ialottery blog

I’m a snowbird, can I use my VIP Club free play where I am for the winter?

Here’s a question we just got from a member of our VIP Club who’s enjoying warmer weather for the winter. Other folks may also be out of state at times and have the same question.

The woman said she’s a snowbird currently in Florida, and she wondered if while she’s there she can use the free lottery play she gets each month for being a member of the Iowa Lottery’s VIP Club.

The short answer is no, but here’s the background involved:

We send free plays by email to our VIP Club members each month, and in this instance, the woman was checking her email from another state. We’re all often on the go these days, so we understand that you may check your email from many different places.

But in the case of our free plays, they can only be redeemed at lottery retail locations in Iowa. The free play is from the Iowa Lottery, not a lottery in another state.

From an operational perspective, lottery terminals outside of Iowa can’t redeem our free plays because they’re not programmed to read them. And from a cost perspective, we’re not asking another lottery to cover the expense of the free plays we send out. That wouldn’t be very neighborly of us!

So please know that we’ll continue to send our VIP Club members free plays each month. It’s a thank you from us to show our appreciation for you as a lottery player. You can redeem your free play anywhere in Iowa that lottery tickets are sold!

Hey, I Didn’t Get My Coupon For A Free Play This Month

It’s a fact of life that email systems these days can block messages from going through, and every month that trips up some members of our players club who are looking for their free-play coupon.

The good news is, there’s an easy work-around in case our email to you ends up getting stuck out there in cyberspace.

When you log into your VIP Club account, you have access to a few months of the VIP Connection, our players club newsletter. The most recent month’s edition will contain your monthly coupon for a free play and you can print it from there. We still send out the newsletter by email as well, but this offers 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 lotto games – Powerball, Mega Millions, Lotto America, Lucky for Life or in one of our InstaPlay games.

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.)

You can access your newsletter and coupon by logging in at ialottery.com, clicking on VIP Connection & Coupon and choosing the current month.

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.

Our VIP Club Newsletter Went Out Early & Here’s Why

The members of our VIP Club got their October newsletter and free-play coupon a few days early, and there’s a reason why.

 

We’ll be doing some maintenance on the Iowa Lottery’s website beginning on Monday, and for a period of time, members of our VIP Club won’t be able to log in to their VIP Club account and may not be able to access their monthly coupon. So, bonus for them: This month’s edition of the VIP Connection newsletter, which normally would have gone out on Tuesday (Oct. 1), was sent out today. That means they’ll have extra time to redeem the coupon inside.
 

The October free-play coupon will be valid from today through Oct. 31.

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.

 

Once we’re done with the maintenance, if you have a bookmark or shortcut to the VIP Club website, you’ll need to update it because the link involved will change slightly.

Didn’t Get Your Free-Play Coupon By Email? Now It’s On Our Website

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.

Barcode Not Showing On Your Monthly Coupon? There’s A Way Around That.

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! 

Player Mail: I Haven’t Gotten My VIP Club Coupon This Month!

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 “[email protected]” to your address book or the “safe senders” list within your email account to help ensure you’ll continue receiving email messages from us.

 

 

Player Mail: Why Haven’t I Gotten My Monthly Coupon For A Free Play?

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 [email protected] 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!

 

We’re Combining Our Monthly Coupons With Our Newsletter

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 ([email protected]), 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.

 

Help! Where's My VIP Club coupon?

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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] and we’ll resend your unique coupon to you.

Thanks for being a member of our VIP Club and good luck!

October Facebook Contest Results

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…THE WINNERS!

Congratulations to:

1) Judy Wass
2) Joe Lancaster
3) Stephanie Gustafson

Each of these three winners will receive $20 in Powerball® coupons!

We’ll notify the winners by email about their win. We’ll need to verify each winner’s information so we can award their prize pack!

Winners will have until 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, to verify their information with us. Thanks to everyone who entered the October Facebook contest.

Be sure to come back and enter November’s Facebook contest anytime from 11 a.m. Nov. 18 through 11 a.m. Nov. 19. We sure hope you can join us!

October Twitter Contest Results

The three lucky winners in today’s Twitter contest will each receive prize packs of $20 in our new “Winter Riches” instant-scratch game. The $1 holiday game offers top prizes of $1,000!

Players can also enter their nonwinning Winter Riches scratch tickets in the Gifts Galore promotion at ialottery.com for a chance to win one of 75 gift cards of $400 redeemable for electronics.

