ialottery blog

We’re Now Up To Nearly $20 Million For Iowa Veterans & Their Families

As we prepare to observe the Veterans Day holiday tomorrow, it’s a time for each of us to honor and remember the service of our nation’s veterans. Here at the Iowa Lottery, this is also a time that we’re especially thankful and proud of the proceeds we’ve been able to raise to help Iowa veterans and their families. And we just upped the grand total.

Back in June, I blogged about the change taking effect in the way the lottery raises proceeds for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund, and the positive impact that would have on the resources  dedicated to that cause.

Late last month, we made the lottery’s $2.5 million transfer to the Veterans Trust Fund for the current fiscal year. And that brings the grand total that we’ve raised for the cause to nearly $20 million! Today, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of all Iowa Lottery games is dedicated to the Veterans Trust Fund.

If you’re looking for more information about the Trust Fund or how to apply for assistance from it, click here to visit the website of the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs. Click on the “Benefits” link at the top of that page to learn more.

The lottery’s office will be closed tomorrow in observance of Veterans Day, and we’ll be back to work on Thursday. 

So How Is The Lottery Doing?

It’s that time of year when we report how the lottery is doing as a business. The short answer is that we’re doing well – the past year was a good one.

Sales of scratch tickets here in Iowa set a record in fiscal year 2015, which ended June 30. The lottery achieved overall annual results among the Top 4 in its 30-year history, and the purchase and move of our headquarters location also was completed on time and under budget in the past year.

Lottery sales have topped the $300 million mark for the fourth straight year and proceeds to state causes and prizes to players also were among the lottery’s best.

So what’s behind the numbers? We’ve put a lot of effort into diversifying our product mix and keeping a variety of games on the market to give customers choices. It’s our job to take care of the behind-the-scenes work so you as our players can just have fun and dream a little.

Our preliminary figures are out today. They show that lottery sales in FY 2015 totaled nearly $325 million. Proceeds to state causes totaled $74.5 million, the fourth-highest amount for the lottery since its start in 1985. Prizes to players totaled nearly $197 million, the second-highest total in the lottery’s history, and nearly a $10 million increase from the previous year.

All told, sales from our core products – lotto games, scratch games and pull-tab games – totaled $324.8 million. That’s up about 3.4 percent from the previous year. In particular, sales of scratch tickets set a record this past year at nearly $212 million. The previous record for scratch sales was $202.3 million back in FY 2013.

Another important figure for us is the support we give to local businesses in the form of sales commissions for selling the lottery’s products. We’re proud to say that the total in lottery commissions to business across the state was nearly $21 million in FY 2015.

So which locations sold the most? Here are the Top 10 retailers in Iowa for lottery sales in FY 2015:

And who won the most? The biggest prize claimed by an Iowa Lottery player in FY 15 was $2 million, while three other tickets won prizes of $1 million each:

And now for the grand totals: Since the lottery’s start 30 years ago, players have won more than $3.5 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $1.6 billion for the state programs that benefit us all.

The Latest Round Of Winners Are …

We held the drawings today to determine the second set of 30 winners in our “30 Somethings” promotion. Now there’s one more round to go on Aug. 3 -- plus the grand-prize drawing that same day. We can’t forget that!

Click here to see today’s list of winners and find out who’s a wordy 30, a dirty 30 or a verde 30! (The 30 winners from our June 4 drawing also are on that page.)    

Remember that any entry you make in the promotion through 11:59 a.m. on July 30 also counts as an entry into the grand-prize drawing.

Thanks for playing and being part of our 30th anniversary fun!

 

Your Clock Is 4 Minutes Fast!

I just learned some interesting behind-the-scenes information about our lottery system after a question from a player, so I’m sharing the details with you here on the blog. 

A man who was buying tickets in the Des Moines area contacted us because he thought the time on our lottery terminals was fast, which he believed had caused him to miss the sales cut-off time for that night’s Hot Lotto® drawing. (I blogged last week about sales cut-off times before our drawings and why we have them.)

In Hot Lotto specifically, the sales cut-off time here in Iowa for a particular drawing is about 1 hour and 20 minutes beforehand. Drawings in that game are at 9:40 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Tickets can be purchased in Iowa until 8:18 p.m. on the night of the drawing. If you buy a ticket after that, it will be for an upcoming drawing, and not the one occurring that night.

The player who contacted us said he was in a store in Ankeny on a Saturday at 8:17 p.m., but the sales cut-off time had already occurred, so he missed having a ticket for that night’s drawing. He said the time on our lottery terminal was 4 minutes fast.

