again. The results were the same!

Brandon works as a server at a West Des Moines restaurant and says that while he arrived at work soon after that, he may have been a little off that night! He says he was probably more distracted than he should have been as he tried to absorb his lottery news.

How He Won

Brandon bought his winning ticket at Kum & Go, 3105 Grand Prairie Parkway in Waukee, for the Dec. 15 drawing in Lucky for Life.

His ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Lucky Ball to win at the game’s second prize level of $25,000 a year for life. That night’s winning numbers were: 9-12-22-36-45 and Lucky Ball 3.

Kum & Go received a $500 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the winning ticket.

Brandon chose to receive his prize in the lump-sum option of $390,000 rather than as annuity payments over time.

He says he plans to pay off bills and then invest the rest of his winnings for the future.

Iowa Winning Streak

Brandon is Iowa’s 3rd big winner in Lucky for Life in 3 months.

In November, a Des Moines man won the game’s top prize of $1,000 a day for life. And in October, another Des Moines man won at the game’s second prize level of $25,000 a year for life.

Iowa has now seen 23 winners at Lucky for Life’s top 2 prize levels since the game debuted here in January 2016.

Will The Lottery Terminal, Self-Checker & Mobile App Give the Same Results?

A player just sent us an interesting question about the lottery devices that can be used to check tickets: Will they all give the same result?

The quick answer is yes, and that’s a good security feature to keep in mind.

There are 3 devices for ticket checking in a lottery retail location:

• the lottery terminal. A clerk at the machine can check ticket results for you.
• a self-checker. This electronic scanner is usually installed away from the main cash register so you can be out of the flow of customer traffic when you use it.
• a lottery self-service kiosk. Where available, you can use a self-service kiosk to buy and check tickets on your own. (Kiosks are in about 360 of the 2,500 retail locations in Iowa where lottery tickets are sold.)

In addition, you also can use the lottery’s mobile app to check ticket results from wherever your smart device can connect online. 

The results of a lottery ticket are imbedded in the codes on the ticket itself, so any lottery device will give the same result for that ticket.

All of our devices will display the results of your ticket on the screen. If you’ve won a prize, the dollar amount will be shown. If your ticket has not won a prize, the words “not a winner” will be displayed. Printed receipts are also available from a lottery terminal or self-service kiosk.

If you think you’ve gotten a different answer about your ticket from one device to another, please take the time to verify the information you’ve received.

And if you still have questions after that, we’re glad to help. You’re welcome to reach out to us or send your ticket to us at the lottery so we can double-check it for you.