ialottery blog

A Milk Run With More: Errand Ends With $10,000 Lottery Prize

There’s something about the every-day aspect of this story, especially during these unusual times, that brings a smile. A southeast Iowa couple has taken home a $10,000 prize from a lottery scratch ticket purchased during a milk run.

Heather Love of Morning Sun claimed the prize earlier this week. She said that her husband, Nick, bought the ticket when he stopped at a local convenience store for milk on the way home from work. She said that Nick rarely buys scratch tickets but decided to get one that day in the “$100,000 Mega Crossword” game.

Heather said she was the one who scratched the ticket later that night after dinner. She thought they’d won big, but said it didn’t really start to sink in until she scanned the ticket on the lottery’s mobile app and it displayed the message: "Congratulations, you won $10,000!"

She said that she and Nick argued good-naturedly over which one of them would actually claim the prize, but agreed that they would use the winnings to buy new carpet and flooring for their home.

Heather said that winning a big prize “kind of makes your heart flutter.” She said she has often heard about people winning the lottery, but now it’s real to her.

Congratulations, Heather and Nick! Thank you for giving us a smile with your story!

This Week Marks 25 YEARS Of ‘Crossword’ Scratch Games In Iowa!

A lottery game that shot to popularity as soon as it debuted in Iowa is marking 25 YEARS on the market this week.

The Iowa Lottery’s first “Crossword” scratch game was released on March 13, 2000. And we’ve had at least one Crossword game on the market every day since then.

While the Iowa Lottery has high expectations for any game we sell, I don’t think we could have imagined what the future would hold for Crossword. It’s now been one of the lottery’s top-selling games for a quarter of a century!

The Design Still Looks The Same

It’s interesting to look back at those first Crossword tickets, which you can see above. They could be among the Crossword games we have on the market today! The design of our Crossword tickets obviously hasn’t changed much because that’s the way players like them! (If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, people!)

What HAS changed is the variety of Crossword games on the market in Iowa at any one time. For years, the Iowa Lottery had just one Crossword game for sale. The first version of Crossword was a $3 game and we stuck with that for a long time.

But then we got brave. We decided to keep a $3 Crossword game out there, but add more. We released a $5 Crossword game, then a $10 Crossword, a $20 Crossword, and a $30 Crossword. Somewhere along the line, we backed up and added a $2 Crossword. And today, we’ve also got a SCRABBLE™ version of the Crossword game!

You Can Choose Your Favorite Today

There currently are 6 Crossword scratch games for sale in stores across the state. They all have different prize structures and some of them have multiple versions of Crossword puzzles on each ticket. What’s universal about them all is that it takes a while to uncover all the letters available – and that’s what players say they like about Crossword.

So, when you see Crossword tickets this week in local stores, wish them a happy 25th birthday! I’m betting Crossword scratch games will celebrate many more birthdays in Iowa!

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!

Heartwarming Winner Story Alert!

This Iowa woman’s story about winning the lottery absolutely just jumps off the page.

Je Rita Whitman of Anamosa claimed a $30,000 top prize this week in our “$30,000 Crossword” scratch game. She said she bought what ended up being her winning ticket as she was thinking about her mom, who loved Crossword tickets. She says they used to scratch tickets together and laugh about winning one day.

And it turns out they DID!

Je Rita says that her mom, Sonja Warren, won a $30,000 prize on a Crossword ticket in 2015. And as the one-year anniversary of her mom’s passing approached, Je Rita bought a ticket of her own. She says she’s convinced her mom is up there pulling strings for her!

Je Rita says she bought her ticket at a convenience store on her way to work at University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City. She said she didn’t scratch her ticket until later and thought initially that she’d won $100. Then she scanned it with the lottery’s mobile app and realized her prize was much larger.

Je Rita says it’s got to be unique to have two lottery winners of $30,000 in the same family.

She and her husband, Bradley, have a plan for the winnings. Je Rita says they’ve been thinking about a cabin so they can go fishing on a lake.

Congratulations, Je Rita. Thank you for lifting everyone’s spirits on a chilly day with your heartwarming story!

Mistakes While Scratching: Leaving Some of the Coating on Your Tix

We’ve heard recently from a couple players who both had the same confusion about the scratch tickets they played. They hadn’t completely scratched off the security coating in the play area on their ticket and mistakenly thought they’d won a big prize.

The issue is especially important in “Crossword” and “Bingo” scratch games, where a number or letter could be mistaken for another.

