ialottery blog

InstaPlay Games: Standard And Progressive-Jackpots At All Price Points, From $1 to $30

Here’s a quick recap of the lottery’s line-up of InstaPlay games, with standard and progressive-jackpot games available at all price points.

Iowa’s newest InstaPlay games just debuted last weekend, with the $30 Hit the Jackpot and Super 7s Progressive InstaPlay games beginning sales on Sunday. There are now 12 InstaPlay games available in Iowa ranging in price from $1 up to $30, the same price range for Iowa Lottery scratch games.

If you aren’t familiar with InstaPlay games, here’s the background about them: Their tickets borrow features from both scratch and lotto games. InstaPlay tickets are called "scratchless" because they don’t have a coating that needs to be removed to determine the prize won. And rather than having supplies of tickets printed in advance like scratch and pull-tab games, InstaPlay tickets are printed on demand from the lottery terminal, just like tickets in lotto games like Powerball® and Mega Millions®.

In standard InstaPlay games, several set prize levels are available. The prize levels involved don’t change.

Progressive-jackpot InstaPlay games have that name because the top prize grows with each ticket sold statewide in that particular game. (In other words, the jackpot gets progressively larger.) Some InstaPlay progressive jackpots have climbed into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and players definitely have fun playing for them as they climb!

InstaPlay games have been offered in Iowa since 2016. You can buy tickets in them at any lottery terminal or self-service kiosk.

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.

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!

If I Spend $1 On A Lottery Ticket, How Does That Help Iowa?

We’ve added a new page on the Iowa Lottery’s website that answers a couple of the questions we receive the most: How is the money spent on lottery tickets used in our state, and what kind of help does that mean for Iowa? 

The new page can be found under the “Lottery Gives Back” link on our homepage. It replaces the previous “Where The Money Goes” page we’d utilized for a number of years. The details on the previous page focused on the historical use of lottery proceeds since the Iowa Lottery’s start in 1985. The new page expands on that.

At the top of the new page is a breakdown of how each $1 spent on lottery tickets in Iowa is used. The figures currently listed are for fiscal year 2019, and we’ll update that with each new year’s results as we have them. The biggest share of the money in FY 2019 of course went to players, with 62 cents on the dollar going to pay prizes. The second-largest category was proceeds to state causes, with 24 cents on the dollar going directly to Iowa programs.

Below those details are graphics that highlight how lottery proceeds help Iowa. You’ll find direct links there that you can use to learn more about the state programs that receive funding from the Iowa Lottery.

At the bottom of the page is a list of the programs that received lottery proceeds in the past, but are no longer current recipients. We hope that by dividing out the current and past uses of lottery proceeds, we’re clearly defining how the Iowa Lottery makes a difference in Iowa.

Player Mail: Has The Lottery Ever Given Away A Trip Around The World?

One of our players reached out to us to ask if the Iowa Lottery has ever given away a trip to another country or even around the world, wondering if that’s something people would like to win. It’s an interesting question, and the answer likely varies from person to person. But in general, cash has always been king when it comes to the lottery prizes we’ve offered, but with some other items on the “most wanted” list as well.

Through the years, our players have always told us that cash is what they want to win the most. Close behind that are some of the premium items we’ve given away in our games and promotions, including tickets to exclusive concerts or sporting events, cars and trucks, and the hottest electronics, including home entertainment systems and computers.

We’ve also given away trips, including cruises and vacations packages to destination resorts. And while those are popular, some winners would rather have the cash than the trip, and in some instances, it’s not possible to have a cash equivalent available. It’s all a matter of personal preference, and we get that!

And to the best of my knowledge, we’ve never given away a trip around the world. But it’s something to consider! 

If you have a favorite prize that we’ve given away, we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Player Mail: Can You Give Me More Details About The New Prize Zone?

Since our new Prize Zone launched yesterday, we’ve already heard from players entering their tickets for a chance to win the prizes up for grabs. But others have had questions about the Prize Zone, wanting to be sure they understand how it works.

So here are the details to give you the inside scoop on the new Prize Zone feature in the lottery’s VIP Club.