I find that interesting, simply from the sheer number of devices we can use to check the time these days – and they likely all show a slightly different time. In my office right now, I have a watch on my wrist and there are clocks on my computer, office telephone and mobile phone. If I walk down the hall, there also are clocks on the wall. They’re all pretty close, but they don’t show exactly the same time.

We double-checked the information about our gaming system’s clock after we got the player’s email. Our lottery terminals are all tied to one central communications system. Each time a retailer logs on to the system, the terminal that is being used updates its parameters – including its time setting – from the central system.

The time on the central system is synced to an atomic clock, which is one of the most accurate time-keeping devices in the world. The system is periodically resynced to that atomic clock to adjust for time drift. When we checked the system time a few days ago, it was just 8 or 9 seconds off from the atomic clock, so no adjustment was needed.  The system time is in fact quite accurate.

In the case of the player who contacted us, he said that the receipt he got from the cash register in the store showed 8:17 p.m. But our lottery terminals are separate from the cash register, so the times that each machine shows is likely a little off from the other.

To avoid running into the time cut-off for a particular drawing, we always suggest that players buy their tickets well in advance of the cut-off time. And remember that you can buy plays in our games for multiple drawings at a time – that that’s another convenience we’re happy to offer to our customers.

 

How We Help Veterans & Their Families Is About To Change

On Wednesday, a new state law will take effect that’s designed to stabilize the amount raised by the lottery each year to help Iowa veterans and their families.

The Iowa Lottery requested the change, which I first blogged about this spring after Gov. Terry Branstad signed the proposal into law.

Since 2008, the proceeds from the sale of two scratch games and two pull-tab games each year have been dedicated to the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. But annual proceeds to the IVTF have been on the decline for the past few years. In FY 2014, for the first time since the lottery started raising money for the cause, we didn’t reach our publicly stated goal of providing between $2 million and $3 million to the IVTF. (The annual total that year was $1.8 million.) We think there’s a main reason for that decline.

While overall lottery sales and proceeds have repeatedly exceeded budget projections, we’ve seen a long-term decline in the sale of our pull-tab games. Pull-tabs have been closely tied to our efforts to help the Veterans Trust Fund, making up half the games for that cause. And if pull-tab sales kept falling, that would pull down our efforts to support the IVTF.

The law that takes effect on Wednesday will eliminate a certain number of lottery games each year dedicated to the cause and instead allocate $2.5 million in lottery proceeds annually to the IVTF. That’s the midway point of our publicly stated goal for the project and also is the yearly average of the total we’ve raised so far.

Under current law, the majority of lottery proceeds each year go into the state General Fund, where they help pay for the variety of programs that receive money through it. A smaller portion of lottery proceeds goes to the Veterans Trust Fund. That will continue to be the case under the new law, it’s just that the way we raise money for the IVTF will be changed, with $2.5 million in lottery proceeds going to that cause each year.

As of next week, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of all Iowa Lottery games will be dedicated to the Veterans Trust Fund.

We’ll of course continue to spread the word about the Veterans Trust Fund and the help it provides to Iowa veterans and their families. And I’m sure we’ll still sell patriotic-themed games from time to time. We did that even before we started helping the IVTF and they’ve always been popular. 

 

Supply Of ‘Super Crossword’ Changing Out Right Now

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

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

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

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

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

The Way Things Were ...

As I was pulling together details for Monday’s announcement about the lottery’s 30th anniversary, the very first lottery tickets in Iowa caught my eye, in terms of how different things look today!

Here’s a picture to show what I’m talking about – check out “Scratch, Match & Win” compared to today’s games! Even the smallest tickets we have on the market today are much bigger than those in Scratch, Match & Win, which made its debut back on Aug. 22, 1985. It takes five tickets in that game to match up with those in a lot of our games today.

And the world has apparently become a lot more colorful through the years, too. (In reality, I think printing techniques have just improved a lot since 1985, but it IS interesting to see how far things have come.)

Can’t wait to see what lottery tickets will look like 30 years from now!

Hey, Why Did the Number Of Prizes Change?

We have good news for fans of our “$250,000 Club” scratch game, and apparently, that’s a lot of you! The game has been so popular that we decided to print another round of tickets in it. The $250,000 Club has been one of our top sellers at the $20 price point since its release in June of last year.

You’ll see a blue round of $250,000 Club tickets in retail locations once the current black version of the tickets runs out, which we anticipate will happen sometime this summer. The additional tickets in the game mean that the number of remaining prizes in it have increased. The previous list wasn’t incorrect, it’s just that the numbers have changed now that the new round of tickets has been printed.

When we plan out our games, we make our best sales estimates for them. But sometimes a game beats expectations, and that’s definitely been the case with the $250,000 Club. Knowing that players like it, we decided to extend its shelf life by ordering more tickets in it.