On a Crossword ticket, it’s important to completely remove the security coating on the “Your Letters” area providing the letters you can play. In the ticket image shown here, I highlighted the Your Letters area with a yellow circle.

If you leave some of the security coating in place, it can lead to a mistake. For example, an E might be mistaken as an F, a Q might be seen as an O, or what is actually a B might be mistaken for a P.

On a Bingo ticket, it’s important to completely remove the security coating in the “Caller’s Card” space and any areas such as a “Bonus Numbers” or “Wild Number” spot.

Those areas provide the numbers you can play in the ticket’s Bingo puzzle, and leaving some of the security coating in place could cause you to confuse one number for another. For example, a 7 might be mistaken for a 1, or an 8 could be seen as a 6 or a 3.

The same careful approach is important when you’re playing any scratch ticket, but it can make a big difference in a game like Crossword or Bingo.

If you ever have a question about how much you think you’ve won on a ticket, remember there are multiple ways to check. One of the easiest is by scanning the ticket on the Iowa Lottery’s mobile app. You can do that from anywhere.

You also can use a self-checker or self-service kiosk at a business where lottery tickets are sold, or you can have the ticket checked at a lottery terminal.

Player Questions: What About The Odds In Your Holiday Games?

Now that our holiday-themed scratch games are in stores for the season, we’ve gotten player questions about the number of prizes available in them and their odds of winning.

Our holiday-themed games by design are only on the market for a short period of time – about four months. Many of our other scratch games are sold for a year or two or even longer.

We order smaller quantities of tickets in our holiday games, which means there will be a smaller number of prizes involved. But the key detail to note is that the odds of winning in our holiday games are very similar to those in our other games, so your playing experience won’t change.

“Crossword” games are always a favorite for players, so here is a list of this year’s four holiday-themed versions with their non-holiday counterparts. You’ll see how similar the odds are in them.

    • $2 games: $20,000 Holiday Crossword and Four Corners Crossword.
    • $3 games: Candy Cane Crossword and Bonus Crossword.
    • $5 games: Peng-win Crossword and $50,000 Super Crossword.
    • $10 games: Very Merry Crossword and $100,000 Mega Crossword.

In the $2 games, the $20,000 holiday game has overall odds of winning of 1 in 3.42 while its non-holiday counterpart has overall odds of 1 in 3.33.

Both of the $3 Crossword games have the exact same overall odds of winning: 1 in 3.52.

At the $5 price point, the Peng-win Crossword game has overall odds of winning of 1 in 3.34 while its non-holiday counterpart has overall odds of 1 in 3.53.

And for the $10 games, Very Merry Crossword has overall odds of winning of 1 in 3.29 compared to overall odds of 1 in 3.30 for the non-holiday version.

We do our best to keep the game designs in line with each other because we want you to have the same “feel” as you play them. We know that’s part of the fun.

Then there are the folks who say they like our non-holiday games and want to see them come back. And they will!

Our holiday-themed games will only be on the market until early January, and then our other games will cycle back onto store shelves when the holidays are over.

The Message: Call Me. It’s Nothing Bad!

It’s a slice-of-life moment about how a southwest Iowan told his parents he’d won a big lottery prize.

The late-night message he said he left for them went something like this: “Call me when you wake up. I’ve got some major news. It’s nothing bad.”

(Good son points for including that last part!)

Jacob Harper of Glenwood won one of the top prizes this week in the “$100,000 Mega Crossword” scratch game. He laughed as he remembered leaving the message for his parents, saying his mom is a worrier, so he wanted to use the right tone!

When his parents called him back the next morning, he told them the news about his $100,000 prize. He said his mom started screaming and his dad was laughing in the background, and there may have been some jumping around on all their parts.

Jacob said he bought his ticket at a local Casey’s store but didn’t play it until later that night after a get-together with some friends. He said that when he realized he’d completed six words on his ticket to win one of the game’s top prizes, he counted again and again in case his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Jacob says his win comes at a great time – he plans to begin work full time at a computer business that he and his friends have started.

Tale Of The Ticket: Carefully Scratch Off The Security Coating

A player contacted us this week with a question about a “Colossal Crossword” scratch ticket she and her husband had checked at a lottery terminal after realizing they’d won a prize. They thought they won more than the amount shown on the customer receipt they received, so they reached out to us to ask about it.

As it turns out, they hadn’t scratched off all the security coating on the ticket, and it led to a mistake as they played. I’ve included an image here so you can see the details.