The Prize Zone is a new, ongoing part of our VIP Club that offers Iowa Lottery players more ways to win when they buy scratch tickets. Each month, if you’re a member of the VIP Club, you’ll be able to enter nonwinning tickets in certain scratch games into the Prize Zone for a chance to win select prizes tied only to those games.

Sometimes the prizes in the Prize Zone will be merchandise prizes, like they are now. Other times, they might be for tickets to exclusive events like concerts and sporting events. We’ll also offer cash prizes through the Prize Zone, so you’ll want to check back each month to see all the latest!

To kick off the Prize Zone, we’re giving away more than $36,000 in Apple iPads, and the tickets you’ll need to enter for a chance to win are in our “9s In A Line” family of games. The size of the iPad you could win goes up along with the “size” of the 9s In A Line game that you enter!

Tickets in the $1 9s In A Line Small game can be entered for a chance to win an iPad mini. The $2 “Medium” game is tied to the iPad Air, the $5 "Large" game is tied to the iPad Pro; and the $10 "XL" game is tied to the iPad Pro.

You can enter nonwinning 9s In A Line tickets into the Prize Zone through the morning of March 17, and we’ll hold the drawing for the winners of the iPads on March 19.

We’ll always keep the details about the current prizes available in the Prize Zone as well as the next two upcoming rounds so you can see those details and plan ahead if you’d like. (Hint: You’ll want to pay attention to the “Lucky Dog” scratch game starting next month.)

Thanks again for playing the Iowa Lottery, and for asking questions about the Prize Zone. Entries started coming in as soon as it debuted yesterday, so we know the word is spreading. We wish you the very best of luck with your Prize Zone entries!

S-M-L-XL: You Don’t Have To Choose

The new scratch games that hit shelves this week here in Iowa include a special series of tickets that may have already caught you eye for how much they look alike. And that’s on purpose.

Through the years, we’ve occasionally released what we call a “Family Of Games,” and the latest are the “9s In A Line” games that just made their debut. There’s 9s In A Line Small, a $1 game; 9s In A Line Medium, a $2 game; 9s In A Line Large, a $5 game; and 9s In A Line XL, a $10 game.

Players have told us that they like the fun of a set of games, and we have fun coming up with concepts and ideas to try.

The top prize available gets larger as you follow the 9s In A Line series up, and so does the playing time on the ticket. For example, the size Small game has just one playing area and offers a top prize of $900, while the size XL game has four playing areas and a top prize of $100,000.

So choose the size you like, or play them all. One size does not have to fit all in this series!

A Football Celebration With A Meaningful Twist

Rockwell City got its celebration on as RVTV stopped by, but the northwest Iowa town’s fun also included a meaningful moment as community leaders highlighted a local initiative that has created additional help for the families of firefighters and peace officers who die in the line of duty.

Click on the video above to check out the festivities, including a bird’s-eye view of the town!

It's Time To Go Electronic: We’re Asking To Modernize Iowa’s Lottery

Like any other business these days, the future looks more electronic for the Iowa Lottery, and we think it involves sales of our products on personal consumer electronic devices (smart phones, tablets, PCs, etc.).
 
That is the outcome from a “future-looking” discussion we had with the Iowa Lottery Board this week about how the Iowa Lottery can best position itself to continue providing the proceeds that people count on from us for state causes.

Today’s quickly evolving consumer behavior stands to have a huge impact on the Iowa Lottery as we move ahead. For that reason, we’ve filed legislation for the upcoming 2019 session that we believe will allow the lottery to modernize its operations.

Current state law already would allow the lottery to sell its lotto games online, but we have not yet taken that step. Our proposed legislation would allow the sale of any of our products on personal consumer electronic devices. We believe that for its ongoing success, the lottery must enter the world of e-commerce.  
 
Our proposal also would update the ways that people can pay for lottery tickets in Iowa to include cash, check, money order, debit card and prepaid gift card (all of which can already be used) as well as payments through electronic wallets or mobile applications. I will emphasize that credit is prohibited in the purchase of lottery tickets today in Iowa and that would remain the case under our proposal. The e-wallets would allow players to establish electronic accounts with the lottery and play lottery games online using money they put in those accounts.

