ialottery blog

Countdown Is Underway In Iowa For Multi-Draw Tickets In Four Lotto Games

The number of drawings for which you can buy tickets in advance will be limited for about the next month in four popular lotto games in Iowa.

The stepdown on advance plays is being utilized because the prize-claim period in the games is changing. The stepdown has already started in Mega Millions® and will begin in the next few weeks in Powerball®, Lotto America® and Lucky for Life®.

The stepdown on advance plays began March 21 in Mega Millions. The same limit will begin April 1 in Powerball and Lotto America, and on April 13 in Lucky for Life.

The stepdown ensures that the same game details apply to all tickets sold for a particular drawing. 

Players normally can buy tickets for up to 10 drawings in advance in the four games. But during the stepdown period, the number of advance plays you can buy will continue to count down until you can only buy tickets for the next drawing.

The stepdown in Mega Millions will continue through that game’s drawing on April 21. The stepdown in Powerball, Lotto America and Lucky for Life will continue through their drawings on April 22.

After that, the number of drawings for which you can buy tickets in advance in the games will return to 10.     

Back in December, the Iowa Lottery Board voted to change the prize-claim period in the four games to 180 days from the date of the drawing.

The current Iowa prize-claim deadline in those games is 365 days from the drawing date. That’s the longest in the United States and outside the norm for the U.S. lottery industry.

A review of recent drawings found that the vast majority of prize claims happened within six months of the drawing date.

In fact, less than 3 percent of prizes from those drawings were claimed after 180 days.

Iowa is currently one of only 14 U.S. lotteries with a 365-day deadline for a player to claim a prize in a multi-state lotto game. By contrast, 33 lotteries require prizes to be claimed within 180 days or six months (182 days).

That lengthy claim period could inadvertently mean that some players throw away their tickets or lose or damage them.  

And from a security perspective, the passage of time makes it more difficult for anyone to accurately recall the details of a ticket purchase and provide that information for verification purposes.

Tickets purchased after the April 21 drawing in Mega Millions will have a prize-claim deadline of 180 days. That also will apply to tickets purchased after the April 22 drawing in Powerball, Lotto America and Lucky for Life.

Any tickets purchased before then will still have a 365-day deadline for prize claims.      

The change has no financial benefit to the Iowa Lottery. Under state law, the money from prizes that expire in Iowa without being claimed will continue to go back to players through the lottery’s prize pools for future games and promotions.

In the past three fiscal years, the annual total in Iowa Lottery prizes that expired without being claimed has ranged from about $1.3 million to more than $1.7 million.   

For comparison purposes, these are the prize-claim periods for the Iowa Lottery’s other products, which won’t be changed.

• Tickets in Iowa-specific lotto games (Pick 3 and Pick 4) are valid for 90 days from the date of the drawing.
• Tickets in scratch games are valid for 90 days after the announced end of the game.
• Tickets in pull-tab games are valid for 90 days after the announced end of the game.
• Tickets in InstaPlay games are valid for 90 days from the date of purchase.

Interesting Stats In Basketball Promo

Some interesting numbers have emerged from the first month+ of entries in the Suite Seats promotion that has some incredible VIP basketball packages on the line.

The chance to attend a Minnesota Timberwolves basketball game is the biggest single-category draw among entries in the promotion. But the national men’s college basketball tournament in Des Moines accounts for a majority of the promotion’s total entries when all three college sessions available are considered.

Members of our free VIP Club can enter nonwinning tickets from the “Money Madness” and “Triple Tripler” scratch games into the promotion.

When you make an entry, you choose between a session in a suite at the national men’s college basketball tournament this March in Des Moines, or a prize package that includes two suite tickets to the Los Angeles Lakers-Minnesota Timberwolves game March 31 in Minneapolis.

More than 43 percent of the entries into the promotion so far have been for the pro basketball prize package.

But entries across the different sessions at the college tournament account for 57 percent of the promotion’s total to date.

About 27 percent of entries are for Session 3 of the men’s college basketball tournament. Teams playing in that session will have advanced through the tournament’s initial games.

About 17 percent of entries are for Session 1 of the tournament and 13 percent are for Session 2.

The entry deadline is 9:59 a.m. on Feb. 28! The promotion’s drawings will follow on March 1.

You can win only once per category, but it is possible that you could win tickets to each men’s college tournament session in Des Moines and the Minnesota Timberwolves game.

Pball Jackpot Raised To Est. $825 Million For Tomorrow Night’s Drawing

The Powerball® jackpot has been raised to an estimated $825 million annuity, $410.2 million cash option, for tomorrow night’s drawing. That’s up from yesterday’s figures, but it’s still the 2nd largest jackpot in the 30-year history of the Powerball game and the 5th largest lottery prize ever offered in North America.

When the jackpot reaches this level, it becomes harder to predict the grand-prize estimate for the next drawing. Stronger sales drive the jackpot higher and can lead to the revisions of the prize estimate before the next drawing, as has occurred this past week.

Details About Cash vs. Annuity – And Taxes

There are misconceptions out there about cash vs. annuity and what that means. The cash option is NOT the annuity amount minus taxes. Here are the actual details involved:

If a jackpot winner were to choose the annuity option for tomorrow’s big prize (currently an estimated $825 million), they would receive 30 payments over 29 years adding up to the annuity total.

The cash on hand in the jackpot pool from the sale of tickets in the game is invested in securities, and the winner receives payments over time. The initial amount invested plus the interest generated over time by the investment adds up to the annuity amount of the jackpot. Withholdings are applied to each payment that the winner receives. If a winner were to pass away before receiving all their payments, the money would go into their estate. The lottery would make future payments as determined by the estate or the court.

If a jackpot winner were to choose the cash option for tomorrow prize (currently an estimated $410.2 million), they would receive the lump-sum amount in the jackpot pool from the sale of tickets in the game. There is no interest income involved in that scenario because the money isn’t invested. Another way of putting it is that the “rest of the money” does not exist in that instance. The winner receives the lump-sum amount in one payment, with withholdings applied to the entire amount.