Have fun playing the $250,000 Club, and we hope you like the blue version of it you’ll see in stores later this year!

Talk About Good Luck On Friday The 13th!

Who said Friday the 13th is unlucky? Someone who bought a ticket in northwest Iowa ended up winning a $100,000 prize today in a lotto drawing.

It happened in the midday All or Nothing drawing. A ticket purchased at Casey’s, 101 Fifth Ave. SW in Le Mars, matched all 12 numbers to win the game’s top prize of $100,000. The winning numbers in the drawing were: 1-5-7-8-9-14-15-16-17-20-21-23.

The lucky winner or winners can claim the prize at one of the Iowa Lottery’s offices – either at its headquarters in Clive or one of its regional offices in Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Mason City or Storm Lake.

This is the second time in less than a month that Iowa has had a top prize winner in the joint Iowa-Minnesota lotto game. Douglas Whitney of Mount Vernon won All or Nothing’s $100,000 top prize in the Feb. 18 midday drawing by matching all 12 numbers drawn.

Since the game’s debut in January last year, there have been eight $100,000 top prize winners overall, including five in Iowa.

Are You Going To Pull That Game?

We just got a question on Facebook that highlights an issue we’ve put a lot of thought and effort into here at the lottery. A woman named Kimbra asked it this way: “So once somebody wins the big prize, is the scratcher over?”   Kimbra may not have realized it, but she touched on a topic that’s had a lot of debate through the years. And interestingly, we’ve heard from players on both sides.

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 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.

Most often, we discontinue sales in a particular scratch game when the last top prize in it 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!

Sometimes we have specially-themed games that are only set to run for a short period of time, like our holiday games. Those games come off the market in January each year because it just wouldn’t make sense if we were selling a snow-themed game in July! But the good news is, we work hard to keep the odds of winning the same in those games as they are in others that are on the market for much longer.

And other times, if a game has been available for some time and players show us through their purchases that they prefer something else, it also will be removed from the shelves. 

People’s reactions to our procedures sometimes make us chuckle because they can be so different. We’ve gotten complaints from players who don’t ever want us to end a game, and on the other side of the equation, we’ve heard from those who very definitely want us to do that, especially when the last top prize has been claimed.

In the end, we concentrate on doing what we think is right. Throughout the Iowa Lottery’s history, we’ve designed our policies to err on the side of players as much as possible. A good example of that is how we handle the expiration date for prizes in our games. If a prize would normally expire on a weekend or holiday when our offices are closed, we give you until the following business day to claim the prize. We think that’s only fair.

How Do You Play That New Scratch Game?

We’ve heard from a few folks about the play style of our new “Bedazzled” scratch game, so it’s time to review how to play it here on the blog! 

Each of our scratch games has its own unique features, and we vary the play styles in our games to keep things fresh. After all, different games appeal to different people. 

The play style in our $5 Bedazzled scratch game uses coordinates. If you’re familiar with the board game “Battleship,” the concept of Bedazzled is similar. Just like you use grid coordinates to try to sink your opponent’s ships in Battleship, you use grid coordinates to find gems in our Bedazzled scratch game.

Each ticket in the game has 12 grid coordinates in the box labeled “Your Coordinates.” Once you scratch off those 12 spots, you then scratch off the corresponding grid coordinates on your “Bedazzled Grid” to uncover gems. After you’ve revealed the 12 coordinates on your grid, count up your gems and refer to the prize legend to see if you’ve won a prize.

Remember, you don’t want to scratch off the entire Bedazzled grid, just the squares that match those listed in the “Your Coordinates” box. There may be multiple gems on your grid, but only the grid squares that match “Your Coordinates” are eligible for prizes.

Just Why Is It Called the ‘Iowa Lottery’?

Here’s a question to ponder as we head into the weekend. It came to us from a man named Matt on Facebook. He posted, “Random question that has always bugged me. Why is it called ‘Iowa Lottery’ when it’s the exact same lottery as other states?”

Now, that’s a good one! I think Matt is partly right and partly wrong. Here’s why:

It is true that you can buy tickets in Iowa in games that are sold in multiple states, including Powerball®, Mega Millions®, Hot Lotto® and All or Nothing™. But you also can buy lottery games here in our state that are completely unique to Iowa, including most of our scratch games and pull-tab games.

And bottom line, all of the proceeds from the sale of lottery tickets in the state of Iowa stay right here to benefit worthy Iowa causes. Since its start in 1985, the Iowa Lottery has raised more than $1.5 billion for the state programs that help us all.   Today, lottery proceeds in Iowa have three main purposes: They provide support for veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund; help for a variety of significant projects through the state General Fund; and backing for the Vision Iowa program, which was implemented to create tourism destinations and community attractions in the state and build and repair schools.

