ialottery blog

What The Odds Mean – And What They DON’T

A question that just came our way is a reminder that sometimes, you can’t touch on a topic enough. I’m talking about the odds of winning in our games – what they mean and what they don’t.

A player reached out to us after buying two tickets in the Lucky Numbers Game Book and not winning a prize. The player noticed that the game’s overall odds of winning are 1 in 2.51 and apparently thought that meant one of their tickets was guaranteed to win. But that’s not correct.

Think of it like a deck of cards: With four suits in a deck (spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts), there’s about a 1 in 4 chance that the next card up will be in a specific suit. But once you shuffle the deck, you can go through a lot of cards in a row before you find a card in a specific suit.

It’s the same thing in our scratch games: Winning tickets are randomly distributed throughout the game so no one – not even those of us who work at the lottery – knows when or where the next big winner will hit.

We’re not joking, we’re not lying, and our odds aren’t wrong.

We made the video below to explain the odds. I hope its visuals help tell the story.

The ‘Lucky Game Book’ Is Now Hitting Stores

Over the past few weeks, we’ve gotten questions from players wondering when a new game book would hit the market, and the answer is: Right now!

Ever since that game book product containing multiple pages of playing space debuted in Iowa back in 2013, it’s been extremely popular with players. We’ve kept a version of it in the marketplace ever since.

“The Lucky Game Book” is the newest one, and it began sales on Oct. 31. Some locations may still have an existing supply of “The Little Black Game Book” in stock, and as those tickets sell through, they’ll be replaced by the new game. The Little Black Game Book hit the market back in February 2016, so we’re nearing the end of that supply of tickets.

 

Player Suggestions For Future Versions Of The 'Game Book'

Our latest version of the “Game Book” remains popular after a year on the market, and two recent suggestions from players about it were really insightful in terms of helping us design future games.

With six pages of games within each ticket, our “Little Black Game Book” offers many ways to win. And in the last few weeks, players have offered suggestions about two of the games that it contains. They referenced “Prize Line Bingo” on page 2 and “In$tant Winner” on page 4.

One player said she knew right away that she didn’t win a prize on the Prize Line Bingo game within the Game Book because she didn’t get a number under each of the Bingo letters in the “Caller’s Card” section. (Those familiar with this game know that they need to complete a B-I-N-G-O line to win a prize.)

After receiving that feedback, we reviewed the specifics of that section with our game-development team here at the lottery. Because numbers are randomly assigned within the Caller’s Card area. there’s no guarantee that you’ll receive at least one of each of the Bingo letters. But we know that one of the reasons players choose our Game Book scratch tickets is for the extended play that they offer. So, the folks on our development team said they’ll make adjustments so that in the future, Bingo games within a Game Book will have at least one of each of the Bingo letters in the Caller’s Card section.

Bingo is just one of the games available within the pages of any Game Book ticket, so there are multiple chances to win every time, but we want to do our best to produce a fun playing experience on each page!

Another player offered a suggestion about the In$tant Winner game within the current Game Book. In that game, one of the ways you can win is if you reveal a prize amount in one of the “Instant Bonus” circles. The nonwinning play symbols in that area include a “dollar,” “piggybank,” coin, etc.

A woman emailed us last week and said she found the dollar-bill symbol in that area confusing. She said she thought she should have won $1 after uncovering that symbol.

We’re reviewing that section and may use different symbols in the future in games with a similar play style. But we’ll make any such adjustments carefully, as there may be as many interpretations about the meaning of symbols as there are people in the world.

Have additional comments or suggestions about our Little Black Game Book? Let us know in the comments section below, or email us at Wmaster@ialottery.com. We always appreciate your feedback!

Iowa Wins! ‘Game Book’ Receives Top Honor

You liked it so much that it sold out in four months -- and the experts have noticed! Our “Game Book” has been named the best new instant-scratch game in 2013 by the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL). That’s the industry group that represents all the lotteries in the United States, Canada and Mexico. So, yeah, bring on the bragging rights for IOWA!

We found out early last month that Game Book was one of the two finalists for the big award out of 13 entries. And last night at the NASPL annual conference in Rhode Island, Game Book was named the winner! w00t!

This is the third time in recent years that an Iowa Lottery game has won an award for innovation. We’re always trying out new things to give you fun choices when it comes to playing the lottery. We know that not every new idea will work, but we’ve all got to “try, try again,” right?
   
When Game Book debuted in January, it was the first product of its kind here in Iowa. We ordered what would have been a two-year supply of tickets in a $20 game and you bought them out in four months. The Game Book set several sales records along the way and it helped push overall lottery sales to record levels in the 2013 fiscal year.

Each $20 Game Book ticket was actually a six-page booklet that had eight scratch games, all in one ticket. The Game Book had prizes ranging from $20 up to $100,000 and you told us you really liked that mix of prizes and the extended playing time that the game offered.

As the Game Book’s incredible run continued, we realized that we’d run out of tickets a lot sooner than we’d thought, so we ordered a second game book product. It’s the “Blazing Hot 7s Game Book” that you see in stores today. It’s got seven games in each six-page booklet and it’s also selling quickly. 

Our recent awards run started back in 2005, when an Iowa Lottery game won two different product-of-the-year awards. “Quarter Play” was the world’s first battery-powered, electronic version of a scratch game. It was named product of the year by both NASPL and the Public Gaming Research Institute, a Kirkland, Wash.,-based organization that researches the gaming industry.