Here in Iowa, 24 percent federal withholding applies to a jackpot prize along with 5 percent state withholding. Withholdings are automatically applied and can’t be modified or waived.

The withholdings are designed to cover the jackpot winner’s tax liability from claiming a large lottery prize. But the total taxes that the winner would owe depends upon their financial circumstances outside of winning the lottery.

In some instances, the withholding is not enough, in other instances, it’s too much. The details would be sorted out in the winner’s income-tax filing for the year. That’s one of the reasons the Iowa Lottery always encourages its winners to consult a lawyer or financial planner before they claim their prize.

Scammers Unfortunately Notice Big Jackpots, Too

Scam attempts have been at all-time highs in recent years, and while the criminals behind them run scams of all types, they turn their attention to lottery games when jackpots are high.

In the past week, the Iowa Lottery has heard from multiple Iowans who received suspicious text messages, emails, or social media contacts claiming that they were big lottery prize winners. Those contacted indeed had not won a prize – they had received a message from scammers attempting to con them.

When you win a Powerball prize, you notify the lottery that you are the winner, not the other way around. The Iowa Lottery has records about the winning ticket and where it was purchased, but the lottery does not know the winner’s identity until that person presents the ticket for payment.

The Iowa Lottery keeps security reminders as a permanent feature on its website to help consumers stay safe. You can find the lottery’s Player Security tips here.

Remember The Sales Cut-Off Time

The majority of tickets for a particular drawing are purchased on the day of the drawing. So, if you’re buying a Powerball ticket for tomorrow night s drawing, remember that there is a sales cut-off time involved. Here in Iowa, the sales cut-off is 8:59 p.m. on the night of the drawing.

If you buy a ticket after that, you’ll still have a valid play, it will just be for a future drawing and you won’t be in on that night’s big money.

The cut-off deadline is an automated procedure and can’t be pushed back.

Please Play Responsibly

And as always, the Iowa Lottery reminds everyone that it only takes one ticket to win. Please play responsibly.

Big Powerball Jackpot Keeps Growing!

The giant Powerball^® jackpot for tonight has climbed to an estimated $700 million annuity, $335.7 million cash option!

The jackpot is now the fifth highest in the history of the Powerball game. It’s been growing for nearly three months and was last won on Aug. 3 with a ticket purchased in Pennsylvania.

Here in Iowa, three tickets came oh, so close to at least a share of the giant prize in Monday’s drawing. All matched five of six numbers and were just one number away from winning that night’s $680 million jackpot. The three tickets each won $50,000, and were purchased at:

• QC Mart, 3545 Eastern Ave. in Davenport.
• Kwik Shop, 309 N. Locust St. in Glenwood.
• Fareway, 214 N. Magnolia Drive in Cedar Falls.

But Powerball isn’t the only game with a lofty jackpot. Its smaller cousin, Lotto America^®, is in record jackpot territory for that game. The current Lotto America jackpot stands at an estimated $29.11 million annuity, $13.96 million lump sum for tonight’s drawing.

Lotto America costs $1 to play and has drawings on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The game has a similar design to Powerball and Mega Millions^®, but its jackpots are smaller and a lot easier to win. 

While we’re all having fun with these large jackpots, the Iowa Lottery reminds its players to please play responsibly. It only takes one ticket to have a shot at a prize.

Iowa-Specific Drawings Are Returning In Pick 3 & Pick 4

There’s a procedural update coming in the drawings for our Pick 3 and Pick 4 games, and from a player perspective, it should be pretty seamless.

Iowa-specific drawings in Pick 3 and Pick 4 will begin tomorrow. That means the winning numbers selected in the games will be unique to Iowa.

Pick 3 was introduced in Iowa in 1998 while Pick 4 debuted here in 2003. Through the years, the games’ drawings have been handled in different ways. The Iowa Lottery currently shares drawing results in the games. Since mid-2017, the Iowa Lottery has had an agreement with the Hoosier Lottery to share drawings results in Pick 3 and Pick 4.

We’ve heard over time from Iowa players who say they’d prefer Iowa-only drawings in the games, and we’re now making that change.

Starting with tomorrow’s midday drawings in Pick 3 and Pick 4, we’ll have Iowa-specific drawings. We think the change will help differentiate our games and their features from those in other states. (Dozens of lotteries around the country offer Pick 3 and Pick 4 games, with the features and options available varying from state to state.)

The drawing times in Pick 3 and Pick 4 will remain the same, with the midday drawings in each game held at 12:20 p.m. and the evening drawings held at 10 p.m. The sales cut-off times in the games also will remain unchanged. Tickets can be purchased until noon on the day of the drawing for the midday drawings and until 9:40 p.m. on the day of the drawing for evening drawings.

If you aren’t familiar with Pick 3 and Pick 4, they’re numbers games with a long U.S. history, starting along the East Coast. Pick 3 players choose combinations of three numbers from 0 to 9 while Pick 4 players choose combinations of four numbers from 0 to 9. The prize you could win depends on the type of play you make.

For example, you can choose the option of winning a prize only if your numbers match the winning numbers in the exact order they’re selected in the drawing. That’s called a straight play. Or, you can choose the option of winning a prize if your numbers match the winning numbers in any order. That’s called a box play. There are other options in the games as well.

Prizes in Pick 3 and Pick 4 are smaller than those in big-jackpot games like Powerball® and Mega Millions®, but the odds of winning also are significantly better.

Iowa’s Pick 3 game has a top prize of $3,000, with odds of just 1 in 1,000 of winning it. Iowa’s Pick 4 game offers a top prize of $30,000, with odds of 1:10,000 of winning it. Plays in both games range in cost from 50 cents up to $5.