In the “Your Letters” area at the top of the ticket, some of the security coating is still in place in different spots, and in particular, it covers up a portion of the letter highlighted in the red box. At a glance, you might think that letter is an “F,” which is what the couple believed. The letter actually is a “P,” but a portion at the top is still under the ticket’s security coating.

With the letter “F” correctly taken out of the mix, there are four complete words in Puzzle 3 and three complete words in Puzzle 4 for $70 in total winnings on that ticket.

It’s a real-world example of the message you’ve seen me share many times here on the blog: Please closely check the results of your tickets, and if you ever have a question, feel free to reach out to us here at the Iowa Lottery. We’ll be happy to help get you the accurate information.

Helpful Advice From A Big Winner

A northern Iowa woman who won a $10,000 prize has some helpful advice for fellow lottery players: Check your tickets!

Julie Ackley of Osage won the big prize on a “$100,000 Mega Crossword” ticket she purchased at a local convenience store. But after scratching the ticket, she thought it was a nonwinner.

She said she took it back to the store later to double-check she hadn’t won a prize. That’s when she scanned the ticket on the store’s self-checker and realized her big win.

Julie said she scanned the ticket a couple more times just to be sure. She was jumping around the gas station in delight!

Here in Iowa, there are several ways to check your lottery tickets. If you have a lotto ticket in a game like Powerball or Mega Millions, you can check your numbers on our website, www.ialottery.com.

All lotto, scratch and InstaPlay tickets can be checked either at a licensed lottery retailer (as Julie did) or on our LotteryPlus mobile app. When you scan your ticket with the app, it’ll tell you whether or not your ticket is a winner, and if so, the size of your prize. It will also display where you can redeem your ticket: at a lottery location, at a lottery office or at lottery headquarters only, depending on the prize amount involved.

Take heed of Julie's advice and always check your tickets. We'd hate for you to accidentally toss away a winning ticket. Better safe than sorry!

Third Time Lucky: Fort Dodge Man Wins Top Prize On Ticket No. 3

Here’s a story of lottery luck that just kept growing: A Fort Dodge man won bigger and bigger amounts on the tickets he was buying in a scratch game, and his last win took a huge jump up.

Harold Hinds said he recently made his usual stop for coffee and a scratch ticket and ended up winning $10. He decided to go back to the store to redeem his prize and buy another ticket. That time around, he won $30. That sent him back to the store again for another ticket, and that time, he won the top prize of $100,000 in the “$100,000 Mega Crossword” game.

Harold, who is 80, won the 15th top prize in the game. There are 10 more top prizes still available in it. He says that he and his wife plan to use his winnings on home repairs and possibly a new car.

We would say that this story is an example of the phrase: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, but Harold succeeded every time – just sometimes larger than others! Congratulations, Harold!

Ways To Win: A Number Within A Number, A Word Within A Word Don’t Count

We’ve gotten this question before about words within words on our “Crossword” scratch tickets, but here’s a slightly different twist on it, asking about numbers within numbers in the “Cash Multiplied” game.

The player in this instance asked that if the numbers they needed to match to win were 4 and 8, and on their ticket they found a 14 and an 18, does that mean they won? Could they win if any of the numbers on the ticket contained a 4 and an 8?

The short answer is no. A number within a number doesn’t count. The number 14 is only that number – it can’t be “taken apart” to count as a 1, 4, or 14.

That same concept applies in our Crossword games: Words within words, meaning partial words, don’t count. So, for example, if the word “someone” is in the play area on your ticket, you must complete the whole word. You can’t try to make “some” or “one” a word on their own and ignore the word as a whole.

I hope that the answers we provide here on the blog help make the rules clear for everyone.

Have a good weekend, and stay safe!

Hey, Scratch-Game Fans: It’s Crossword Puzzle Day!

In case you hadn’t heard, it’s Crossword Puzzle Day. That’s according to the National Day Calendar™, the website that tracks unusual and unique National Days and has a day for just about everything.

And since Crossword has been one of our most popular scratch games here in Iowa for years and years, it definitely makes sense to us for this day to be highlighted!

We have had at least one Crossword game in our scratch-game selection for nearly 19 years. The Iowa Lottery introduced its first Crossword game clear back in March of 2000. Crossword quickly became one of our top-selling games and we’ve kept different versions of it on the market ever since because people like them so much. We would definitely hear about it if we didn’t have a Crossword game in stores!

We currently have four Crossword games for sale: the $3 “Holiday Bonus Crossword”; the $5 “$50,000 Holiday Super Crossword”; the $10 “$100,000 Holiday Mega Crossword”; and the $30 “Colossal Crossword.” When the season for our holiday-themed games ends in late December/early January, our regular Crossword games will return to store shelves.           