This conversation isn’t unique to Iowa: Ten U.S. lotteries already sell products online, and the issue is under discussion in states all across the country.

The Iowa Lottery is currently in a very strong position. We’ve introduced new products in recent years like our InstaPlay games and we’ve enhanced and re-invigorated our long-term product lines to keep our games fresh. But without the ability to modernize our products, we anticipate that Iowa Lottery proceeds will only continue at their current levels for a few more years at most, and then we expect a downturn. The steep, ongoing decline in the use of cash, the ever-increasing trend toward e-commerce, and consumer demand for greater convenience all are factors.

A majority of Americans no longer regularly carry cash. And if they do, nearly half say they keep less than $20 on hand.

As consumers, we’re buying even everyday staples like groceries online. Many times, we don’t go to the store anymore. We have someone else get the items for us and then we want our order brought out to our car or delivered to our home. And a maximum two-day delivery is a normal that we demand for many online purchases.

Because the Iowa Lottery isn’t yet selling its games online, we’ve had to push back against illegal apps that are moving in. Those apps are re-selling lottery tickets through illegal means and there is no way for anyone to be certain that consumers are receiving the winnings they’re due. We’ve taken steps to shut down the apps or prevent them from doing business in Iowa, but they continue to multiply.

Our legislation takes into account these realities, giving the Iowa Lottery the ability to securely move into e-commerce while maintaining strong retailer involvement.
 
We know there are many ways that retailers can be part of any e-commerce system at the Iowa Lottery. For example, in Michigan, the lottery sells online game cards through its lottery terminals and self-service kiosks in retail locations. Customers can buy those game cards in increments from $10 up to $100 and use them to fund their e-wallets with the Michigan Lottery. The game cards can be eligible for bonuses, meaning that players can win an amount above and beyond what they purchased. The bonus system gives players an incentive to buy the game cards at retail locations and retailers in turn get a sales commission from the lottery. Twenty-five percent of online lottery players in Michigan have funded their accounts with a game card.

The statistics from other states and countries with long-term online lottery sales demonstrate that sales of traditional lottery products at retail increase along with the introduction of online sales. The added convenience creates an “omni-channel” approach to lottery sales.
  
Sophisticated age-gating and geo-gating technology is used by all U.S. lotteries that offer online gaming, ensuring that players are of the legal minimum purchasing age and that they’re physically located within the borders of that state in order to play.
 
We’re also impressed by the enhanced responsible gaming opportunities that online sales would bring. It’s nearly impossible to set any type of spending restrictions involving cash, but deposit limits are a standard feature for lotteries using electronic player accounts. And, players have the ability to set their own personal deposit limits that are even lower than those set by the lottery. Players also can electronically self-exclude themselves from playing online for a period of time or even permanently if they’re concerned about problem gambling.

The future will be here before we know it! So here at the lottery, we’re doing our best to be ready.

I Don’t Want To Buy Tickets In A Lottery Game If Players In Other States Are Part Of It, Too…

An email from one of our players highlights the balancing act that goes into the design of our lottery games.

 

In her email, the woman said she wants to see a game that’s only offered in Iowa because she doesn’t like playing our multi-state games, knowing that the jackpot could be won by someone in a different state. The woman’s perspective made us smile because on some level, we’d like it if ALL the winners were from Iowa. But that wouldn’t make players in other states very happy, would it?

 

This player’s viewpoint is why we do our best to have a variety of games available in the market. What appeals to one person may not appeal to someone else, so we keep lots of choices out there.

 

Games like Powerball and Mega Millions are sold by lotteries all across the country because that’s how they purposefully were designed. It takes a big population base playing those games to produce the giant jackpots involved, and you can’t have one without the other.

 

But we also have games that are exclusive to Iowa. Our Pick 3 and Pick 4 games are Iowa-only, as are our scratch games, pull-tab games and InstaPlay games.

 

We hope our game selection achieves the goal of different strokes for different folks. So, if you don’t want to play a multi-state game, you do have other choices!

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.

New Record Set For IA Scratch-Ticket Sales

We’ve just gotten our sales figures for March, and, holy buckets! We were officially BUSY last month!