Starts July 18: Lotto America Is Moving To 3 Drawings Each Week

Here’s a quick reminder as the date comes closer: The Lotto America® game is adding another weekly drawing starting later this month.

On July 18, Lotto America will hold its first Monday drawing, expanding the game’s weekly lineup of drawings to three nights. Moving ahead, they’ll be on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

This change in Lotto America follows the same move in Powerball®. That larger game added Monday drawings last year, expanding its lineup to three weekly drawings, also on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. And at about the same time, the Lucky for Life® game moved from two drawings per week to drawings each night.

The changes are designed to produce more winners and larger, faster-growing jackpots.

Some folks have asked, so I’ll emphasize here that Lotto America’s $1 ticket price, odds of winning, and prizes will remain the same. The only change is the schedule for the game’s drawings, with Mondays being added in.

Lotto America players will continue to choose five numbers from a pool of 52 for the white balls, and one number from a separate pool of 10 for the Star Ball®. The All Star Bonus® add-on feature is available for an additional $1 per play to multiply non-jackpot prizes.

You win the Lotto America jackpot by matching all six of the winning numbers in one of its drawings. Other prize levels in the game range from $2 up to $100,000.

THIS Is How You Update Your Email Address In The VIP Club

We’ve added a step-by-step guide to our website to answer one of the questions we get the most about the VIP Club: How do I change my email address?

We get it. Over time, your email can change as you move, switch Internet providers, update your computer and mobile phone, etc. Some folks said they were having trouble finding the spot under their VIP Club profile to change the email address associated with their account.

We now have a page that maps out the process, including screenshots with the instructions.

To help you get started, I’ve included the initial steps of the process in the image you see here. You’ll first need to log in to your VIP Club account. Once you’ve done that, you’ll see the main links along the left side of the page. Click on the “Account Management” link at the top and that will take you to a page with several options.

The first one listed is “Change Email,” which walks you through the remaining steps you’ll follow. But the last link on the list – Update Profile – also will take you to the spot where you will key in your new address and then click the “Submit” button to save your changes.

It’s a quick and easy process with either link. And having the correct contact information in your account is important because if you win a prize in one of our VIP Club drawings, we’ll use the email and telephone number you’ve provided to contact you!

Do You Have To Live In Iowa To Win?

Here’s a timely question we just got with so many people making travel plans in the next few weeks: Do you have to be an Iowa resident or a U.S. resident to win an Iowa Lottery prize?

The answer in almost all cases is that anyone from anywhere can play the lottery and win. There is only one instance where you have to be from Iowa to win the prize involved, and I’ll cover that here.

I think there is definitely home-state pride involved when someone from Iowa wins big and it’s even more fun when someone from your county or your local community wins the lottery. But people from other states and countries can play and win in the Iowa Lottery’s games. The requirements are the same, no matter where the player is from: You have to be at least 21 years old to buy a ticket and a ticket must be legally purchased, legally possessed and legally presented to the Iowa Lottery to claim a prize.

By its very definition, a lottery is a game that can be won by anyone from anywhere, provided that they have a ticket. In any given year, the vast majority of Iowa Lottery prizes are claimed by Iowans. But our winners this year have also included a Minnesota woman who claimed a $300,000 prize, a Florida man who claimed a $50,000 prize and an Illinois man who claimed a $30,000 prize.

If you win an Iowa Lottery prize and you’re not a resident of this country, you may pay a higher amount in withholding than a U.S. citizen would, but it’s perfectly OK for you to play and win! That situation applies in reverse when we as Iowans play the lottery and win prizes as we’re traveling out of state or out of the country. And bottom line, Iowa Lottery sales provide proceeds to help our state, no matter where the person is from who made the purchase.

Folks from outside of Iowa also can enter our Play It Again® promotions and win prizes in them. (As with prizes in our games, the withholding difference may apply to prizes in our promotions if you’re not a U.S. citizen.)

The only time that Iowa residency is required is in our contests that offer actual lottery tickets as prizes. It’s illegal for us to mail or ship lottery tickets across state lines, so in those instances, you do have to be from Iowa to win.

Here’s a scheduling reminder if you’ve got a prize to claim at an Iowa Lottery office in the next couple weeks: Our offices will be closed on Thursday, Dec. 23, and Friday, Dec. 24, for the Christmas weekend and on Friday, Dec. 31, for the New Year’s holiday.

And as you’re buying tickets this holiday season, please consider our gentle reminder that lottery tickets as gifts should be reserved for the grown-ups on your list. Thank you for playing!

Now You Can Watch Powerball Drawings On Our Website – Live Or On Demand!

We’ve add a new way for you to watch Powerball® drawings on the Iowa Lottery’s website.

Video of the Powerball drawings is now available on the Powerball page of our site. You can see the video boxes along the right side of the page. The top box, which has a blue background, shows a U.S. map with the areas highlighted where Powerball is played. The bottom box contains the actual footage of the latest Powerball drawing.    

The drawings will stream live on our site as they occur at 9:59 p.m. Central time on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Then once the livestream is completed, footage of the latest drawing will remain available on our site until the next Powerball drawing occurs. Once the footage of the new drawing is available, it will replace the previous version so that video of the most recent drawing is always available on our site.

The Powerball drawings are still televised in many areas, but with life feeling busier than ever these days, this new option gives you a place where you can always catch the latest drawing, live or on demand.

2 Sets Of Winning Numbers In Pick 3 Evening Drawing on Saturday (Jan. 30)

UPDATE on Tuesday, Feb. 2: Further details regarding the prize-claim process for the secondary Pick 3 evening drawing on Jan. 30 are now available and noted in red here.

After a technical difficulty with ball-drawing equipment in the Saturday evening Pick 3 drawing, the Iowa Lottery will pay prizes on two sets of winning numbers for that drawing.

The winning numbers originally reported in the Pick 3 evening drawing on Saturday (Jan. 30) will be honored along with those selected in a secondary drawing.