The three winners in today’s contest are:

@DemiFey13
@BW_O
@butterfly917x

If you’re one of the winners, you’ll need to contact us with your name, date of birth and mailing address so we can send out your tickets. Winners have until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 22, to contact us with their information in order to claim their prize.

Thanks for participating! Our next Twitter contest is set for 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 12. See you then!

September Facebook Contest

It sure would be fun to rake up $100,000 instead of those leaves that will be falling in your yard. In this month’s Facebook contest we’re giving away free plays in Iowa’s $100,000 Cash Game and some sweet lottery swag. And if everything falls into place and you win big you could hire someone to do your lawn care for you!

You can enter our September Facebook contest beginning at 11 a.m. Monday (Sept. 23) through 11 a.m. Tuesday (Sept. 24). We’ll be asking you a lottery-related question on the Iowa Lottery’s Facebook page under the “Lottery Contests” tab. Enter for your chance to win one of three sets of $10 in coupons for Iowa’s $100,000 Cash Game along with some lottery swag!

We’ll pose our question on the Lottery Contests tab located under our cover photo. When the man on the Lottery Contests 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 24-hour window and you’ll be entered. Limit one entry per person. It’s just that easy!

Important Note: The question will NOT appear on our Facebook “Wall.” You’ll need to visit our Facebook page and click the Lottery Contests tab to see it! Also, if you’re viewing our Facebook page on a smart phone, you will need to use the Desktop view in order to see the Lottery Contests tab. It does not appear in the mobile application view.

We’ll select three winners from all of the eligible answers submitted. Winners will be announced in our September Facebook contest results blog, on the Lottery Contests tab on our Facebook page and we’ll link to the blog entry on Twitter.

We’ll notify the winners by email to claim their prize. If you’re one of the winners, we’ll need to verify your information to award your prize pack!

Winners will have until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 1, to verify their information with us. We’ll also select alternates in case any of the winners are ineligible.

A few other details:
• You must currently be residing in Iowa to participate.
• You must be at least 21 years old to enter.
• There’s no purchase necessary to enter or win.
• The coupons for Iowa’s $100,000 Cash Game are only redeemable for tickets, not for cash.
• You can only enter once. If you try to enter more than once, only your first entry will be accepted.

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. By entering this promotion, you agree to release Facebook of all liability arising from this promotion.

Player Question About VIP Club Coupons

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!

Gmail™ Change Could Impact Where You’ll Find Lottery Coupons & Emails

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!

August Facebook Contest

The 2013 Iowa State Fair has ended but nothing compares to the chance to win a big jackpot. We’re giving you that very chance in this month’s Facebook contest as we giveaway free plays in Mega Millions®. Fingers crossed, your numbers could come up and you could be laughing all the way to the bank!

You can enter August’s Facebook contest beginning at 11 a.m. Monday (Aug. 26) through 11 a.m. Tuesday (Aug. 27). We’ll be asking you a lottery-related question on the Iowa Lottery’s Facebook page under the “Lottery Contests” tab. Enter for your chance to win one of three sets of $20 in Mega Millions coupons!

We’ll pose our question on the Lottery Contests tab located under our cover photo. When the man on the Lottery Contests 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 24-hour window and you’ll be entered. Limit one entry per person. It’s just that easy!

Important Note: The question will NOT appear on our Facebook “Wall.” You’ll need to visit our Facebook page and click the Lottery Contests tab to see it! Also, if you’re viewing our Facebook page on a smart phone, you will need to use the Desktop view in order to see the Lottery Contests tab. It does not appear in the mobile application view.

We’ll select three winners from all of the eligible answers submitted. Winners will be announced in our August Facebook contest results blog, on the Lottery Contests tab on our Facebook page and we’ll link to the blog entry on Twitter.

We’ll notify the winners by email to claim their prize. If you’re one of the winners, we’ll need to verify your information to award your prize pack!

Winners will have until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 3, to verify their information with us. We’ll also select alternates in case any of the winners are ineligible.

A few other details:
• You must currently be residing in Iowa to participate.
• You must be at least 21 years old to enter.
• There’s no purchase necessary to enter or win.
• The Mega Millions coupons are only redeemable for tickets, not for cash.
• You can only enter once. If you try to enter more than once, only your first entry will be accepted.

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.

August Twitter Contest is “Triple” the Fun

This month’s Twitter contest is “Triple” the fun. Three lucky contest winners will each receive $20 in tickets in our newest $2 instant-scratch game – “Triple Payout.”

Our Twitter contest begins at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 20, and you’ll have 15 minutes to enter. Just follow us on Twitter – it’s free to create an account if you don’t already have one. Then answer our super-easy contest question and you’ll be entered for a chance to win one of the three ticket prize packs.