Sales of lottery instant-scratch tickets in Iowa set an all-time monthly record in March, helped by the release of “Colossol Crossword,” the game with oversized, double-sided tickets that debuted March 5. 

Scratch-game sales totaled nearly $24 million in March, an increase of more than $900,000 from our previous monthly sales record for those games that had been set a year earlier.

So what’s behind the numbers? We always concentrate on the mix of games that we have in the field, doing our best to keep different colors, ticket designs and price points out there so you’ll have choices. And we like to try new innovations, like double-sided tickets. A scratch game was the first product that the Iowa Lottery sold back when it started in 1985, and scratch tickets have traditionally been our leading sales category. 

Part of the fun for us is investigating new ideas that we think will appeal to players, and then releasing the product to see if our predictions hold true.

The lottery’s top three months for scratch-ticket sales have all been in March, from 2016 to 2018:
        March 2018: $23.96 million
        March 2017: $23.04 million
        March 2016: $22.75 million

We’ve theorized that maybe there’s a spring-fever phenomenon in there, too, that gets us all out and about more in March after a long winter. That could be reflected in our numbers!

Yes! 'Colossal Crossword' Is Now Available Statewide

A new game that is seeing a huge response is now available at lottery retail locations statewide. "Colossal Crossword" is the first double-sided ticket we've released in nearly five years. And it's Iowa's first 8-inch Crossword game, so we're doing our best to deliver the extended playing time you've told us you like!

Colossal Crossword was delivered to retail locations across Iowa last week, so it is now available statewide. Tickets in the game have been selling quickly, and we're doing our best with re-orders to keep it in stores everywhere.

Thank you for checking out the new game!

Where Did My Favorite Scratch Game Go?

We’ve heard from some players recently asking where they can find their favorite scratch game.

You may have noticed that nine new holiday scratch games went on sale Oct. 2 and two more will go on sale Nov. 6. Nonwinning tickets in all 11 holiday scratch games are eligible to win cash prizes in our Secret Santa Play It Again^® promotion.

Because of this, we ask that all of our retailers across the state sell at least some of our holiday scratch games. And since many retailers have limited space to display lottery games, some scratch games must be removed to make room for the new ones. Therefore, we’ve pulled some of our other games for the time being.

Don’t worry, though, we haven’t gotten rid of those other games for good. As you can imagine, the holiday games only run for a short time, so our other games, and their remaining prizes, will be coming back in early January!

Mega Millions Changing, New Lotto Game Debuts In November

Over the last several months, we’ve updated our line-up of lotto games and today we have two more announcements: In late October, $2 Mega Millions^® will debut, and a new $1 game with a retro name will begin in November. Like its predecessor from the late 1980s, that $1 game will be called Lotto America.

Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich said that the updates are designed to give people new options for playing, and are built upon the successful business model the lottery has utilized in its other product lines.

“We’ve seen over time that our players want choices -- different games at different price points with different features,” Rich said. “With a revamp for Mega Millions and a revival for Lotto America, we’re coming through with new options.”

Sales in $2 Mega Millions will begin Oct. 28 and the first drawing in the revamped game will be Tuesday, Oct. 31. The game’s jackpots will start at $40 million rather than today’s $15 million, and the top prize will grow by at least $5 million between drawings when it is not won. Players in $2 Mega Millions will choose five numbers from a pool of 70 and another number, called the Mega Ball, from a pool of 25.

That compares to today’s 1/75 + 1/15 game design. The odds of winning the jackpot will be longer in the new design, but the odds will improve for winning a $1 million prize for matching just the first five numbers.

“The new game design will mean bigger starting jackpots and faster-growing jackpots overall,” Rich said. “More $1 million prizes also will spread the winnings around in the game.”

Powerball became a $2 game back in 2012, and that change also was designed to deliver the big jackpots that people expect while achieving more significant winnings at the game’s other prize levels. Since that revamp, Powerball has seen a world-record jackpot of nearly $1.6 billion in January 2016 and a grand prize of nearly $759 million in August, the second-highest prize in the 25-year history of the game. Iowa Lottery players have won 26 prizes of at least $1 million since the debut of $2 Powerball.