The two sets of official winning numbers for the drawing are: 9-0-2 and 5-7-6.

The results were initially reported as usual for Saturday’s evening Pick 3 drawing. However, subsequent reviews revealed a difficulty with one of the ball-drawing machines.

The winning numbers in Pick 3 drawings are selected using three mechanical ball-drawing machines, each of which contains a set of white lottery balls numbered 0-9. Reviews of Saturday’s evening Pick 3 drawing revealed that as one of the machines was selecting a number, a door on its drum holding drawing balls came open. A drawing ball was still selected by the machine and the exact timing of the difficulty was not initially apparent.

After conducting the review, lottery officials determined that in an abundance of caution, they would hold a secondary drawing, with those results also reported for Saturday’s evening Pick 3 drawing. The secondary drawing was held at 7 p.m. Sunday.

In the initial Pick 3 evening drawing on Saturday, Iowa players won 49 prizes totaling $2,950 in winnings. They won 123 prizes totaling $12,240 in winnings in the secondary drawing.

Here are the prize results for each set of winning numbers.

While prizes in the initial Saturday evening Pick 3 drawing can be claimed through the Iowa Lottery’s usual procedures, any Iowa prizes won in that night’s secondary Pick 3 drawing need to be claimed directly from the lottery and processed at lottery headquarters in Clive. Players should follow the instructions on the “Claiming Prizes” page of the lottery website. The mailing address for the Iowa Lottery is:

Iowa Lottery
13001 University Ave.
Clive, IA 50325-8225.

Players also can visit any of the lottery’s regional offices to present Pick 3 tickets they believe won prizes in the secondary drawing. In some instances, the claim involved may require additional documentation and review, so the prizes may not immediately be paid.

Players who believe they may have discarded a ticket that won a prize in the secondary drawing or who have other questions regarding the status of a Pick 3 ticket should contact the Iowa Lottery directly at 515-725-7900 or Wmaster@ialottery.com.

Pick 3 prizes in Iowa must be claimed within 90 days of the drawing for which they were eligible.

Pick 3 has been offered in Iowa since 1998. It features a top prize of $3,000 and odds of just 1:1,000 of winning it. Another intriguing aspect of the game comes in the variety of ways players can choose to play it. Plays in Pick 3 range from 50 cents up to $5 for the chance to match a three-digit combination of numbers from 000 to 999.

There are several ways to win in Pick 3. Players can choose a straight play, meaning that if the winning numbers are 1-2-3, they win a prize for matching that combination exactly: 1-2-3. Another option is to choose a box play, which allows players to win for matching the winning numbers but not in the exact order drawn (if the winning numbers are 1-2-3, you win for any play with those numbers, such as 3-2-1). Players also can choose a straight/box play, which allows them to win for matching the numbers in the exact order drawn or in any order.

Player Mail: Important Details Some Get Wrong About Pick 3 & Pick 4

A player who reached out to us with questions about the Pick 3 and Pick 4 games unfortunately had a few details wrong about how the drawings work in those games, and I’m sharing the clarifications we provided here on the blog in case you’ve ever wondered the same thing.

The player thought that the combination of 1-4-5 in Pick 3 is the same as the combination of 5-1-4. We explained that they’re completely different. Here’s why:

Three separate drawing machines are used in each Pick 3 drawing, so the selection of each winning number has no impact on the other numbers selected. 

For example, if 1 is selected as the first number in a drawing, it also can be selected as the second and third numbers in that same drawing. Each of the machines used in a Pick 3 drawing has its own set of drawing balls numbered 0-9, and that machine operates independently from the other two.

That’s different from the way the drawings work in games like Powerball and Mega Millions.
I’ll use Powerball as an example here: The first machine in a Powerball drawing contains white balls numbered 1-69 and the second machine contains red balls numbered 1-26. When one of the machines selects one of the numbers it contains, that number can’t be selected again by that machine during the drawing because that number already been taken out of play for the remainder of that machine’s part in the drawing.

That’s not how Pick 3 and Pick 4 work. They’re specifically designed to allow for winning combinations of identical numbers like 3-3-3 or 4-4-4-4. But they also allow combinations like 1-7-4 and 2-3-6-7 where each number is different.

Something would be wrong in the games if numbers couldn’t be selected more than once in a drawing. It’s a twist that makes Pick 3 and Pick 4 so unique and interesting to play!

If you’re a visual learner and it helps you to see how the drawings work, click here to see video of a Pick 3 drawing.

Conversation Starter: What Do Those Frequency Charts Mean?

Something we keep on our website for fun has sparked a lot of conversations over time, and while some folks swear they can use it to make predictions, it really and truly is just for fun. There’s no future-telling involved.

 

On our website, we have frequency charts that show the number of times a particular number has been selected in the drawings for our lotto games.

 

Do you like the number 8? It’s been selected 211 times as a white ball and 67 times as the Powerball since 1997. Are you partial to the number 39? It’s come up 84 times as a white ball and 11 times as the Mega Ball since 2010.

 

What’s all that indicate? Nothing, really. It’s just fun to track the drawing results. Lottery games and their drawings are based solely on random outcomes. There truly is no way to predict which numbers will be selected next in our games.

 

There’s only one “formula” that works when it comes to your chance of winning a lottery prize: You have to buy a ticket to have a chance to win!

 

So why is there such a variation in the number of times that certain numbers have been selected in lottery drawings? Part of it is just random statistics -- you really can’t predict which numbers will be drawn next. But a big part also is how long some of the numbers have been a part of the games.

 

Powerball and Mega Millions have both been redesigned several times through the years, with the numbers available to be played in them changing as the games have been updated.  Changes like that have a big impact on the number of times some numbers have been selected – or were even eligible to be selected in the drawings.