At 11 a.m. next Tuesday, we’ll pose our question on Twitter. Reply with your answer within the 15-minute time limit and you’ll be entered in the contest! No late entries will be accepted. (Be sure to reply to @ialottery on Twitter. Don’t direct message us, as direct messages aren’t eligible for entry.)

We’ll select the three winners in our contest, then blog about the results and link to that blog entry on Twitter and Facebook.

If you win, you’ll need to contact us with your name, date of birth and mailing address so we can send out your tickets. Winners will have until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27, to contact us with their information.

A few other details:
•    You must be at least 21 years old to enter.
•    You must currently reside in Iowa to participate.
•    There’s no purchase necessary to enter or win!
•    You can only enter once. If you try to enter more than once, only your first entry will be accepted.

And now for the fine print: This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Twitter. You understand that you are providing your information to the Iowa Lottery and not to Twitter. The information you provide will only be used for the lottery’s Twitter 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.

July Facebook Contest

The real fireworks in the sky may be over this month, but we’re giving you the chance at a big celebration of your own! Enter our Facebook contest this month for a chance to win free plays in Powerball. And who knows? You might take home a jackpot!

You can enter July’s Facebook contest beginning at 11 a.m. Monday (July 22) through 11 a.m. Tuesday (July 23). We’ll be asking you a lottery-related question on the Iowa Lottery’s Facebook page under the “Lottery Contests” tab. Enter for your chance to win one of three sets of $10 in Powerball coupons and some lottery swag!

We’ll pose our question on the Lottery Contests tab located under our cover photo. When the man on the Lottery Contests 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 24-hour window and you’ll be entered. Limit one entry per person. It’s just that easy!

Important Note: The question will NOT appear on our Facebook “Wall.” You’ll need to visit our Facebook page and click the Lottery Contests tab to see it! Also, if you’re viewing our Facebook page on a smart phone, you will need to use the Desktop view in order to see the Lottery Contests tab. It does not appear in the mobile application view.

We’ll select three winners from all of the eligible answers submitted. Winners will be announced in our July Facebook contest results blog, on the Lottery Contests tab on our Facebook page and we’ll link to the blog entry on Twitter.

We’ll notify the winners by email to claim their prize. If you’re one of the winners, we’ll need to verify your information to award your prize pack!

Winners will have until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 30, to verify their information with us. We’ll also select alternates in case any of the winners are ineligible.

A few other details:
• You must currently be residing in Iowa to participate.
• You must be at least 21 years old to enter.
• There’s no purchase necessary to enter or win.
• The Powerball coupons are only redeemable for tickets, not for cash.
• You can only enter once. If you try to enter more than once, only your first entry will be accepted.

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.

June Facebook Contest Results

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…THE WINNERS!

Congratulations to:

1) Charles Blakemore
2) Heather Butrick
3) Ashley Goodwin

Each of these three winners will receive $20 in coupons for Iowa’s $100,000 Cash Game!

We’ll notify the winners by email to claim their prize. We’ll need to verify each winner’s information so we can award their prize packs!

Winners will have until 4 p.m. Tuesday, June 25, to verify their information with us. Thanks to everyone who entered the June Facebook contest.

Be sure to come back and enter July’s Facebook contest anytime from 11 a.m. July 22 through 11 a.m. July 23. We sure hope you can join us!

June Facebook Contest

We’ve got 100,000 reasons for you to enter our next Facebook contest! This time, you can enter for a chance to win free plays in Iowa’s $100,000 Cash Game!

You can enter June’s Facebook contest beginning at 11 a.m. Monday (June 17) through 11 a.m. Tuesday (June 18). We’ll be asking you a lottery-related question on the Iowa Lottery’s Facebook page under the “Lottery Contests” tab. Enter for your chance to win one of three sets of $20 in coupons for Iowa’s $100,000 Cash Game!

We’ll pose our question on the Lottery Contests tab located under our cover photo. When the man on the Lottery Contests 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 24-hour window and you’ll be entered. Limit one entry per person. It’s just that easy!

Important Note: The question will NOT appear on our Facebook “Wall.” You’ll need to visit our Facebook page and click the Lottery Contests tab to see it! Also, if you’re viewing our Facebook page on a smart phone, you will need to use the Desktop view in order to see the Lottery Contests tab. It does not appear in the mobile application view.

We’ll select three winners from the correct eligible answers submitted, so be sure to double-check your answer before you hit the submit button. Winners will be announced in our June Facebook contest results blog, on the Lottery Contests tab on our Facebook page and we’ll link to the blog entry on Twitter.