So, happy Crossword Puzzle Day from us here at the lottery. And if you win a prize on a Crossword ticket today, it must have been meant to be. :)

In ‘Crossword’ & ‘Lucky Letters,’ Words Within Words Don’t Count

We’ve gotten questions this week from a couple of players who thought they’d won bigger prizes than they actually had, and  wondered what they had missed on their tickets. They were playing a “Crossword” scratch ticket and one of the games in “The Lucky Game Book” scratch ticket.

In both instances, the players mistakenly thought that if they completed just part of a word, they could still claim the prize involved.

The first inquiry came from a central-Iowa woman who had played the $100,000 Mega Crossword game. You can see in the picture of her ticket that she had completed the letters S-T-I-C-K within the word YARDSTICK. Now, “stick” obviously is a word on its own, but it was not the complete word on her ticket, so it didn’t count. We’ve included a picture of the instructions for that game, which note that “words within words are not eligible” to win a prize. The woman thought that with that word added in, she should have won $60, but in the end, she had won a $20 prize.

The other inquiry came from a man in eastern Iowa who wondered if he had won multiple prizes on his Lucky Game Book ticket. If you’ve played a Game Book ticket, you know that it has six pages of games in it, and his questions were about the Lucky Letters game. You can see in the picture of the man’s ticket that he had completed the letters R-O-N within the word IRON; the letters H-A-M within the word HAMSTER; and the letters B-A-C-K within the word BACKYARD; and wondered if he should have won a prize on each of those lines. And again, while each of those are words, but they were not the complete play word on that line. 

And to follow the argument of words within words, there would not have been 14 play words in the play area on the man’s ticket, but 17. In that same vein of thinking, the letter “A” on its own is a word, as in: Here is a soda. “I” also is a word, as in: I am here. Would you argue that you should win a prize every time that “A” or “I” appears in that game? Perhaps someone would try to make that argument, but in that scenario, the number of play words in the play area would increase from 14 to a number far, far larger than that.

That scenario also would give different players a different number of chances to win, simply because of the letters that happened to be printed on their ticket. And that would be unfair.

The man had won a $20 prize on a different page of his Lucky Game Book ticket, so he also got a prize check from us along with a letter explaining that words within words aren’t eligible for a prize.

Two Big Winners This Week At Same Eastern Iowa Store

 Friday (Aug. 17) Update: The $50,000 prize now also has been claimed! Details below.  

The eastern Iowa community of DeWitt, population 5,322, is seeing a lottery winning streak this week! More specifically, it’s all happening at one store there.

On Tuesday, a Clinton County woman claimed a $30,000 prize she won on a scratch ticket she bought at the Kwik Star convenience store, 1420 11th St. in DeWitt. Sandra Sparlin of Wheatland won one of the top prizes in the “Bonus Crossword” scratch game.

Then Wednesday night, someone who bought a Powerball ticket at that same Kwik Star store won a $50,000 prize! The ticket matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball.

On Friday, Heather Sloan of Maquoketa claimed that $50,000 prize. She works in DeWitt and said that after she bought a Powerball ticket on Tuesday, she forgot about it for a couple days until she noticed it in her wallet again Thursday night. Heather said that when she got online to check the numbers, she realized she’d won $50,000 and admits she started freaking out – in a good way.

Heather said that she and her husband have both had some car trouble recently, so they’re planning to use the winnings to buy newer vehicles, then tuck the rest away into savings.    

Heather said she’s a huge HGTV fan and likes to watch a show on that network called “My Lottery Dream Home” where lottery winners use their prize money to buy their dream home. She said that her prize may not get her on that show, but her lottery win is still amazing and kind of unreal.   

The winning numbers in Wednesday’s Powerball drawing were: 12-15-28-47-48 and Powerball 16. The Power Play number was 2. Heather’s winning ticket was an easy-pick.

 

 

A Month After His Bday, 21-Year-Old Claims $50K Lottery Prize

An eastern Iowa man is celebrating being 21 – and a lottery winner!

Billie Griffin of Fairfield turned 21 earlier this year. And yesterday, he claimed one of the $50,000 top prizes in the “Super Crossword” scratch game. Billie bought his winning ticket at the Circle B, 111 Main St. in Keosauqua.

Not a bad way to celebrate, that’s for sure! (And on a side note, Billie is an example of why I’m a terrible judge of a person's age.)