 

So, if you like the frequency charts in our lotto games, go right ahead and have fun with them. Click here for the frequency chart in Powerball, here for the chart in Mega Millions, here for the Lotto America chart, and here for the Lucky for Life chart.

 

You never know when your favorite number might move up on the list!

Did You Notice? Something Unusual Happened In Powerball

Something pretty unusual has happened twice now in Powerball in just the past two weeks. Did you catch it?

Last night’s $80 million jackpot was won with a ticket in New York, but that’s not what I’m talking about. The unusual thing has to do with the Power Play feature in the game.

The 10X was selected as the Power Play multiplier in last night’s drawing and in the drawing a week earlier, on Aug. 28.

Overall, the 10X has been selected as the Power Play number just four times: once in 2017, once in 2018, and now twice so far in 2019.

When you add the Power Play option to your Powerball ticket, it will multiply any prize you win (except the Match 5 prize and the jackpot) by the number selected as the Power Play multiplier in that night’s drawing. A Powerball ticket costs $2 per play, and you can add the Power Play option for an extra $1 per play. 

When the Powerball drawing occurs, the first five numbers and the Powerball are selected by the iconic ball-drawing equipment we’ve all seen through the years, and there is a separate drawing to determine the Power Play number.   

In last night’s drawing, the Power Play number was 10, so the lucky folks who added the Power Play option to their tickets won 10 times the regular amount of their prize!

Here in Iowa, a total of 1,612 plays won prizes last night that were multiplied by 10X. The biggest of them was at the Match 4 level, meaning that the ticket involved matched four of the first five numbers and missed the Powerball. That ticket initially won a $100 prize, but with the Power Play option added, it won $1,000!

It’s relatively unusual for 10X to be selected as the Power Play multiplier because it’s not always available. When the jackpot for the next Powerball drawing is an estimated $150 million or less, a 10X is added to the pool of numbers that can be selected as the Power Play. When the jackpot in the game is more than $150 million, the 10X feature isn’t available, so the multipliers in the pool are 2X-5X.

With the 10X included, there are 43 numbers in the Power Play pool. Of those numbers, 24 are 2s, 13 are 3s, three are 4s, two are 5s, and one is a 10. Here’s what that looks like in table form:

43 Numbers In Power Play Pool
2X = 24
3X = 13
4X = 3
5X = 2
10X = 1

(When the 10X isn’t included, there are 42 numbers in the Power Play pool, and the breakdown of the rest remains the same.)

So, does it stand to reason that the Power Play number will be 2 more often? Yes. But the other multipliers also have a shot. And sometimes the 10X will come up!

Only In Iowa: Powerball Players Have Chance At $1 Million Prize

Now is your chance: For the next three weeks, Powerball® players in Iowa can enter a promotion for a shot at a $1 million prize.

Any Powerball ticket purchased in Iowa from today through 8:59 a.m. on June 18 can be entered into the “Woo Hoo A Million For You Giveaway.” After the three-week entry period, we’ll hold a drawing on June 19 to determine the winner of the promotion’s $1 million prize.

Call it our version of recycling! Back in April, a $1 million Powerball prize expired in central Iowa without being claimed. Someone bought that ticket at a Casey’s store in Nevada for the Powerball drawing on April 11, 2018. But the prize was never claimed, so it expired on April 11 of this year.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a $1 million prize has ever gone unclaimed in Iowa. We repeatedly called attention to the prize to try to find the winner, and now we’re dedicating our efforts to ensuring that this prize money finds its way to a new Iowa Lottery winner.

This is a truly Iowa-made effort: Our leadership team at the Iowa Lottery thought through how we could give away this $1 million, one of the district sales representatives in our Cedar Rapids office came up with the promotion name, and only Powerball tickets purchased in Iowa can be entered into the promotion for a shot at the prize.

Please note this important detail: Simply buying a Powerball ticket during the next three weeks won’t automatically enter you into the promotion. You have to be a member of the lottery’s free VIP Club and enter your ticket in your VIP Club account to be entered. Click here for a direct link to the VIP Club homepage where you can find details about joining if you’re not already a member. 

You’ve heard us say many times that the money from lottery prizes that expire without being claimed in Iowa goes into our prize pools for future games and promotions. Well, this big unclaimed prize gives us the chance to demonstrate that!

Each eligible Powerball ticket entered will count as one entry into the promotion, regardless of the number of plays on it or how many drawings the plays may span.

The lottery retailer that sells the promotion’s $1 million-winning ticket will receive a $1,000 bonus from the lottery. That also was the case with the $1 million ticket in Nevada: Even though it was never claimed, Casey’s still got a $1,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling that ticket at one of its stores. Our retailers work hard every day to sell our tickets, and this is one more way we can thank them.

We know that Iowa has faced some really challenging weather-related events this year, and folks in a large swath of our state are still finding their way through those difficulties. Maybe the buzz surrounding this unclaimed prize mystery and new promotion can give us all a short break to think about something else – and then as Iowans, we’ll get back to work to ensure our state recovers. And the Iowa Lottery will keep doing its best to raise proceeds to help with vital state causes right here at home.

48 Winners Headed To Bball Tourney In Des Moines!

Our Suite Seats promotion ended yesterday, and 48 lucky winners scored tickets to next month’s men’s basketball tournament at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. Click here to see the list of winners!

 

We had winners from all around Iowa, and even one from Burnsville, Minn.! Each prize package includes a pair of tickets in an exclusive Lottery suite on either Thursday, March 21 or Saturday, March 23, along with food, beverages and a parking pass – everything they’ll need for a fun time at the tournament!

 

If you’re one of the winners, please check your inbox for an email on how to claim your prize.

Pick 3 & Pick 4: Not A Series Of Numbers?

A player who reached out to us with questions about our Pick 3 and Pick 4 games had an important detail about them wrong, and we wondered if other people have thought the same thing. It’s not a series of numbers that's selected in those games’ drawings, but rather, individual numbers that are chosen by separate ball-drawing machines.