We’ll notify the winners by email to claim their prize. If you’re one of the winners, we’ll need to verify your information to award your prize pack!

Winners will have until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, June 25, to verify their information with us. We’ll also select alternates in case any of the winners are ineligible.

A few other details:
• You must currently be residing in Iowa to participate.
• You must be at least 21 years old to enter.
• There’s no purchase necessary to enter or win.
• The $100,000 Cash Game coupons are only redeemable for tickets, not for cash.
• You can only enter once. If you try to enter more than once, only your first entry will be accepted.

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.

April Facebook Contest Results

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…THE WINNERS!

Congratulations to:

1) Kevin Bischel
2) David Taylor
3) Steve Francis

Each of these three winners will receive $20 in Powerball® coupons!

We’ll notify the winners by email to claim their prize. We’ll need to verify each winner’s information so we can award their prize packs!

Winners will have until 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, to verify their information with us. If any of the winners don’t contact us within the specified amount of time, alternates will be contacted by email.

Thanks to everyone who entered the April Facebook contest.

Be sure to come back and enter May’s Facebook contest anytime from 11 a.m. May 20 through 11 a.m. May 21. We sure hope you can join us!

February Facebook Contest

Valentine’s Day isn’t the only day you can show a little extra love. We’re sharing the love in this month’s Facebook contest.

You’ll have 24 hours to enter for a chance to win free plays in Mega Millions!

You can enter February’s Facebook contest beginning at 11 a.m. Monday (Feb. 18) through 11 a.m. Tuesday (Feb. 19). We’ll be asking you a lottery-related question on the Iowa Lottery’s Facebook page under the “Lottery Contests” tab.

Enter for your chance to win one of three sets of $20 in Mega Millions coupons. Now that’s sharing the love!

Visit our Facebook page beginning at 11 a.m. Monday through 11 a.m. Tuesday where we’ll pose our question on the Lottery Contests tab located under our cover photo. When the man on the Lottery Contests 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 24-hour window and you’ll be entered. Limit one entry per person. It’s just that easy!

Important Note: The question will NOT appear on our Facebook “Wall.” You’ll need to visit our Facebook page and click the Lottery Contests tab to see it! Also, if you’re viewing our Facebook page on a smart phone, you will need to use the Desktop view in order to see the Lottery Contests tab. It does not appear in the mobile application view.

We’ll select three winners from the correct eligible answers submitted, so make sure to double-check your answer before you hit the submit button. Winners will be announced in our February Facebook contest results blog, on the Lottery Contests tab on our Facebook page and we’ll link to the blog entry on Twitter.

We’ll notify the winners by email to claim their prize. If you’re one of the winners, we’ll need to verify your information to award your prize pack!

Winners will have until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 26, to verify their information with us. We’ll also select alternates 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 to participate.
• You must be at least 21 years old to enter.
• There’s no purchase necessary to enter or win.
• The Mega Millions coupons are only redeemable for tickets, not for cash.
• You can only enter once. If you try to enter more than once, only your first entry will be accepted.

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.

January Facebook Contest Results

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…THE WINNERS!

Congratulations to:

1) Stefanie Ellison
2) Carrie Meyer
3) Monte Riley

Each of these three winners will receive $10 in Powerball® coupons, a Powerball keychain, a Dream t-shirt and a pizza cutter!

We’ll notify the winners by email to claim their prize. We’ll need to verify each winner’s information so we can award their prize packs!

Winners will have until 4 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 5, to verify their information with us. If any of the winners don’t contact us within the specified amount of time, alternates will be contacted by email.

Thanks to everyone who entered the January Facebook contest.

Be sure to come back and enter February’s Facebook contest beginning at 11 a.m. Feb. 18 through 11 a.m. Feb. 19. We sure hope you can join us!

December Facebook Contest Results

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…THE WINNERS!

Congratulations to:

1) Tara Parrott
2) Nancy Miebach
3) Ronda Anderson

Each of these three winners will receive $20 in coupons for Iowa’s $100,000 Cash Game!

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. Wednesday, Dec. 26, 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 December Facebook contest.

SPECIAL NOTE: We are going to continue with our 24-hour contest entry time. You can enter January’s Facebook contest anytime from 11 a.m. Jan. 28 to 11 a.m. Jan. 29. We sure hope you can join us!

December “Holiday Bonus” Facebook Contest

We’re celebrating the holiday season early with a special Holiday Bonus for our December Facebook contest! You asked for more time to enter our monthly contest and we heard you loud and clear. Beginning with our December Facebook contest, you’ll have a full 24 hours to enter! Woo Hoo!