:)

Congrats, Billie! Enjoy your lottery win.

Supply Of ‘Bingo’ Scratch Tickets Changing Out Right Now

Fans of our “Bingo” scratch games have noticed that there are two versions of the game in stores right now and have asked us why that’s the case. The quick answer is that the supply of tickets in the “Blackout Bingo” game is running low and we needed a new version to replace it, which is called “Bonus Ball Bingo.”

This is the usual process for Bingo and our other popular scratch games like Bonus Crossword, Super Crossword and $100,000 Mega Crossword, but here are all the details:

The lottery has dozens of scratch games for sale at any one time, and throughout the year, we replace ending games with new ones as part of our standard procedures.

Sales in the $2 Blackout Bingo game started back in January 2015. It’s been very popular and tickets in that game are nearly sold out, although some retail locations still have a supply left.

Bonus Ball Bingo is the replacement game for Blackout Bingo. Tickets in this newer version of the Bingo scratch game debuted March 13 and are already on sale in many locations. They’ll be added to our game mix statewide as remaining locations run through their supply of Blackout Bingo. Bonus Ball Bingo has a play style similar to Blackout Bingo, but includes a new feature – Bonus Bingo Balls. There are three bonus numbers you can use to complete any Bingo in Cards 1 thru 4, or if any of your three Bonus Bingo Ball numbers appear on Cards 1 thru 4, you win the corresponding prize amount shown below that Bonus Bingo Ball number.

As of this morning, there are still two top prizes of $25,000 yet to be claimed in the Blackout Bingo game. (There were 21 top prizes available in the game, so nearly all of them have been claimed.) The game will remain on sale until the last top prize in it is claimed or the supply of tickets runs out, whichever comes first.

And remember Bingo fans, Bonus Ball Bingo will be the new version to look for at your favorite lottery retailer.

What Are The Odds Of THIS Happening?

A woman from northern Iowa wrote to us this month about one of the coolest coincidences we've seen involving lottery tickets.

Barbara Pauk of Garner said she was playing the "Bonus Crossword" game when she found her last name - P-A-U-K - spelled out in the play area on her ticket. So she wanted to know: What are the odds of that?

We were able to provide at least part of the answer. The game rules for Bonus Crossword show that about 7.8 million tickets were printed in the game. So the odds that somebody would buy a particular ticket in it are about 1 in 7.8 million.

But to truly determine the odds of someone named Pauk buying the ticket that Barbara purchased, we would have to know how many people with her last name there are in the world, and the likelihood that a percentage of them would be in Iowa and buy a ticket. So I don't think we can completely answer the question. But what a great story!

(The picture you see with this blog entry is the photocopied image that Barbara sent us of her ticket. And who knows? Maybe she'll find her name on a ticket again someday...)

A Lottery Ticket & A Long-Running Joke Between Friends

Here’s a story from a Muscatine man that’s been years in the making, and we don’t know the ending yet! 

The man’s name is Robert Newton, and he says he gets a kick out of occasionally seeing his last name as one of the words printed on our “Crossword” scratch tickets. But apparently, his friend Mark Peak has been even luckier, having both his first AND last names show up on a Crossword ticket.

So, it became a running joke between them that someday, Robert would find a ticket with the words “Newton” and “Mark” or “Peak” on it and give it to Mark as a gag gift. Mark, in turn, said that if that ever happened, he’d burn the ticket.

Well, guess what? It happened! They recently found a “Super Crossword” ticket with the words “Newton” and “Peak” printed on it. (Robert sent us a photo of the ticket, which you can see here. Notice the word “Newton” at the top and “Peak” at the bottom.)

And just as he said he would, Robert gave the ticket to Mark as a gag gift. But he took a precautionary step first: He had the ticket framed. He says the ticket can’t be burned if it’s in a frame!

But he didn’t play the ticket before having it framed. And now they want to know: Did it win a prize? The only way we can answer that question is if the ticket is removed from the frame and the latex is scratched off from the serial number used to check the ticket.

We let Robert know that the words on our scratch tickets are assigned at random, so we have no idea when – or if – those two words might both show up on a ticket again. 

Will their curiosity win out and they’ll have the ticket checked? Only time will tell …

 

He Wins Two Big Prizes, Exactly One Year Apart

Oct. 9 is definitely a lucky day for an eastern Iowa man. And he says he plans to buy a lottery scratch ticket every year on that date because it's already brought him good luck – twice!