And in 2006, another Iowa Lottery game won a top industry honor. “Lucky 7s” was a double-sided game that combined two popular products into one. Its tickets featured a traditional scratch game on the front and a pull-tab game on the back. It was chosen as the 2006 lottery product of the year by PGRI.

You Liked It, Now ‘Game Book’ Is Up For Game Of The Year!

You made the “Game Book” one of our most popular scratch games in the Iowa Lottery’s 28-year history, and apparently, the experts agree! Game Book is now in the running for a big honor: It’s one of two finalists for the lottery industry’s Best New Instant Game award in North America.  

Lotteries in the United States, Canada and Mexico are members of an industry organization called the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL). Each year, NASPL awards are given to games and campaigns that have been identified as innovative and successful.

Out of all the games nominated this year, it’s down to just two for best new instant-scratch game: Our Game Book and the “Big Cash Crossword” from our neighbors to the north, the Minnesota State Lottery.

We’ve blogged about the Game Book a couple times here before. It began sales back in January, and even though we ordered what normally would have been a two-year supply of tickets for a $20 game, they sold out in four months. And that led us to move up the start date of our current game book product, the “Blazing Hot 7s” game. It hit the market in June and also has proven popular with our players.

Just like its predecessor, Blazing Hot 7s offers multiple games spread across six pages of playing fun, all in one booklet. The game’s top prize is $100,000 and you can win multiple times in each booklet.

So which game will come out on top? We’ll have to wait a few more weeks to find out. 
A panel of judges will review the two finalists, evaluating their innovative aspects, cost/benefit analysis and other features including visual appeal and ease of play.

The NASPL awards will be given during an annual conference in early October. So, may the best game win! (But I have to admit I’m pulling for Iowa!)

First Top-Prize Winner On Game Book’s First Day!

Well, that didn't take long! I just blogged yesterday about the "Blazing Hot 7s" game book beginning sales, and we've already had its first top-prize winner!

Congratulations to Kelly Lorenz of Marengo, who claimed his $100,000 prize this morning at our Cedar Rapids office! Click here to see Kelly's story.

I'd say Blazing Hot 7s is off to a good start! And don't worry, there are still nine more $100,000 prizes available in the game, not to mention ten prizes of $10,000 and thousands of prizes from $75 up to $1,000.

New ‘Game Book’ Drops Today

We've been getting calls from folks wondering when our next game book product would go on sale and I'm excited to say it's happening today!

The "Blazing Hot 7s" game book is being delivered right now to retail locations across the state, so look for it in your area.

Our first Game Book, released back in January, is one of the most successful instant-scratch games in the Iowa Lottery's 27-year history. We ordered what normally would have been a two-year supply of tickets for a $20 game and they sold out in four months. There may be a handful of Game Book tickets still in stores right now, but they are VERY few and far between!

Everyone really seems to understand the value of a product that offers multiple games in one ticket. Just like its predecessor, Blazing Hot 7s offers multiple games spread across six pages of playing fun, all in one booklet. The game's top prize is $100,000 and you can win multiple times in each booklet.

Can’t wait to see how this game book does!

Just How Many Top Prizes Are There?

The same question has come our way this week from a couple different people on Facebook, so we’re sharing our answer here with you as well, in case you’ve wondered about the same thing!
 
Just about every day, someone takes home the top prize in one of our scratch games or pull-tab games. And that’s where some confusion has apparently come in. Some people have thought that if someone wins the top prize in one of those games, there aren’t any other top prizes left!

But when we release scratch games and pull-tab games they always have multiple top prizes. It could be five, 15 or even more than 90, as is the case with our popular “Crossword” game.

Let’s take our Game Book as an example. We had our first top prize winner of $100,000 in that game in January. A couple different people have commented on Facebook that if she’s already won the top prize, then why play the game? Well, in fact, that game has a total of six top prizes of $100,000, so five are still up for grabs!

When the last top prize IS claimed in one of our scratch or pull-tab games, we pull that game from the market. An automatic notification goes out and the pick-ups begin right away. We try to err on the side of our players as much as possible! 

If you’re ever curious about how many remaining prizes there are in our games, that list is always available on our website. The remaining prizes list is updated Monday-Friday, first thing in the morning. So check it out and maybe that will help you to determine which game you play next!

Lucky Twitter Contest Winners Get to Try New Ticket!

Three lucky winners in today’s Twitter contest get their chance to try a brand new $20 scratch game!

We asked an easy question today and it showed, because almost everyone got the answer right! The question was: What should you do with your ticket to make it yours? And of course the answer was: sign it!

Signing your ticket is a very important part in the prize claim process. You can read more about that and other player security matters on our website.

The winners each will receive a “Game Book” tickets, worth $20.

The Game Book is a new concept for us. It’s a booklet containing several of your favorite scratch games and a few new ones, too (eight games in all)! That’s why it’s worth $20.

Just remember this very important point as you play your Game Book: Don’t tear the pages apart! You must keep the booklet as a whole to claim any prizes won on any of the games.

The winners in today’s contest are:

@@4Eva_Hood_Love
@iowaneck
@LeslieKuhns

If you were a winner, 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, Jan. 29, to contact us with their information in order to claim their prize.

Thanks for participating – we’ll see you next month!