The changes to our website should make it easier for everyone to navigate the VIP Club and enter Play It Again® promotions. Things should be back to normal on the website within 24-48 hours.
Posted at 09:10 AM in Coupons, Newsletter, Play It Again, Players, Promotions, VIP Club, VIP Connection | Permalink | Comments (20)
We’ve come up with a new solution to make it easier for members of our players club to receive their monthly free-play coupons.
Now when you log into your VIP Club account, you’ll have access to several months of the VIP Connection, our players club newsletter. The most recent month’s edition will contain your monthly coupon and you can print it from there. We’ll still send out the newsletter by email as well, but this new process gives you another option to easily find it.
As you likely already know, one of the perks of being a VIP Club member is that you get a coupon every month from us here at the lottery. The coupon is good for a free play in one of our InstaPlay or lotto games – Powerball, Mega Millions, Lotto America or Lucky for Life. The VIP Club newsletter that contains the coupon is emailed out on the first business day of each month to VIP Club members who have opted-in to receive electronic communications from the Iowa Lottery.
Some of our VIP Club members have had trouble receiving their newsletter and coupon by email. In some instances, our emails were getting caught in spam filters or being blocked entirely by particular email service providers. (The providers weren’t doing anything wrong – they took the security steps necessary to best protect their members’ accounts from spam or other malicious content. But in some cases, those safeguards also prevented email from getting through that people wanted, including our monthly newsletter with coupon.)
Please note that you must be logged into your VIP Club account to access the newsletter. If you visit the VIP Club site without logging in, you won’t see the member-exclusive areas, including the link to the VIP Connection newsletter.
And remember that each VIP Club coupon has a unique, single-use code, so even if you have multiple images of your coupon, it can only be redeemed once.
Posted at 01:29 PM in Coupons, VIP Club | Permalink | Comments (8)
In the past month, we’ve heard from some members of our VIP Club who had trouble getting the barcode to display on their monthly free-play coupon, and they thought that meant the coupon couldn’t be redeemed. But there’s a work-around for that so you can still get your free play. I’m sharing the inside scoop with you here on the blog so you’ll have the details, too!
If for some reason the personalized barcode doesn’t print on your monthly VIP Club coupon or it doesn’t display when you call up the coupon on your mobile device, ask the retailer to manually enter the coupon. They’ll need to press the “Special Functions” tab on the lottery terminal’s main screen, then press the “Coupon” button on the left side the screen. That will bring up a box where they can key in the 16-digit code printed on your coupon so it can be redeemed.
Also remember that you need to present your coupon to the retailer BEFORE the ticket is printed. This month’s VIP Club coupon is for a free $1 play in Lotto America, so look for it in your VIP Club newsletter!
Posted at 03:45 PM in Coupons, Lotto America, Tickets, VIP Club | Permalink | Comments (2)
We’ve heard from several members of our VIP Club in the past week who say they haven’t received their monthly coupon for a free play and they’re wondering why.
Our monthly newsletter with the coupon in it was delivered as usual on July 3, the first business day of the month. But this is the second month into a new distribution system we’re using to send our emails. With the messages coming from a slightly different sending address, our emails containing the newsletter and coupon may be getting caught in spam filters or security settings.
The content of our emails remains the same – it’s just the sending email address that has changed. You may want to add “ialottery.wmaster@public.govdelivery.com” to your address book or the “safe senders” list within your email account to help ensure you’ll continue receiving email messages from us.
Posted at 04:30 PM in Coupons, VIP Club | Permalink | Comments (16)
We’ve heard from several players this month who haven’t received their September VIP Club free-play coupon, and we think we’ve figured out why.
Nearly all those who contacted us have Mediacom or CenturyLink (formerly Qwest) email accounts. Mediacom, CenturyLink and other email service providers routinely update their spam filters to help their customers avoid malicious emails. It appears that the latest security upgrades have kept our emails from getting through. It’s a situation we’ve seen a few times through the years with different service providers as they do their best to protect their customers’ accounts.
If your VIP Club account is linked to an email address that ends in @mchsi.com, @mediacombb.net, @q.com or @centurylink.net, you most likely have not received your coupon for a free play this month. The lottery’s email to you likely got caught at the administrative level by those service providers.
We’ve found a work-around to get the monthly newsletter and free-play coupon through to players with email addresses from those providers. If you haven’t received your coupon yet, please email us at Wmaster@ialottery.com and we’ll try our best to send it to you.
And we’ll keep investigating possible options for better delivery of coupons to our VIP Club members. We know you enjoy getting the coupons and we want them to make it through!