Jeremiah Meewes (pronounced MAY’-vis) of Williamsburg bought what ended up being a $10,000-winning scratch ticket on Oct. 9 of this year. That was exactly one year to the date he’d bought a scratch ticket in 2014 that won a $5,000 prize. And there’s another coincidence in his story: Both prizes came from holiday-themed “Crossword” tickets.

Jeremiah won his $5,000 prize on a ticket in the $5 “Winter Wishes Super Crossword” game that was part of our 2014 line-up of holiday games. He won his $10,000 prize this month in the $10 “Holiday Mega Crossword” game that just hit the market on Oct. 5.

Jeremiah and his wife, Amanda, used some of his winnings from last year to help pay for their wedding. He says they’ll use some of his winnings this time to plan a honeymoon.

How cool is that? Congrats, Jeremiah!

 

Player Mail: I Think I Won More Than That!

A couple people have contacted us this week with questions about the amount they’d won on their “Cashingo” scratch ticket. Each of them had won a $3 prize, but wondered if they should have won $25 instead.

Cashingo is a $3 scratch game that hit the market in July here in Iowa. It combines features from two of our most popular scratch games of all time – Crossword and Bingo. There’s a word-match area on the upper half of a Cashingo ticket, with playstyle similar to our Crossword games, and a numbers-match area on the bottom half of the ticket that’s a lot like our Bingo games.   

The questions from the players focus on the word-match section at the top of the ticket. You win a prize in that area by uncovering all of the letters in a certain number of words. If you complete just one word, you win $3. If you complete two words, the prize is $10; three words, $25; and completing four words will bring you a $50 prize.

The players who contacted us matched all of the letters in just one word to win a $3 prize. They wondered if because it was “Your Word 3,” they should have won $25. But as the instructions on the ticket explain, it’s the total number of words that determine the prize you can win in that area.

Have you got a question for us? Let’s hear it! We’ll do our best to answer it here on the blog.

Supply Of ‘Super Crossword’ Changing Out Right Now

Fans of the “Super Crossword” scratch game have noticed there are two versions of the game in stores right now and some players have asked us what’s up with that. The quick answer is that a newer version of the game is replacing an older edition and everything is working just as it should. But here are all the details:

The lottery has dozens of games for sale at any one time, and throughout the year, we replace ending games with new ones as part of our standard procedures. We’ve blogged about that process before. 

In the case of the $5 Super Crossword game, the wood-grained version of it (Game 842) began sales in March 2014. It’s been very popular and tickets in that version are nearly sold out, but some retail locations still have a supply left.

Game 842 is being replaced by Game 893, a rainbow-striped version of Super Crossword that debuted April 16. Tickets in that newer version are already on sale in many locations and will be added to our game mix in others as they run through their remaining supply of Game 842. If the last top prize in the game were to be claimed while tickets are still on hand, Game 842 would be officially ended and removed from sale. 

We know you like Super Crossword, so we’re definitely keeping it in our game mix!

Holy Cow! We’ve Got A Winning Streak Going!

It’s been a very, very good week so far for our players. The numbers tell the tale: On Monday and Tuesday alone, Iowa Lottery players claimed nearly 40 prizes ranging from $1,000 up to $1 million! We don’t know what’s in the water, but we like it!

Monday’s winners included 14 players who claimed prizes of $1,000 each in several different scratch games and two who claimed prizes of $1,400 in the “Ruby Red 7’s” scratch game. Two more players – Cheryl McMahan of Glenwood and Aurea Perez Morales of Oakland – each claimed prizes of $10,000 that day, while Michael McGee of Cherokee claimed a $21,000 prize. Diane Leahy of Cedar Rapids claimed a $25,000 prize on Monday, Violet Reimer of Clinton won a $30,000 prize and Troy McCumber of Ionia claimed a $50,000 prize. And you’ve likely already heard about the Johnston siblings who claimed a $1 million prize that day in Mega Millions®.

Whew.

And yesterday brought in even more winners! Eleven players claimed prizes of $1,000 each yesterday, again in several different scratch games. Jessica Davis of Cambridge and Tonya Taylor of Waterloo each claimed a $3,000 prize in the “Crossword” game, and Thomas Gage of Lansing and Lana Dallman of Dickens each claimed a $3,000 prize in Hot Lotto®. Adam Hansen of Forest City rounded out yesterday’s list, claiming a $5,000 prize in the “Big Money Multiplier” scratch game.

As you can see, the winners have been from all over the state, keeping each of our regional offices busy. We’ve got the lights on and the doors open again today! Can’t wait to see who comes through the door to see us. Will it be YOU?