The player had wondered why it’s possible that the same number can be selected more than once in a drawing, or why the same combination of numbers can be selected in multiple drawings. The short answer is that’s exactly how those games are designed to work. There would be something wrong in the games if numbers couldn’t be selected more than once.

In Pick 3 and Pick 4, separate sets of drawing balls numbered 0-9 are loaded into multiple drawing machines so that each machine contains identical sets of numbers. Each machine then selects a number, and the result from each of those separate drawings has no impact on the others. The odds are the same for any number being selected. That’s how a winning combination like 2-2-2 or 1-1-1-1 can be and have been selected. That’s also how the same combination of winning numbers can be selected in more than one drawing.

That’s different than some other lottery games where the drawing balls are all loaded into one machine that selects all of the winning numbers.

It’s a twist that I think makes Pick 3 and Pick 4 so unique and interesting to play!

Powerball Jackpot Climbs To Estimated $750 Million For Saturday

We’re apparently not done with this jackpot hub-bub just yet!

 

Even though the huge Mega Millions jackpot was won in Tuesday’s drawing, Powerball’s top prize continues to climb, and it also has reached an eye-popping level: It’s an estimated $750 million annuity, or $428.6 million lump-sum option, for Saturday.

 

The Powerball jackpot is now the fourth-largest lottery prize ever offered in the United States and the third-largest in the history of the game.

 

The winning numbers in last night’s $602.5 million Powerball drawing were: 3-21-45-53-56 and Powerball 22. The Power Play number was 2.

 

A total of 43,097 plays purchased by Iowa Lottery players won prizes in last night’s drawing, and the other trends we have seen from other recent drawings continued to hold true. Nearly all of the plays purchased in Iowa for last night’s Powerball drawing were easy picks (91.5 percent to be exact), meaning that players let the lottery terminal randomly pick the numbers on their tickets.

 

And what about that ‘coverage’ issue you’ve heard us talking about? The odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball are about 1 in 292.2 million because that’s how many different ways you can combine the numbers available in the game to make a play. By looking at nationwide sales, lottery officials can estimate how many of all the possible combinations have been purchased for a particular drawing. About 36 percent of all the possible combinations were purchased for last night’s drawing.

Jackpots Continue To Climb, Powerball Drawing Should Be Back On TV Tomorrow

Mother Nature has definitely made herself known when it came to this week’s Powerball drawings! Some of our players noticed that Wednesday night’s drawing couldn't be televised and checked in with us to make sure everyone was OK.

With Hurricane Michael roaring ashore Wednesday afternoon in Florida, that night’s Powerball drawing couldn’t be held at the drawing studio in Tallahassee. It was instead conducted at a backup site in Urbandale here in Iowa and as always was under the observation of drawing officials, security personnel and independent auditors. The drawing wasn’t broadcast and only security-camera footage was available. That footage was posted online yesterday, and although there isn’t audio with it, you can see the machines selecting the drawing balls with a close-up shot on the winning numbers at the end.

We anticipate that tomorrow night’s Powerball drawing will be held as normal at 9:59 p.m. central time at the drawing studio in Florida, and it will be televised.

And although the hurricane continued to dump heavy rain across much of the South after it made landfall, tonight’s Mega Millions drawing also is expected to be televised as normal at 10 p.m. central from its studio in Atlanta, Georgia. Tonight’s estimated Mega Millions jackpot is $548 million annuity, $309.2 million lump-sum option.

Tomorrow night’s Powerball jackpot stands at an estimated $314 million annuity. $179.4 million lump-sum option.

Mega Millions Jackpot Passes Half-A-Billion Mark For Tuesday's Drawing

UPDATE: The Mega Millions jackpot was increased to $522 million ($308.1 cash) for the July 24 drawing. Just a reminder to our players to please play responsibly. It only takes one ticket for the chance to win.

The Mega Millions jackpot has topped the half-billion mark for Tuesday’s drawing, making it the fifth largest in the game’s history! Here are the details you need to know:

The latest figures put the jackpot at an estimated $512 million annuity, $303.4 million cash option for Tuesday’s drawing.

Tickets in the game cost $2 per play. For an extra $1 you can add the Megaplier option to multiply your prize from 2 to 5 times (except the jackpot).

If you’re looking to buy tickets for the big drawing, keep in mind that the sales cut-off time is 8:59 p.m. the day of the drawing. Mega Millions drawings are held on Tuesdays and Fridays at 10 p.m.

You can check the lottery website, the LotteryPlus mobile app, go to your local lottery retailer or call the Winning Numbers line at 515-323-4633 to find out the winning numbers after they’ve been posted. Good luck to everyone playing. Let’s go Iowa!

We've Got An App For That -- And Here's How You Use It

Here are all the inside tips about using our mobile app to check your tickets, enter our promotions, find the nearest location that sells lottery tickets, and more! 

Who Says Repeat Numbers Are Bad?

We sometimes hear from folks who ask why the same number can appear multiple times on the same lotto ticket. The short answer is that it’s a security feature purposefully built into our games. And yesterday, it resulted in a $50,000 prize for a Des Moines man.

I’ve included a picture here of his ticket. As you can see, he bought five easy-pick plays for the Powerball drawing on March 31, and it was Play D on the ticket that matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball to win a $50,000 prize. Dean O’Donnell claimed his prize yesterday at lottery headquarters in Clive. 

We’ve circled the repeat numbers on his ticket to point out that numbers can and do come up in multiple plays within a game like Powerball. That feature is a purposeful part of the game to ensure that someone couldn’t try to guarantee themselves a jackpot by buying up all of the possible combinations that can be played. It would be extremely difficult to do that because there are hundreds of millions of combinations in Powerball. But even if you did try it, someone else also could have one of those combinations, meaning that you would have to split the jackpot.