“Players have told us they’d like to see new features in Mega Millions, and we needed a redesign to make that possible,” Rich said.

This is the first price adjustment in Mega Millions since the game began in 2002. Mega Millions will continue to have its drawings on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Because the Mega Millions game is changing effective Oct. 28, the lottery is required to limit the number of multi-draw tickets that are sold beginning Sept. 26. A countdown to the last drawing before the game changes started on this day, and the number of multi-draw tickets available will be reduced with each drawing until the game’s final drawing in the current format on Oct. 27.

A few weeks after the Mega Millions changes take effect, a new $1 lotto game will debut in Iowa and at least 14 other states: Lotto America. The name is a throwback to the first multi-state lotto game that became known for big jackpots in the United States. Iowa was a founding member of the original version of Lotto America, which began back in 1988 and made headlines around the world at the time for its jackpots before ultimately being replaced by Powerball in 1992.

Today’s version of Lotto America will feature jackpots that start at $2 million and drawings twice per week. The new game begins sales Nov. 12 and its first drawing will be Nov. 15. It will have drawings on Wednesday and Saturday nights and feature nine prize levels.

“As we were researching new game possibilities there was one name that kept coming up, so we decided to go vintage,” Rich said. “After 25 years, Lotto America is making a comeback, with new features for today’s players.”

Lotto America players will still find the playstyle of Powerball, with numbers selected from two separate pools for a chance at a big prize. Players in the game will choose five numbers from a pool of 52 and another number, called the “Lotto America Star Ball^SM” from a pool of 10. Players who match all six numbers selected in a drawing will win the game’s jackpot.

The game’s jackpot will grow by at least $50,000 per drawing until it is won. The game also will have a multiplier feature. The odds of winning the jackpot in Lotto America will be around 1 in 26 million, compared to odds of about 1 in 292.2 million of winning the Powerball jackpot and odds of about 1 in 302.6 million of winning the Mega Millions jackpot under that game’s new design.

Why Has This Place Been #1 For So Long?

 

For years here in Iowa, one store has sold more lottery tickets than any other: the Hy-Vee on Wilson Avenue in Cedar Rapids. So we went there to check it out. Click on the video above to see what we learned!

Hot Lotto Game Ending, Last Drawing Will Be Saturday, Oct. 28

Earlier this summer, we updated our line-up of lotto games, and today we have another announcement: The Hot Lotto game will end this fall. The group of lotteries that sells the game has scheduled its final drawing for Saturday, Oct. 28.

Hot Lotto is a $1 game that offers Powerball-style play but with easier odds and jackpots starting at $1 million. It got its start back in April 2002 and is currently sold in Iowa and by 13 other U.S. lotteries. Those lotteries are working on plans for a new $1 draw game that will debut later this year.

You’ve heard us say before that as part of our business decisions, lotteries routinely replace existing games with newer offerings over time to keep our game selection fresh. That happens more often with scratch games than it does with lotto games, simply because it takes months if not years of planning and programming to bring about changes on the lotto side, like this decision to end the Hot Lotto game. Any game has a lifespan. And while Hot Lotto initially sold well and the game was updated a few times through the years to include new features, its sales have dropped down over time.

Iowa Lottery players have won eight jackpots in Hot Lotto through the years, including the largest prize offered in the game to date. That $19.97 million jackpot was won in January 2007 by John Hall of Indianola.

Lottery players in Iowa will have time to claim prizes won in Hot Lotto after the game ends. Prizes in Hot Lotto are valid in Iowa for up to 365 days from the date of the drawing in which they were won.

Also, please be aware that while you’ve been able to buy Hot Lotto plays for up to 10 drawings in advance here in Iowa, that number will gradually decrease as the end of the game approaches and the number of remaining drawings counts down.  

If there is any prize money in the jackpot pool that hasn't been awarded when the game ends, here in Iowa, we'll use our portion of that money as prizes in future lottery games and promotions, so it will go pay prizes.

We’re continuing to monitor our game offerings, so look for more announcements and changes in the coming months. We’re doing our best to have variety and choices for you as players.