And that is why it’s called the Iowa Lottery. Great question, Matt!

True or False: Can Lottery Employees Play the Lottery?

I gave a lottery speech yesterday to a really fun group at Marshalltown Community College and got a great question from an audience member that I thought I’d share here: The man wanted to know if Iowa Lottery employees can buy tickets here in our state.

As you might expect, the answer is no. As an Iowa Lottery employee, it’s against the law for me to buy tickets in Iowa or claim a prize here. And that’s as it should be – I know a lot about the lottery and its games, so it makes sense that I shouldn’t be playing. I always tell people that I have to live vicariously through them on this one!

But it’s perfectly fine for me to the play the lottery outside of Iowa because I don’t work for the lotteries in other states. And I definitely experience reverse psychology on this point, because now that I know I can’t play in Iowa, I almost always stop into a store to buy a ticket when I’m out of state. Hey, I want to win, too!

I know what you’re going to ask next: What’s the most I’ve ever won? I think I won $14 once on a scratch ticket! But the mental escape I get when I buy a ticket is a huge part of the fun for me. It’s my chance to daydream about what would happen if I ever won big.

Maybe someday it will happen. But as long as I work here, there’s one thing for sure: It won’t be in Iowa.

Osage Man Claims $2 Million Powerball Prize

That was quick!

This morning, we announced that Iowa had a $2 million winner in last night’s Powerball drawing, and now, that prize has been claimed!

Duane Hanson of Osage came to lottery headquarters to claim the prize this afternoon, as you can see here! We’ll have video from Duane’s big day ready tomorrow, so check back here to view it! In the meantime, here are some details to tide you over:

When we asked Duane if he ever thought he’d win the lottery, he said he absolutely did. He’s apparently been telling people for years that he was going to hit it big – and now he has.

Duane, 58, works as a conductor for the Cedar River Railroad in Waterloo. His ticket came close to winning Wednesday night’s $80 million jackpot, matching the first five numbers but missing the Powerball. But Duane also added the Power Play option to his ticket, which multiplied his initial $1 million prize to $2 million.

Duane bought his $2 million-winning ticket at Casey’s, 309 Main St. in Osage. His was one of two tickets nationwide that won a $2 million prize in Wednesday’s Powerball drawing. Wednesday’s winning Powerball numbers were: 17-24-26-45-46 and Powerball 19.

Casey’s will receive a $2,000 bonus from the lottery for the $2 million-winning ticket being sold at its Osage store.

Duane said he plans to retire in 2015, so his lottery winnings will help a lot with retirement investments. He said he’s been talking about buying an acreage, so maybe he’ll be able to do that a little sooner now.

Four tickets in Iowa have now won prizes of at least $1 million so far this year, including two just this month!

On Aug. 18, three Johnston siblings claimed a $1 million prize they had won with a Mega Millions® ticket they purchased earlier this month at a Des Moines supermarket. In February, an Urbandale man won a $1 million Powerball prize with a ticket he had purchased at a local convenience store; and in January, a West Des Moines man won a $1 million prize in the “Lifetime Riches” instant-scratch game with a ticket he purchased at a local convenience store. 

Three Iowa Lottery players now have won Powerball prizes of $2 million. Men from Decorah and Barnes City each claimed a $2 million Powerball prize in 2013.  

No one won the jackpot in last night’s Powerball drawing, so the big prize increases to an estimated $90 million annuity ($54.9 million cash option) for Saturday.

Where Can I Find My Favorite Game?

Here’s an interesting question we just got in an email – and the answer we sent in reply. The man raises a really good point, it’s just not something we can accurately make available right now. But it’s something we’ll keep working on!

A man named Alex emailed us with this question: “Are there any publicly available records of which scratch tickets are currently stocked by retailers? I am an occasional instant game player who will pick up a few tickets when I pass through Iowa. I enjoy playing the $3 Jumble game, but have not seen many in stores recently. Your website indicates there are several top prizes remaining for this game, so I am curious as to where these tickets are currently being sold.”

Now there’s a guy who likes to be thorough in his planning! And we appreciate that.

If you’ve done your homework like Alex, you already know there’s a page on our website where you can look up the retailers in a particular area that sell lottery tickets. You can search for them by zip code or city. But we don’t have the ability in real time to list the games available at a particular location, and we think anything less would likely just cause more headaches than good, so we haven’t gone there.