This month, we’re giving you a chance to win free plays in Iowa’s $100,000 Cash Game!

You can enter December’s Facebook contest anytime from 11 a.m. Monday (Dec. 17) to 11 a.m. Tuesday (Dec. 18). We’ll be asking you a lottery-related question on the Iowa Lottery’s Facebook page under the “Lottery Contests” tab.

Enter for your chance to win one of three sets of $20 in Iowa’s $100,000 Cash Game coupons. That sounds sweeter than a whole package of candy canes in your stocking. Sorry Santa!

Visit our Facebook page anytime from 11 a.m. Monday to 11 a.m. Tuesday where we’ll pose our question on the Lottery Contests tab located under our cover photo. When the man on the Lottery Contests 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 new 24-hour 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 Contests tab to see it! Also, if you’re viewing our Facebook page on a smart phone, you will need to use the Desktop view in order to see the Lottery Contests tab. It does not appear in the mobile application view.

We’ll select three winners from all of the correct answers submitted, so make sure to double-check your answer before you hit the submit button. Then we’ll blog about the winners, update the Lottery Contests 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 Wednesday, Dec. 26, 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 to participate.
• You must be at least 21 years old to enter.
• There’s no purchase necessary to enter or win.
• You can only enter once per person. Only the first entry from each person will be accepted. Duplicates will be removed, including those by the same player entering with multiple email accounts.


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.

November Facebook Contest

Eating turkey may make you a bit tired, but our November Facebook contest will certainly get you pumped up!

This month, we’re giving you a chance to win free plays in Mega Millions and some cool lottery swag!

November’s contest is set for 11 a.m. (CST) on Monday (Nov. 26). We’ll be asking you an easy lottery-related question on the Iowa Lottery’s Facebook page under the “Lottery Contests” tab.

Enter for your chance to win one of three sets of $10 in Mega Millions coupons and some stellar lottery goodies. I don’t think pumpkin pie can compete with our contest. Unless it’s got whipped topping, then maybe!

Visit our Facebook page at 11 a.m. Monday where we’ll pose our question on the Lottery Contests tab located under our cover photo. When the man on the Lottery Contests 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 Contests 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 smart phone, you will need to use the Desktop view in order to see the Lottery Contests tab. It does not appear in the mobile application view.

We’ll select three winners from all of the correct answers submitted. Then we’ll blog about the winners, update the Lottery Contests 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 Monday, Dec. 3, 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 to participate.
• 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.

VIP Club Coupon Delivery

We’ve heard from several folks lately who have not seen the latest VIP Club coupon make its way to their email inboxes and we’re doing our best to figure out why.
 
The common denominator among those who have contacted us:
They all have Yahoo! email accounts. 
 
We’ve asked for some input from our web developers here at the Lottery and they’ve let us know that there could be two likely reasons why. First, if you’re a Yahoo! user you might already know that the “delete” and “block sender” buttons are dangerously close together when you’re viewing your emails. What may be happening is that when you've tried to clean out your inbox by deleting emails, you may inadvertently hit the “block sender” button instead for our messages (they come from [email protected]).
 
Putting [email protected] on your blocked senders list will definitely result in the failure of delivery of your VIP Club coupon, as well as any Winning Numbers lists you subscribe to and possibly other important information about the Lottery or the VIP Club.
 
If you want to double-check your account to see if that's accidentally happened on your end, access your "blocked senders" list to be sure [email protected] is not on it. If it is, please remove that address from your blocked senders to ensure delivery of your coupons in the future.
 
However, if you have checked your blocked senders list and we’re not on it, your emails could be getting caught at the administrative level. What this means is that Yahoo! is seeing emails from a lottery coming through to you and, knowing that a lottery is a gambling entity, is flagging them as spam. There unfortunately are disreputable entities out there that send out gambling-related emails and we sometimes get caught in the same filters that are protecting your account from those other messages.
 
In that case, you’ll need to contact Yahoo! and ask them to deliver any emails from our email address.

If you’ve got any questions about your VIP Club coupon or think you may have been left off the mailing list, feel free to contact us at that Webmaster email address. We'll keep investigating this to see if there is another reason folks may not be seeing their VIP Club coupons each month. We know you enjoy getting the coupons and we want them to make it through!  

August Facebook Contest Results

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!

May Facebook Contest Results

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!

May’s Mega Millions® Facebook Contest

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.

February’s “Mega” Facebook Contest Results

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!