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.

Just In Time For Spring: Frogger!

​

 With the return of spring, lots of creatures are hopping around outside … and on the tickets in one of our new scratch games! The “Frogger” game begins sales today in Iowa, bringing with it a fun throw-back look at the early days of video gaming!

This new $5 scratch game comes complete with frogs; cars and trucks the frogs need to avoid as they cross the road; and turtles, alligators and logs the frogs can try to ride across the river to reach the finish line and win a prize. And hold onto your tickets because starting next week, you can use nonwinning Frogger tickets to enter a Play It Again® promotion with cash and merchandise as prizes. 

We filmed this how-to-play video so you can learn more about the new Frogger game. So, get hoppin’ and watch it!

©Konami Digital Entertainment

 

New Progressive-Jackpot InstaPlay Game Debuts: Jumbo Bucks Progressive

A new InstaPlay game has just debuted here in Iowa, adding another progressive-jackpot game to the mix. It’s called “Jumbo Bucks Progressive” and it’s a $5 game that began sales yesterday across the state.
 
This is the first time we’ve added a new InstaPlay game since the product’s introduction back in November here in Iowa. There now are four InstaPlay games that you can play in our state and we anticipate adding even more over time.

The jackpot in Jumbo Bucks Progressive starts at $5,000 and grows with each ticket sold in the game. That’s the same concept you’ve already seen in the $2 “Cherry Twist Progressive” game – that jackpot starts at $2,000 and grows until someone wins it. Since the start of the Cherry Twist Progressive game in November, its jackpot has been hit 18 times, with the amounts ranging from a little more than $2,200 up to more than $28,200. That’s the fun of a progressive jackpot – you never know when the next win will hit, or how much the prize will be!  

With this new InstaPlay game’s introduction, we’ve redesigned our website’s home page a bit to quickly provide the details that players have said they want. I’ve included an image of the new design below.

In the case of lotto games like Powerball® and Mega Millions®, you’ll now find on our home page the next estimated jackpot amount; winning numbers from the latest drawing; details about when and where the jackpot was last won; and a link where you can check your numbers. For InstaPlay progressive jackpot games, you’ll see the current jackpot amount – updated every two minutes – and details about when and where the jackpot was last won.

(March 28 update: The first jackpot in Jumbo Bucks Progressive has just been won! Someone bought a ticket winning a progressive jackpot of $5,918.40 today at Delimart, 1920 Lower Muscatine Road in Iowa City.) 

Players have let us know that they like our InstaPlay progressive jackpots, so we hope you’ll have fun playing the new Jumbo Bucks Progressive!

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.

Waterloo Winning Streak

Call it what you’d like – a winning streak, something in the water, a run of luck – but Waterloo is seeing whatever it is! We just got our latest lists in, and three players from Waterloo all claimed big scratch-game prizes on Friday. Two of the prizes were for $50,000 and the third was for $30,000.

Mirsad Kostic of Waterloo got things started by claiming a $50,000 prize in the “Super Crossword” game. Not to be outdone, Megan Gardner from Waterloo then claimed a $50,000 prize in the “7 is a Blast” game. And then along came Joyce Phillips of Waterloo, who claimed a $30,000 prize in the “Bonus Crossword” game! They all bought their tickets at different retail locations in the Waterloo area.

Their prizes were among seven that Iowa players claimed of at least $30,000 on Friday alone. Maybe we’ve all got spring fever or something! In any case, congratulations to our winners. We’ll be on the look-out to see where a winning streak pops up next!

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 [email protected]. We always appreciate your feedback!

Player Mail: What Are The Aces & Face Cards Worth In 'Queen & King of Cash'?

Our new “Queen & King Of Cash” scratch game has been popular since its release last month, and we’ve gotten a couple questions from players about the value that the game gives to face cards and aces.

The $5 scratch game, with its eye-catching graphics and bold colors, really captures concept of a wealthy monarchy. And its poker theme in the play area gives you multiple chances to win on each ticket and “become” the king or queen of cash!

But with pre-printed lottery tickets, the value of aces and face cards can’t change like they do in an actual game of poker. So, aces in the scratch game are worth 11 points each, while kings, queens and jacks are worth 10 points each.