If you buy multiple plays at a time, the only way to ensure that a number doesn’t repeat on your ticket is to choose your own numbers by using a play slip or our app. But as you can see, repeat numbers can be a good thing – they definitely made the difference for this winner!

Mega Millions Jackpot Soars For Tonight's Drawing

Update at 10:15 p.m.: Here are the winning numbers in tonight's Mega Millions drawing: 11-28-31-46-59 and Mega Ball 1. The Megaplier number was 3. Good luck on your tickets!  

The Mega Millions jackpot topped the half-billion mark for tonight’s drawing, making it the fourth largest in the game’s history! Here are the details you need to know:

The latest figures put the jackpot at an estimated $521 million annuity, $317.2 million cash option for tonight’s drawing.

Tickets in the game cost $2 per play. For an extra $1 you can add the Megaplier option to multiply your prize from 2 to 5 times (except the jackpot).

If you’re looking to buy tickets for tonight’s big drawing, keep in mind that the sales cut-off time is 8:59 p.m. Mega Millions drawings are held on Tuesdays and Fridays at 10 p.m.

You can check the lottery website, the LotteryPlus mobile app, go to your local lottery retailer or call the Winning Numbers line at 515-323-4633 to find out the winning numbers after they’ve been posted. Good luck to everyone playing. Let’s go Iowa!

We’re Hiring For A Drawing Staffer

 

Here’s a quick hiring alert as we head into the holiday weekend. It is the Labor Day holiday after all, so it seems appropriate to talk about jobs! 
 
The Iowa Lottery has an opening for a part-time staffer to work our lotto-game drawings. All of the details are on the State of Iowa Employment website, so check out the listing to learn more.

The deadline to apply is Sept. 13.

 

Early Details Of Iowa’s Powerball Results

Early details show that Iowa Lottery players won nearly 50,000 prizes in tonight’s Powerball jackpot drawing, and the game’s giant top prize ended up being even higher than the latest estimates leading into the drawing.

The Iowa winners included one ticket that came within one number of having at least a share of the jackpot. Strong sales nationwide pushed tonight’s jackpot to $541.9 million annuity, or $343.2 million lump-sum option. Full details, including the locations where the big winning tickets were sold in Iowa and whether there was a jackpot winner nationwide, will be available tomorrow.

Here is an initial look at tonight’s Iowa results:

A total of 49,710 plays purchased by Iowa Lottery players won prizes ranging from $4 up to $50,000 One ticket purchased in Iowa matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball to win a $50,000 prize.

The winning numbers in tonight’s Powerball jackpot drawing were: 17-19-39-43-68 and Powerball 13. The Power Play® number was 4. Complete overall results for the drawing are not yet available tonight because some lotteries in the game are still processing records to determine their in-state results.  

Iowa Lottery players bought nearly $2.7 million in Powerball tickets for tonight's drawing, including more than $1.4 million in tickets today alone.

The odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball are about 1 in 292.2 million because there are about 292.2 million ways you can combine the numbers in the game to make a play. By tracking sales, lottery officials can estimate how many of the possible combinations have been purchased for a particular drawing. About 32 percent of all the possible combinations were purchased in tonight's drawing.

 

New First: Powerball & Mega Millions Jackpots Top $300 Million At Same Time

We joined other lotteries around the country in some research this week and it’s now been confirmed: This is the first time ever that the jackpots in Powerball® and Mega Millions® have topped the $300 million mark at the same time.

Powerball’s big prize is an estimated $307 million annuity ($193.2 million lump-sum option) for tonight’s drawing, while the Mega Millions jackpot is an estimated $382 million annuity ($238.3 million lump-sum option) for Friday. That ranks both jackpots in the Top 25 for each game.

The fact that both games are seeing big jackpots at the same time is extremely unusual, and it speaks to the unpredictable factor of lottery jackpots: You just never know when the next big winner will hit.   

Could One Person Win Both?

Is it possible for one person to win the jackpot in both games? The short answer is: Yes. But the odds of that occurring are long.

The odds of winning the jackpot in Mega Millions are about 1 in 258.9 million. The odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball are about 1 in 292.2 million. (Those figures represent the total number of combinations available to play in each game.) To calculate the odds of winning both jackpots, multiply 258.9 million by 292.2 million. There are a lot of zeroes involved! The odds of winning both jackpots are about 1 in 75 quadrillion (that’s 75,000,000,000,000,000).

Winning both jackpots is something fun to daydream about, but it’s perhaps the ultimate long shot. That’s why we emphasize responsible play. Have fun playing the lottery, but remember to play with your head, not over your head.

What’s Behind The Numbers?

Mega Millions and Powerball are both well known for their giant jackpots but before January 2010, they were sold by separate groups of lotteries. U.S. lottery directors reached an agreement back then that allowed both games to be sold by all states. When more states sell a particular game, there’s a bigger population base playing it. That in turn produces higher sales overall and helps the jackpot climb higher.

Time also is a factor. The jackpots in both games have been growing for several weeks. The Powerball jackpot was last won on June 10 with a ticket purchased in California. It’s been growing since that time to hit its current level. Players can buy tickets here in Iowa for tonight’s Powerball jackpot up until 8:59 p.m. The Mega Millions jackpot was last won in the drawing on April 28, also with a ticket purchased in California. Players can buy tickets in Iowa for the next Mega Millions drawing up until 8:59 p.m. Friday. Tickets purchased after those deadlines will be for an upcoming drawing and won’t have a shot at that night’s big prize.

Not The Biggest Jackpots Ever, However 

Mega Millions and Powerball have both seen jackpots much larger than their current amounts, but not at the same time. Powerball currently has the world record lottery jackpot: a prize of nearly $1.6 billion that was split in January 2016 by three tickets in California, Florida and Tennessee. The largest Mega Millions jackpot to date is a $656 million prize won in March 2012 by three tickets in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland.