There are identifying numbers on each lottery ticket that tell us, for example, when that ticket has been delivered to a particular location, when it was sold and when it was cashed. But we can’t see in real time when that location may have run out of tickets in that game, or if that store has decided to delay adding a particular game to its mix, which is a business decision it certainly can make.

If there’s a game you’re looking for like Alex was, we can always check with individual retail locations to see if they’ve got it available. We were able to pinpoint some locations for Alex that had the Jumble scratch game in the area he was visiting, so now he’ll be able to find them.

Great question, Alex, and good luck with your Iowa tickets!   

Do I Have To Wait To Claim My Prize?

Someone sent us a question recently on Facebook that I'll bet you've wondered about as well, so here are the details of the conversation we had with her.

Melissa posed this question: Let's say I buy a ticket that's good for several drawings in a game like Powerball® or All or Nothing™. And let's say I win a prize in the second drawing for which my ticket is eligible! Do I have to wait until the last drawing on my ticket to claim my prize?

It's a great question, and I can understand why that would be a concern: What if you accidentally lose your ticket before that final drawing? What if you just forget to claim the prize because you didn't do that right away?

We thought through that scenario clear back when we first started offering the option of tickets for multiple drawings. So, if you win a prize before the last drawing on your ticket (and yay if that happens, by the way), you can go ahead and claim the prize right away. When your winning ticket is scanned by the lottery terminal, you'll get your prize or a prize claim form, depending on the size of your prize, along with a replacement ticket for the remaining drawings you have left. (Your original ticket will be kept by the retailer as part of the prize-claim process.)

So, no worries! Feel free to claim your prize at your convenience (but for sure within the deadline for claiming a prize within each game).

Great question, Melissa! Thanks for reaching out. And for everyone else, keep those questions coming! We're always glad to hear from you.    

Players Have REALLY Been Picking ‘Mike’s Picks’!

Man, you guys really like the “Mike’s Picks” scratch game!

We were looking over our inventory lists this week and realized we’re down to about the last 10 percent of tickets in Mike’s Picks. And one of the game’s top prizes is still available, so maybe we’ll see its final $50,000 winner soon!

When we were putting together plans for that game, we ordered a supply of tickets that we thought would last for six months to a year. But Mike’s Picks has only been on the market for about 3½ months – the $5 game debuted April 3 – and it’s nearly sold out. We’re glad you like it!

Usually, Mike Wolfe is the one doing the picking on TV, but we’ve turned the tables on him this time, haven’t we?

Boating & Camping Gear, Cash Prizes In ‘Sun Time Fun Time’

The weather outside tells me summer definitely has arrived, so we’re kicking off the season with a new promotion offering up boats, camping gear and cash prizes.

Thirteen prizes totaling more than $50,000 are up for grabs in the “Sun Time Fun Time” promotion. You can enter it with nonwinning tickets from our four new X-themed scratch games that just started sales today.

They’re our new family of games – 5X, 10X®, 15X and 20X – and they offer top prizes from $5,000 up to $50,000 respectively. Even better is that nonwinning tickets in the games can be entered in the promotion from noon today through noon Sept. 2.

Each game corresponds with a different prize level in the promotion. Here are the tickets you can enter and the prizes you could win:

• $1 5X = chance to win one of 10 prizes of $500.
• $2 10X = chance to win a tent camper prize package valued at more than $11,000 (1 winner).
• $3 15X = chance to win a fishing boat prize package valued at more than $15,000 (1 winner).
• $5 20X = chance to win a pontoon boat prize package valued at more than $21,000 (1 winner).

To enter the promotion, you’ll need to join or already be a member of the lottery’s free VIP Club. On the Sun Time Fun Time page, you’ll be asked to enter the 10-digit entry number from the front of a nonwinning ticket in one of the designated games along with the ticket number from the back.

We’ll hold the promotion’s drawings on Sept. 4. Complete rules are available on the lottery website at www.ialottery.com and drawing results also will be posted there.

10X® is used with permission from the Multi-State Lottery Association.

The Top 5 Things We Hear …

There are some topics that come up again and again in the lottery world, so I’ve put together a list of the Top 5 for you today.

The undisputed No. 1 is the whole cash vs. annuity argument -- Which is chosen more often? Which is better? What happens to “the rest of the money” when you choose the cash option? We answer all that and more in this video.

No. 2 on the list has got to be the urban legend that “no one from here ever wins.” Check out what we have to say about that here.

No. 3 focuses on easy picks vs. play slips in our lotto games. Which type of play is made more often? Are you more likely to win with one or the other? We answer that here.

No. 4 is a question about lottery proceeds, and specifically, where that money goes here in Iowa. Click here to find out.    

And No. 5 on the list is the question asking whether you can remain anonymous in Iowa when you claim a lottery prize. The short answer is no, but we give the complete details here.          