There’s a code printed in the upper right of each ticket in the game that explains the values for those cards. (We’ve circled it in the picture.) The code is outside the area covered by the ticket’s security coating, so the explanation is always visible, before or after you’ve scratched the ticket.

Player Mail: Are Those The Only Prizes In The 'Loaded' Scratch Game?

We’re getting the same question from different players about a new scratch game that just hit the market here in Iowa: Are those the only prizes in it?

The “Loaded” game began sales Jan. 4 here, and as its name indicates, it’s loaded with thousands of prizes. But there are only two kinds: $50 and $100. That makes Loaded different from most of our other scratch games. Normally there are several prize levels in those games, but in Loaded there are just two.

It’s the second time we’ve offered a game with that concept. The first was a scratch game called “Limited” that hit the market a year ago, back in January 2016. It sold well, so now we’ve got a new version.

It’s easy to tell if you’ve won in the Loaded game: Reveal a $50 symbol and you’ll win that amount. Reveal a $100 symbol and that will be your prize. You can only win one time per ticket. So if you find a $50 symbol, there won’t be a second winning symbol on the same ticket.

However, Loaded doesn’t offer big top prize of $10,000 or more like some of our other games do. We’ve heard from players who love Loaded and others who … aren’t as enthusiastic about it. But that’s why we have lots of different games for sale at any one time so you have choices and different options available.

Whichever side you’re on, thanks for trying our new game and sharing your feedback with us.

I Can’t Find That Holiday Scratch Game!

We’ve received some inquiries from players in the last few days who wondered where they could find their favorite holiday-themed scratch game from this past season. The short answer is that sales in our holiday scratch games have ended to make room for new tickets.

As part of our standard procedures, we end sales in our scratch and pull-tab games for a few different reasons, one of which is when the last top prize in a game has been claimed. We don’t want a game on the market if you don’t still have the chance to win its top prize!

In any given year, we also will have specially-themed games -- like our holiday games -- that are only set to run for a short period of time. Our holiday games come off the market in early January each year because it just doesn’t make sense to keep selling them once the holidays have passed. That would be like selling a snow-themed game in July!

We have dozens of games for sale at any one time, but there are only so many spots available for them in our vending machines and ticket dispensers. That means some retail locations simply don’t have enough room for all the games that are out there, so the store can decide which games it wants to sell.

We’ve also heard from some players recently who asked why we stopped selling our holiday games before the entry period for our Jingle Bills promotion had ended. We have a holiday promotion each year, and this time around, we extended the entry deadline to give players more time to enter their tickets. We know that the holiday season is a busy time for everyone and we’ve heard from players in the past who said they’d like a few extra days to catch their breath and enter their tickets.

We do our best to respond to player inquiries and make adjustments to our procedures whenever we can if taking that step will help.

By the way, we just conducted the final drawings in our Jingle Bills promotion on Wednesday and the winners are posted on our website. Thanks for playing and congratulations to all the winners!

Player Mail: What Does That Ticket’s ‘Bonus’ Section Mean?

Here’s an interesting question we got this week from a player who had bought a ticket in the “$250,000 Riches” game: What does its “instant bonus” section mean when it comes to the prize someone wins?

The man who contacted us wondered if any winnings in the bonus section would be in addition to the amount that the lottery terminal shows the ticket has won when the barcode on the ticket is scanned.

The quick answer is that the total winnings on a ticket are shown when the barcode is scanned. Think of it like the “total” line on a sales receipt – everything from that transaction is included in the total. So, for example, if the barcode on a particular ticket is scanned and it shows that the ticket has won a $100 prize, those are the winnings from the entire ticket, not just a portion of its play area.

On a $250,000 Riches ticket, any winnings in the “instant bonus” area are in addition to the winnings from Games 1-5 in the play area. But those winnings are not in addition to the grand total for that ticket.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Stay safe in the heat.

Yep, We’re Getting A New Look…

In the next couple weeks, you’ll  see a new look for us here at the Iowa Lottery.