All or Nothing Game Ending, Drawing Times Changing For Pick 3 & Pick 4

Changes are coming to three of our lotto games on June 30 and July 1.Changes are coming to three of our lotto games on June 30 and July 1.

On June 30, the final drawing will be held in the “All or Nothing™” game and on July 1, the drawing times will change in the Pick 3 and Pick 4 games, giving players longer to buy tickets each evening.

All or Nothing is a joint game offered by Iowa and Minnesota in which players can win the $100,000 top prize by matching all 12 or none of the winning numbers in one of its drawings. The game has been offered since January 2014, and Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich said that although it initially sold well, sales have tapered off over time.

Because the All or Nothing game is ending effective June 30, the lottery is required to limit the number of multi-draw tickets clerks may sell beginning June 23. A countdown to the last drawing will begin on this day and the number of multi-draw tickets available will be reduced with each drawing until the game’s final evening drawing on June 30.

Effective July 1, the drawings in Iowa’s Pick 3 and Pick 4 games will be held at slightly different times from their current schedule and the sales cutoff times for these games will be shortened. Here’s the changes: 

• Midday Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawings will be held at approximately 12:20 p.m. (currently these drawings are held at about 12:50 p.m.)
• Evening Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawings will be held at approximately 10 p.m. (currently these drawings are held at about 8:50 p.m.)
• Sales cutoff times prior to the drawings will be shortened to just 20 minutes from the current 50-minute delay.

Rich said that as technology has gotten faster, the processing that the lottery has to complete before its drawings can be done in a shorter period of time. 

As the lottery continues to monitor its game offerings, players can expect more improvements and changes to other lotto products in the coming months.

Player Mail: Not For Another 10,000 Drawings!

I’m writing this time around about the odds of winning in our Pick 3 and Pick 4 games after covering that topic in an exchange with a player from Winterset. The issue of odds can be a confusing area, but let’s see if we can find our way through it.

It appears the player thought that if the odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 10,000, as they are in Pick 4, then a particular combination of winning numbers can only be selected every 10,000 drawings. But that’s not the case.

The odds of winning in our lotto games are based upon all the different ways you can combine the available numbers to make a play. In Pick 4, the odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 10,000 because there are 10,000 ways you can combine the numbers 0-9 to make a four-digit straight play. And in Pick 3, the odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 1,000 because there are 1,000 ways you can combine the numbers 0-9 to make a three-digit straight play.

To dig into it even deeper, each Pick 4 drawing is actually comprised of four separate drawings – one for each of the winning numbers chosen. The numbers 0-9 are available each time, making the odds of matching each of the four numbers 1 in 10. The math looks like this: 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 = 10,000.

Each lottery drawing is a unique, random event, and the outcome of one drawing has no impact on the next. A particular set of numbers can be selected in back-to-back drawings. Or, it could be a long time before that set is selected again. That’s precisely how random drawings are supposed to work.        

But what about sets of numbers that look similar? Let’s take these two combinations as an example: 2-6-7-5 and 6-2-5-7. Remember that in a game like Pick 4, each of the numbers is selected in a separate drawing with a pool of 0-9 available. So in the example, there wasn’t a duplicate in any of the four spots, let alone the combination as a whole. But there could have been, and that would be OK.

Has that made it more clear, or did all this math just give you a headache?!

Player Mail: Do The Ball Drawings & Computer Draws Match?

Here’s an interesting question we got on Facebook in case you’ve ever wondered the same thing. A man named Travis had this question: “If a computer randomly picks the winning numbers for lottery games, how are you then able to draw the same numbers with the balls on live TV?”

It’s an interesting – but mistaken – idea that we don’t think we've been asked about before. The quick answer is that the results in lottery drawings are determined by ball-drawing equipment or computerized random-number generator equipment, but not both.

The drawings in Powerball^® and Mega Millions^®, as you likely know, are conducted live on television using ball-drawing machines. The drawings in some of our other games, such as Pick 3 and Pick 4, and our VIP Club drawings, are conducted using random-number generators.

It’s an either/or equation, but not both. Both types of equipment have their own pluses and minuses. The key factor is to have the necessary security controls to protect the integrity of the games, and that is something we’re constantly working on as technology advances.

So, it’s one or the other, but not both. Great question!

 

Player Mail: Are Drawing Results Always Posted At The Same Time On Your Website?

Here’s a question that came our way this week: Are the results from our drawings always posted at the same time on our website?

The quick answer is that we obviously want people to have our drawing results as quickly as possible, but there are realities involved that mean we can’t always post the information at exactly the same time each day.

Sometimes it takes longer to balance all of the sales figures for a particular drawing. Sometimes we might have a new staffer at work who is understandably taking a little longer to go through procedures the first few times. Sometimes automated systems may not run as they should, and that means that processes have to be done manually, which can take more time.

We’ll continue to do our best to provide our results as quickly as we can. But I’ve said this before about other things and it applies here as well: As long as human beings are involved in any process, things will vary a little.   

One way to get the results without having to check our website is to sign up for the lottery’s winning numbers emails, so our drawing results will come to your inbox each morning. Click here to learn how to sign up for those emails.

Player Mail: Do The Drawing Balls All Weigh The Same?

Here’s a great question to send us into the weekend, and it comes from a woman named Jamie on Facebook who asks: “For the games that require ball drawings like Powerball, Hot Lotto, Mega Millions, etc., are the balls weighed before the drawings and does each ball weigh the exact same amount?”
 
The answer is: Yes, on both counts! Those are just part of the security procedures in place for our drawings. I’ve blogged about the security behind our drawings a few times, including this 2008 entry that includes a lot of detail.

Not only are the numbered balls weighed, they’re also X-rayed and measured to meet precise size, weight and density specifications. There are multiple sets of balls and machines that can be used in lottery drawings, and the equipment that is used in a particular drawing is randomly selected as part of the security procedures.