New Round Of Scams Being Reported

If you’ve followed the blog for a while, you know that I’ve posted warnings here several times about lottery scams. Well, a man who visited our Mason City office just reminded me that it’s likely time for another alert. We can never have too many reminders to keep things safe!

The man showed our Mason City staff a fax he had received. It contained a certificate appearing to bear witness to a $500,000 prize he’d won from the Iowa Lottery, along with what appeared to be a cashier’s check made out to him for that amount. Both the certificate and check had the Iowa Lottery’s logo on them. But there was just one catch. (And there’s always a catch with scammers, isn’t there?) During telephone calls with the man, the scammers said that in order for the prize to be processed, he needed to pay them a $649 fee. I have no idea why the scammers chose such a specific amount, but that’s what they said!

Obviously the fax did not come from the Iowa Lottery, and we assured the man of that. We also thanked him for bringing this latest scam attempt to our attention so we could warn others about it.

The folks in our Security Division researched the telephone number from which the fax originated and it definitely appears to have come from outside the United States. That makes it nearly impossible to trace, a frustrating situation we’ve often found through the years.        

The lottery scams we’ve seen have taken many different forms: Some have used the names of legitimate lotteries, others have used the names of legitimate lottery games such as Powerball® and Mega Millions®, and still others have “borrowed” the names of actual lottery officials in an attempt to give themselves the appearance of legitimacy. In most instances, the scammers are able to mask themselves by spoofing I.P. addresses, telephone numbers and physical locations.

The best thing that any of us can do to protect ourselves is to remain vigilant against scams and NEVER share our personally-identifying information such as Social Security numbers or bank account information. Remember that the only way you can win a prize from the Iowa Lottery is if you've bought a ticket at a licensed retail location in Iowa and you can present the ticket to us.

We keep a Player Security section as a permanent feature on our website, so please review the details there to learn more.

If you ever get suspicious letters, telephone calls or e-mails about a lottery game, or if you're in doubt about information that supposedly came from a legitimate lottery, feel free to give us a shout at 515.725.7900 and ask to speak with someone in our Security Division. It’s always better to be safe than sorry!

Jealous! They Got To Meet Hall of Famers!

We told you last week here on the blog that our “Hall of Fame” trip winners and their guests had arrived in Ohio for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 50th Anniversary Fan Festival. Well, now we’ve got the images of all the fun they had on their trip. Color us officially jealous!

Congrats, guys! It looks like you had a great time!

Why Are Some Tickets Printed In Canada?

Here’s a great behind-the-scenes-at-the-lottery topic to send us into the weekend. We got this question Monday on Facebook: “Why are lottery tickets made in Canada? Seems to me we can do that here in the USA.”

He may not have known it, but the man who posed that question was right on both accounts.

Some of the lottery tickets we sell here in Iowa are printed in Canada. And there are facilities that print lottery tickets here in the United States as well. The background on the situation is that there are only a handful of companies in the entire world that meet the security requirements and have the advanced printing techniques necessary to print lottery tickets.

The Iowa Lottery has contracts to print scratch tickets with all three of the companies that supply that product to the U.S. market. Two of the companies are headquartered in America (in Georgia and Rhode Island specifically) and one of them is based in Winnipeg, Canada. Each of the companies has licensed products and patented processes that only they can provide. And to offer our players the widest variety possible in our games, we have working relationships with all three companies.

The Iowa Lottery’s pull-tab games, by the way, are printed right here in Iowa (in Council Bluffs) by American Games.

Reminder: We Have Our Own Pick 3 & Pick 4 Results Now!

We made the announcement and blogged about why we were making the change earlier this month, but we’re still getting questions from players, so I’m touching on the topic again today. On April 16, the Iowa Lottery began conducting its own drawings in the Pick 3 and Pick 4 games. We now have winning numbers in those games that are unique to Iowa, and we no longer share results with the Illinois Lottery.

Some folks initially thought we were providing the wrong results when they saw that Iowa’s winning numbers in Pick 3 and Pick 4 were different than those in Illinois, but we’ve assured them that the information is, in fact, correct. We’ve added reminder messages on our website – they’re in red on the main pages for the Pick 3 and Pick 4 games – so those will hopefully help spread the word as well.

In addition to the details that we provide directly to you, many media outlets around the state provide the winning numbers in lottery drawings as a public service. We’ve been reaching out to newspapers, televisions stations and radio stations to make sure they’re aware of the change so they can double-check that they are providing the results correctly.