We’ve entered our fourth decade in business, so it’s perfect timing for the debut of our fourth logo. The new look maintains the shooting star that’s been central to the lottery’s identity since its start, but the logo also will now abbreviate the lottery’s name in a nod to today’s shortened communications style.

The new logo will officially debut on July 1, and we’ll phase in the new blue-and-white look as current supplies run out. Like the address for our website (www.ialottery.com), our new logo identifies us as IALottery.

We think the new look has a punch to it. It’s energetic and forward looking, but also maintains the themes that have been at the lottery’s core since it started in 1985.

The image above shows how the lottery’s logo has evolved through the years. Our original logo when we began in August 1985 was mostly green with four shooting stars on either side of the words “Iowa Lottery.” That logo was used until August 1994 when the lottery celebrated its 10th anniversary.

The second logo maintained the shooting stars, but circled them around the words “Iowa Lottery.” That version of the logo, with green letters, yellow stars and red streaks of light behind them, was used until September 2002 when it was updated. The new version of that image, with white letters in the center surrounded by graduated red, orange and red stars, has been used since that time.

The shooting star has always been central to our lottery. It’s a symbol of luck but also represents celebration. We see it as aspirational in terms of the vital difference lottery proceeds have made in our state. 

We also are debuting a new tagline. For several years, we’ve used a distinctive “Woo-hoo!” sound in our ads and as the audio that plays from lottery terminals in Iowa when a winning ticket is scanned. The new logo incorporates a “Woo Hoo for You™” tagline that, like the shooting star, references luck and excitement.

Thank you for being part of the fun with us since 1985. We hope YOU get to see the new logo on a prize check from us soon!

It Already Feels Like The Holidays …

You’ve heard us say before that it takes months of work to bring a lottery ticket to the market, and today is a good example of that: This morning, we picked out the scratch games we’ll have for the 2016 holiday season.

We know it’s only May! But it truly does take months of planning and preparation to produce a new game. We start by thinking about the themes and price points that would be a good fit for our upcoming games. Along with those details we need to choose the artwork you’ll see on tickets in that game, the prizes it will include and all the specifics we’ll need in the rules for that particular game.

Once all that is ready, we work with our vendors to get the tickets printed and tests are done on them before they even leave the plant to ensure they’re printed correctly and look the way they should. After that, the tickets are delivered to us here at the lottery. Then we do even more tests on the game to be sure it contains the prizes it should and the tickets play the way we anticipated.

It may sound like a quick process, but it actually takes months for all that work to be completed. We know people are counting on us to get it right! 

We promise not to break out the decorations just yet. But the holidays ARE on our minds today!

 

New Lotto Game Starts Sunday In Iowa: Lucky for Life!

A new lotto game debuts this weekend here in Iowa, and it comes with a twist on big lotto prizes.

Iowa sales in the Lucky for Life^® game begin Sunday. It offers 10 ways to win, including a top prize of $1,000 a day for life, and a second prize of $25,000 a year for life.

Iowa will be the 18th state to offer the Lucky for Life game, which got its start in Connecticut in 2009 before becoming a New England-wide game three years later and adding even more lotteries in the past year.

We’ve been looking for some time at game ideas that would complement Powerball® and our other lotto games and bring a different look and feel to that product category. We think Lucky for Life will be a great fit in our line-up of games.

Lucky for Life is a $2 game with drawings twice a week, at 9:38 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays. Players choose five numbers from a pool of 48 for the white balls and 1 out of 18 numbers for the Lucky Ball. You can win the game’s top prize of $1,000 a day for life by matching all six winning numbers selected in one of it drawings. The game’s second prize – for matching the first five numbers but missing the Lucky Ball – is $25,000 a year for life. Other prize levels in the game range from $4 up to $5,000.

The game’s top two prize levels are described as “lasting as long as you do,” meaning that they’re truly for life. The minimum guaranteed payout for those two prizes is 20 years, and there is a lump-sum option for players who want that rather than lifetime annuity payments.

The odds of winning Lucky for Life’s top prize are about 1 in 30.8 million. That compares to odds of about 1 in 292.2 million of winning the Powerball jackpot; and odds of about 1 in 259 million of winning the Mega Millions® jackpot.