Posted at 01:47 PM in Coupons, Players, VIP Club | Permalink | Comments (6)
Here’s a head’s up for members of our player loyalty program or anyone interested in receiving a free-play coupon each month from the lottery: Beginning in January, the monthly coupons we send out will be included in our VIP Club newsletter.
Our December free-play coupons to members of our VIP Club just got emailed out today, and at the top of each coupon, we included a message in red. It tells people that beginning next month, we’ll include the coupon in the VIP Connection newsletter. We’re trying to help cut down on electronic clutter – and by making the change, that’s one less email in your inbox. Hey, every little bit helps, right?
Some folks who got the coupon today have emailed us back, asking how they can sign up for the VIP Connection newsletter. The quick answer is: You don’t need to, because you’re already getting it.
The monthly coupon and newsletter both are sent to members of our VIP Club who accept electronic communications from us at the Iowa Lottery. Both emails come from our Webmaster address (wmaster@ialottery.com), so if you’ve been receiving one of them, the other is also being sent to the same email address that you used in your VIP Club account.
If for some reason you haven’t been seeing the newsletter, please check your spam folder, and look through your inbox again. And, be sure to add our Webmaster address to your contacts or safe senders list. That can help ensure that our emails make it through to you.
If you’re interested in signing up for the VIP Club, click here! And starting next month, members of the club will receive their coupon in their newsletter on the first business day of the month.
Posted at 04:34 PM in Coupons, Players, VIP Club | Permalink | Comments (6)
We’ve been getting questions lately about the monthly coupons we offer to members of our VIP Club, so I’ll try to clear things up here. Several people have emailed or called us recently asking if we discontinued this service because they hadn’t received a coupon in their email yet.
As you likely already know, one of the perks of being a VIP Club member is that you get a coupon every month from us here at the lottery. These coupons are good for one free-play in one of our lotto games – Powerball®, Mega Millions®, Hot Lotto® or All or Nothing™. These coupons are emailed at the beginning of each month to VIP Club members who’ve opted-in to receive electronic communication from the Iowa Lottery – more on that later.
We’ve offered this perk for several years now and we have no plans to discontinue it. Many of you have told us that you enjoy this VIP Club membership perk and we try our best to make sure that a free-play coupon successfully arrives to your email inbox each month.
If you’re a VIP Club member and haven’t received your coupon this month, several things could be happening. First, make sure that you’ve chosen to receive electronic communication from us. To do this, login to your VIP Club account and then click on the “Manage Profile” link on the left-hand side of your screen - you can update your contact information as well as your email preferences on this webpage. Remember, since the coupons are emailed out, you’ll need to click the circle marked “Yes” to make sure you receive electronic communication.
Also, be sure and check your “spam” or “junk” folders for the coupon. Sometimes the coupons get caught in your spam filter and you might not see it right away if you don’t regularly check your spam messages. It’s a good idea to add the email address WMaster@ialottery.com to your contacts lists to help with this.
We also know that sometimes email service providers block our coupons from reaching your email address because they believe the coupons are potentially malicious. If this has happened to you, we’ll gladly try again to send you your coupon, just send a quick email to WMaster@ialottery.com and we’ll resend your unique coupon to you.
Thanks for being a member of our VIP Club and good luck!
Posted at 11:28 AM in Coupons, FAQs, Promotions, VIP Club | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Our monthly coupons for free plays just went out last week to our VIP Club members and as people are redeeming their coupons, a question has come up.
This month's coupon is for a free Powerball® play. Some VIP Club members have asked if they can choose their own numbers when they use the coupon or if it is just for an easy-pick play. The short answer is that you can use the coupon to make either type of play. But there are some limitations when it comes to using your coupon and picking your own numbers.
You can only redeem your VIP Club coupon for one free play (panel A on a play slip) and you can't add additional plays or the Power Play® option and still use the coupon. We try to give you options when it comes to using your coupons, but there are limitations on the features we can build into them.
The same is true for the VIP Club coupons we offer in our other lotto games: You can't add any additional plays or "extras" like the Megaplier® or Sizzler® options.
We offer free plays in different lotto games each month with our VIP Club coupons. So if you haven't joined our free VIP Club, just click on the VIP Club link on our website and the information about how to join is all right there. Then you can start receiving a coupon for a free play each month, too!
Posted at 09:59 AM in Coupons, VIP Club | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
If you have a Gmail account, you’ve likely noticed by now that Gmail changed the look of its inboxes, creating tabs for the different categories of emails you receive. The change likely means that you’ll find your monthly coupons from the Iowa Lottery and our other emails in a different place than you did before. So, if you’re not seeing emails from us, we’re not ignoring you! You just may need to look around a little more.