There’s an adjustment period when any change occurs. It makes me think of that old saying, “I like progress, I just don’t like change.” We’re about a week into this particular change and it seems like things are working out just fine. The good news is, people like the Pick 3 and Pick 4 games and are paying close attention to the winning numbers in them!

Thank you for playing and good luck on your lottery tickets!

Busy Place For Winners Today!

Our Cedar Rapids office has been hoppin’ today! Three big winners all just happened to be there at the same time to claim their prizes – and they all won big in different games.

First up was Terry Poley from New Albin, who won a $100,000 top prize in the $10 “Double Dollar Fortune” scratch game. Terry said he was giving that game one last chance – he’d bought two tickets in it recently that hadn’t won prizes, so he decided to buy just one more to see if he’d have any luck. And boy, did he! There’s one top prize left in Double Dollar Fortune now that Terry’s taken home his prize.

Next up was Linda McKeen of Jesup, who won a $10,000 prize playing Powerball. Linda said she had tickets from several drawings at home and just hadn’t checked them for a few weeks. When she finally did check them, she discovered she’d won big in the March 26 drawing. I told her she’d solved the mystery for us as to why the $10,000 prize from that night hadn’t been claimed even after a few weeks had passed.

And the third big winner was Nancy Sheridan of Harper’s Ferry, who won a $10,000 prize in the $10 “Make My Year” scratch game. Nancy said she usually buys tickets that cost $5, but she won some small prizes in the $5 “Make My Month” game, so she decided to try out “Make My Year.” And she won big!

Nancy said she scratched her ticket out in the car while her husband was still in the store paying for gasoline, so she was able to share the good news with him right away. And she already knows what she’ll do with the money: She plans to help her daughter with a down payment on her house

All The Fun In LeClaire For ‘Mike’s Picks’

LeClaire definitely turned out to help us celebrate the kickoff of the “Mike’s Picks” game and promotion! Check out all the fun in this video.

Iowa Will Have Its Own Pick 3 & Pick 4 Drawings

There’s a procedural change coming for the drawings in our Pick 3 and Pick 4 games, and from a player perspective, you’ll notice a couple updates.

The drawing results in the games will be unique to Iowa for the first time since the games were introduced here in our state. And the drawing times also will change slightly, as will the deadlines by which you’ll need to buy tickets for those drawings.

Beginning on Wednesday, April 16, Iowa-specific drawings will be held in both games. That’s a change from current procedures. Since Pick 3 was introduced in Iowa in 1998 and Pick 4 was added here in 2003, the Iowa Lottery has shared drawing results in those games with the Illinois Lottery.

But over time, both states have added different features to our individual games and we’ve heard from players wondering why we share drawing results but have separate options in each state. We think it makes sense to begin holding separate drawings to help avoid player confusion.

Pick 3 and Pick 4 both have drawings twice a day here in Iowa, with a midday drawing currently at 12:40 p.m. and an evening drawing about 9:20 p.m.

Starting April 16, the midday drawing in each game will be held at 12:50 p.m., with the sales cut-off time for that drawing at noon. The evening drawing in both games will be at 8:50 p.m., with the sales cut-off time for that drawing at 8 p.m.
 
For those who aren’t familiar with Pick 3 and Pick 4, they’re numbers games with a long history along the East Coast. But they’re also offered by numerous other lotteries across the country, including the Iowa Lottery. 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 come up 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 features a top prize of $3,000, with odds of just 1 in 1,000 of winning it. Plays in Pick 3 range in cost from 50 cents to $5. Iowa’s Pick 4 game features a top prize of $30,000, with odds of 1:10,000 of winning it. Plays in Pick 4 also range cost 50 cents up to $5.

‘Mike’s Picks’ Game Starts Today, Promotion Tomorrow

You’ve seen him on TV as an expert collectibles picker and now Mike Wolfe will be coming to your local lottery retailer – OK, maybe not Mike himself, but his game definitely will be there!

The original American picker is teaming up with Iowa Tourism and us here at the Iowa Lottery for a new scratch game and promotion. We kicked things off with a big announcement today at his Antique Archaeology© store in historic LeClaire along the Mississippi River.

The $5 “Mike’s Picks” scratch game is hitting stores today. Look for the tickets with Mike’s picture on them and the rooster logo from his Antique Archaeology stores in Nashville, Tenn., and LeClaire. The game offers instant prizes from $5 up to $50,000. And if you don’t win a cash prize, you can enter your nonwinning tickets from the game into the Mike’s Picks promotion for a chance to win a trip to Nashville or LeClaire and products from Iowa companies.

The promotion kicks off at noon tomorrow and you can enter it through noon on June 30. We’ll hold the drawings on July 1.