Gmail announced the change to its inbox design in a blog post on May 29. Just like other tech changes these days, the update has generated a lot of buzz -- some people love it, others hate it.
By default, most Gmail inboxes now have three main tabs: Primary, Social and Promotions. The emails you receive are grouped into those categories and listed under the separate tabs.
The Primary tab contains emails from your contacts and other emails that Gmail doesn’t think are spam.
The Social tab contains notifications about Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media platforms.
The Promotions tab is where special offers from stores and likely our coupons and emails are ending up. To find your emails from the Iowa Lottery, you’ll likely need to open your inbox, then click on the promotions tab. And if they’re not under that tab, search under the other tabs or in the spam folder to see if our emails have ended up there.
If you don’t like the new inbox design, the Gmail blog post from May includes information about how you can switch back to the classic view. Or, if you want to keep the new design, you can always drag our emails from the promotions tab and drop them in the primary tab. That way, our messages should be routed back to your primary area.
Hope that helps so we can stay connected with you!
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Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…THE WINNERS!
Congratulations to:
1) JoAnn Lopez
2) Beverly Steuerwald
3) Shirley Thede
Each of these three winners will receive $20 in Mega Millions coupons!
We’ll notify the winners by phone and/or email to claim their prize. We’ll need to verify each winner’s information so we can send out their prize packs!
Winners will have until 4 p.m. (CST) on Tuesday, Sept. 4, to verify their information with us in order to claim their prize. We’ve also selected alternate names in case any of the winners don’t contact us within the specified amount of time.
Thanks to everyone who entered the August Facebook contest.
Mark your calendars now for
September’s Facebook contest set for 11 a.m. (CST) Sept. 24.
We sure hope you can join us!
Posted at 01:32 PM in Claiming Prizes, Contests, Coupons, Facebook, Games, Iowa Lottery, Mega Millions, Winners | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…the winners!
Congratulations to:
1) Amy Westhoff
2) Joshua Follman
3) Nancey Schneider
Each of these three winners will receive $10 in Mega Millions coupons and some pretty stellar lottery swag!
We’ll notify the winners by phone and/or email to claim their prize. We’ll need to verify each winner’s information so we can send out their prize packs!
Winners will have until 4 p.m. (CST) on Tuesday, May 29, to verify their information with us in order to claim their prize. We’ve also selected alternate names in case any of the winners don’t contact us within the specified amount of time.
Thanks to everyone who entered the May Facebook contest.
Mark your calendars now for
June’s Facebook contest set for 10 a.m. (CST) June 18.
That’s right! We’re mixing things up again so please note the new time.
We sure hope you can join us!
Posted at 09:19 AM in Contests, Coupons, Facebook, Iowa Lottery, Mega Millions, Social Media, Winners | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Are you ready for a MEGA contest? Our next Facebook contest is coming up, and we’ll be giving you a chance to win free plays in Mega Millions.
Per a few player requests, we’re trying out some new times for our contests. So our contest this month is set for 7 p.m. (CST) on Tuesday (May 22). We’ll be asking you a lottery-related question on the Iowa Lottery’s Facebook page under the “Lottery Contest” tab.
This time, we’re giving away three sets of $10 in Mega Millions coupons and some pretty stellar lottery swag!
To be eligible to enter, just “Like” us on Facebook – it’s free to create an account. Then give us the correct answer to our super-easy contest question and you’ll be entered for a chance to win one of the prize packs.
At 7 p.m. Tuesday, we’ll pose our question on the Lottery’s Facebook page under the “Lottery Contest” tab located under our cover photo. When the man on the Lottery Contest tab turns green and says “Enter Now!” that’s your cue to enter. Click the tab, read the question, fill in the entry form and your answer and click “submit” during the 15-minute window and you’ll be entered. It’s just that easy!
Important Note: The question will NOT appear on our Facebook “Wall.” You’ll need to click the Lottery Contest tab to see it! We recommend visiting our Facebook page early so you can make sure everything is working for you and you can easily locate the tab. Also, if you’re viewing our Facebook page on a smartphone, you will need to use the Desktop view in order to see the Lottery Contest tab. It does not appear in the mobile application view.
We’ll select three winners from all correct answers submitted. Then we’ll blog about the winners here, update the Lottery Contest tab on our Facebook page and link to the blog entry on Twitter.
We’ll notify the winners by phone and/or email to claim their prize. If you’re one of the winners, we’ll need to verify your information so we can send out your prize pack!