In addition to the usual ticket information you’ll need to enter into the promotion, there’s an extra twist this time: You’ll be asked a “Mike’s Weekly Iowa Pick” question. He chose his favorite places and products in the state and we’re going to see how well you know them, too. Your answer to the question will determine the prize level for your entry.

We’ll give away one grand-prize trip to Nashville, where the winner and three guests can tour the Antique Archaeology store and the Grand Ole Opry®; six first prizes of a trip to LeClaire where the winner and three guests can tour the Antique Archaeology store and go on a riverboat tour; and 12 second prizes of an assortment of the Iowa products that Mike picked as some of his favorites.

We know there’s not a bad “pick” in the bunch, so have fun with it!

And The ‘Veterans Victory’ Winner Is …

The drawing results are in for our “Veterans Victory” promotion, and a northwest Iowa lottery player is finding out right now that they’re the winner of the custom-painted motorcycle!

We held the promotion drawing this morning, selecting Tracy Schultz of Peterson as the motorcycle winner. Peterson, population 334, is in Clay County.  

Our players made nearly 97,000 entries in the promotion from its start on Jan. 6 through the end of the entry period at noon yesterday. The $1 “Ride To Riches” game was the entry vehicle for the promotion, and all proceeds from the sale of tickets in that game benefit Iowa veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund.  

The lottery had teamed up with artist Ray “Bubba” Sorensen II on the motorcycle project. It was the first time that Sorensen, the artist best known for his annual artwork on the huge “The Freedom Rock®” boulder near Greenfield in western Iowa, had painted a motorcycle. Since our first games to benefit the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund debuted in July 2008, the Iowa Lottery has raised nearly $15 million for the cause.

Thanks to everyone who entered! We’ll announce a new promotion in April that you’ll be able to enter with nonwinning tickets in a new scratch game.

Why We End A Particular Scratch Game

A player question that’s come our way is one we see a lot. So here is the Q-and-A in case you’ve wondered the same thing.

Q: Why does the lottery pull a particular scratch game from the market?  

A: As part of our standard procedures, we end sales in our scratch games for a few different reasons.

While we have dozens of games for sale at any one time, there are only so many bins for tickets in our vending machines and only so many slots for tickets in our dispensers. That means some retail locations simply don’t have enough room for all the games that are out there, and the retail location can decide which games it wants to sell.

Most often, we discontinue sales in a particular scratch game when the last top prize in it 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!

Sometimes we have specially-themed games that are only set to run for a short period of time, like our holiday games. Those games come off the market in January each year because it just wouldn’t make sense if we were selling “Merry Crossword” in July! But the good news is, we work hard to keep the odds of winning the same in those games as they are in others that are on the market for much longer.

At other times, if a game has been available for some time and players show us through their purchases that they prefer something else, it also will be removed from the shelves.  

People’s reactions to our procedures sometimes make us chuckle because they can be so different. We’ve gotten complaints from players who don’t want us to ever end a game at the same time we’ve heard from others who want to make sure that we very definitely are doing that, especially when the last top prize has been claimed.

In the end, we just have to concentrate on doing what we think is right. Throughout the Iowa Lottery’s history, we’ve designed our policies to err on the side of players as much as possible. A good example of that is the expiration date for prizes in our games. If a prize expires on a weekend or holiday when our offices are closed, we give you until the following business day to claim the prize. We think that’s only fair.

We’ll keep doing our best to come up with fun, new games to replace those that are ending!

Playing Powerball? Listen for the Trumpet Sound!

You’ll want to be listening to the lottery terminal as you’re playing Powerball® in Iowa right now! That’s because a new promotion has started today, giving some lucky Powerball player a free play in the new All or Nothing™ game with every 10th Powerball transaction that’s made statewide.

Every time a free All or Nothing play is automatically generated in the promotion, the lottery terminal will make a trumpet sound – so have your listening ears on! If you hear the trumpet when you make your Powerball purchase, it means the lottery terminal has generated a free play in All or Nothing along with your Powerball ticket.

The promotion will keep going until 50,000 free plays have been generated in All or Nothing. We’re not sure how long that will take – it all depends on how sales are doing.

02-17-14 Update: We just issued free play No. 50,000 at 3:40 p.m. today, so the All or Nothing promotion has ended. And we heard this afternoon from two players who each won a $1,000 prize on the free play they'd received. Awesome news, thanks for playing!

Remember that the free play is not for every 10th purchase that’s made at a particular location, but rather, it’s generated with every 10th Powerball transaction statewide. So, you never know when the next free ticket will come up!

Have fun playing Powerball and maybe you’ll get an All or Nothing freebie while you’re at it! It’s the new lotto game where you win for matching all the numbers or none of the numbers