Winners will have until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, May 29, to verify their information with us to claim their prize. We’ll also select alternate names in case any of the winners don’t contact us within the specified amount of time.
A few other details:
• You must live in Iowa.
• You must be at least 21 years old to enter.
• There’s no purchase necessary to enter or win.
• Only one entry per person. Duplicates will not count.
And now for the fine print: This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to the Iowa Lottery and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for lottery purposes. The risk of loss for electronic misdelivery, late delivery or failure of receipt for information entered electronically remains with entrant regardless of the cause of the transmission failure.
Posted at 02:50 PM in Contests, Coupons, Facebook, Iowa Lottery, Mega Millions, Social Media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…the winners!
Congratulations to:
1) Jennie Enos
2) Joe Lancaster
3) Steve Ramirez
Each of these three winners will receive $20 in Mega Millions coupons!
We’ll notify the winners by phone and/or email to claim their prize. We’ll need to verify the winner’s information so we can send out their prize packs!
Winners will have until 4:30 p.m. (CT) on Monday, Feb. 27, to verify their information with us in order to claim their prize. We’ve also selected alternate names in case any of the winners don’t contact us within the specified amount of time.
Thanks to everyone who entered the February Facebook contest.
Mark your calendars now for
March’s Facebook contest set for 11 a.m. (CT), March 19.
Spread the word!
Posted at 01:18 PM in Contests, Coupons, Facebook, Iowa Lottery, Mega Millions, Winners | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Head’s up! Our next Facebook contest is coming up, and we’ll be giving you a chance to win free plays in Mega Millions!
Our contest this month is set for 11 a.m. (CST) on Monday (Feb. 20). Very similar to our monthly Twitter contests, we’ll be asking you a lottery-related question on the Iowa Lottery’s Facebook page under the “Lottery Contest” tab.
This time, we’re giving away some “mega” prizes: three prize packs of $20 each in Mega Millions coupons!
To be eligible to enter, just “Like” us on Facebook – it’s free to create an account. Then give us the correct answer to our super-easy contest question and you’ll be entered for a chance to win one of the prize packs.
At 11 a.m. Monday, we’ll pose our question on the Lottery’s Facebook page under the “Lottery Contest” tab located on the left-hand side of our page. Click the tab, read the question, fill in the entry form and your answer and click “submit” during the 15-minute window and you’ll be entered. It’s just that easy!
Important Note: The question will not appear on our Facebook “Wall.” You’ll have to click the Lottery Contest tab to see it!
We’ll select three winners at our office. Then we’ll blog about the winners here, update the Lottery Contest tab on our Facebook page and link to the blog entry on Twitter.
We’ll notify the winners by phone and/or email to claim their prize. We’ll need to verify the winner’s information so we can send out their prize packs!
Winners will have until 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 27, to verify their information with us in order to claim their prize. We’ll also select alternate names in case any of the winners don’t contact us within the specified amount of time.
A few other details:
• You must be at least 21 years old to enter.
• You must live in Iowa.
• Only one entry per person. Duplicates will not count.
• There’s no purchase necessary to enter or win!
And now for the fine print: This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to the Iowa Lottery and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for the lottery’s Facebook contest. The risk of loss for electronic misdelivery, late delivery or failure of receipt for information entered electronically remains with entrant regardless of the cause of the transmission failure.
Posted at 11:00 AM in Contests, Coupons, Facebook, Iowa Lottery, Mega Millions, Players, Social Media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
We've been getting some questions lately about the monthly coupons available in our VIP club, so I'll try to clear things up here.
As you likely already know, one of the perks of being a VIP Club member is that you get a coupon every month from us here at the lottery.
When you sign up for your free VIP Club account, you can opt to check the box to receive electronic communication from the Iowa Lottery. Coupons are part of those electronic communications, so check the box to get yours!
Our coupons are emailed to VIP Club members in photo-form. It’s a good idea to add the email address WMaster@ialottery.com to your contacts list so it doesn't get caught in your spam filter. When your coupon arrives, you may need to right-click and click on "Show Pictures" to get the bar code to show. Then all you need to do is print it off and take it to your favorite retailer!
Coupons are sent at the beginning of every month. They're good until the end of that month and then you get a new one the next month. So if you know someone who's new to club and says they haven't gotten their coupon yet, tell them just to hang tight! If they signed up after the beginning of the month, they'll get their first coupon at the beginning of the following month. So if you sign up today, you'll get your first coupon Feb. 1 since January's coupon has already gone out.
Posted at 07:30 AM in Coupons, VIP Club | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)