ialottery blog

Yep, He IS That $1 Winner

Love that this central Iowa guy is giving us all a new reason to smile at a time we REALLY need it!

You may remember Tyler Heep of Urbandale from the international headlines he stirred up in January 2019. At the time, Tyler won a $1 prize in the Iowa Lottery’s “Stinking Rich” scratch game.

But rather than claiming his winnings at a store like most people do, Tyler came to see us at lottery headquarters in Clive and asked if we’d give him one of our ceremonial checks for his admittedly small prize.

We said that of course we would, so we wrote out one of our oversized checks to him in the amount of $1 and we took his picture. After some laughter all around, he went on his way.

A couple days later, Tyler posted that picture of him proudly posing with his $1 check online and the world went crazy for it. His story was shared across the country and even made international headlines as media outlets wrote about his “big” win.

Fast forward to this month and Tyler is posting about his win again. He says that even more than a year later, people keep asking if he’s the guy who got a $1 check from the lottery. So he had the check, the photo we took of him, and a $1 bill custom framed to go on his wall.

He said he’s changing his profile picture to the shot of him above so he can definitively say that yes, he IS that $1 winner.

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!

Boone Man Wins His Own $100,000 Prize After Buying His Mom A $100,000 Winner

Lightning really can strike twice!

Six months after he bought a scratch ticket for his mom that won a $100,000 prize, a Boone man has claimed a $100,000 lottery prize of his own.

Troy Dennis won the final top prize available in the “Cash In” scratch game. He bought his winning ticket at L & M Gas & Grocery, the same Boone store where he bought a ticket for his mom last summer that also won a $100,000 prize. Terry Dennis of Boone claimed her big prize Aug. 1 in the “Diamond 9s” scratch game.

Troy said he couldn’t believe it when he first saw the results of his winning ticket and said the situation must be “just good karma.” He said his mom won, and now it’s his turn!

Troy is a contractor and said he was on his way into work when he stopped for a morning coffee. He noticed the Cash In game in the store’s ticket display and decided to buy a couple tickets.

He said he played the first one standing at the counter and it was a $100,000 winner. He called his mom, who thought he was kidding, and then continued on with his day. He said he locked the ticket up at home first, and then went to work.

Troy said he hasn’t entirely decided what he’ll do with his winnings, but he’s considering investing in his business and taking a family vacation. He said he can’t remember his last vacation, so he’s well overdue.

Christmas Gifts Lead To Two $10,000 Lottery Prizes

Two family Christmas gatherings led to two $10,000 prizes for Iowa Lottery players – both in the same game.

First up was Dylan Day of Monroe in Jasper County. He got a scratch ticket as a Christmas gift from his mom and said he played the “$100,000 Happy Holidays Crossword” ticket the next day. But he said he didn’t realize he’d won big until he counted up all the words he’d uncovered. 

Day says he was pretty much jumping up and down and was so happy, he didn’t know what he was thinking. He said he plans to use his winnings to pay off debt, begin finishing his basement and will treat his mother to a nice dinner – or two.

Next up was a Minnesota woman who claimed a $10,000 prize in that same game. Stephanie Charpentier of Rosemount, Minn., said that her father, who lives in Shell Rock, gives his family lottery scratch tickets as stocking stuffers every year. And when they played this year’s tickets at their recent holiday gathering in Clear Lake, they found multiple winners among the bunch.

Stephanie said they thought they had a $20 winner, a $50 winner, and a $100 winner. But when they checked the tickets at a local convenience store, the clerk gave them the customer receipts from the lottery terminal showing that one of their tickets had actually won a $10,000 prize. Stephanie said they just stood there counting the zeroes.

In the spirit of her family’s holiday gathering, Stephanie said she plans to share the winnings with her family.

Feel-Good Friday: Two Inspiring Lottery Stories

Two lottery stories from this week are EXACTLY what we need for a feel-good Friday!

First up is the true tale of a Missouri bartender who got a huge, unexpected tip from a customer: a Powerball ticket that won a $50,000 prize! Taylor Russey of O’Fallon, Mo., said that one of the bar’s regulars buys tickets for everyone in the place every now and then. This time around, the ticket that the customer gave Russey won $50,000. Her ticket matched four of the white balls plus the Powerball in the Oct. 19 drawing to win the prize.

Next up is a North Carolina man who was on his way to his last chemotherapy appointment when he won a $200,000 lottery prize. Ronnie Foster of Pink Hill, N.C., said he saw a lot of zeroes on his scratch ticket and he just froze.

Foster said he was already happy because he was on his way to his last round of chemo, but winning the lottery officially made it his lucky day.

Good vibes to send us all into the weekend!

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

Now that our holiday-themed scratch games have hit store shelves for the year, we’ve gotten a couple player questions about the number of prizes available in them and the odds of winning those prizes. I always tell people that lottery players pay attention to detail – and our player mail has proven that point!

One player noticed that holiday games don’t have as many top prizes as our regular games and wondered why. That’s because our holiday-themed games by design will only be on the market for a short period of time while many of our other games are sold for a year or more.

We order smaller quantities of tickets in our holiday games, which means there will be a smaller number of prizes involved. The key point, however, is that the odds of winning in our holiday-themed games are in line with those in our other games, and that’s what matters when it comes to the chance of winning a prize.

“Crossword” games are a perennial favorite for scratch players, so let’s compare the “$30,000 Holiday Crossword” game that’s available right now with the “Bonus Crossword” game. They’re both $3 versions of Crossword, and they have the same overall odds of winning: about 1 in 3.52.

That’s also the case with the $2 “Nutcracker Bingo” holiday game and the $2 “Wild Bingo” game. The overall odds of winning are the same in both: about 1 in 3.34.

Then there are the folks who tell us they like our non-holiday games and want to see them come back. Well, guess what? They will! Our holiday-themed games will only be on the market until early January, and then our other games will cycle back onto store shelves when the holidays are over.

The folks in our Storm Lake office say that it’s snowing there today, so I guess it IS starting to look like winter in Iowa!

See You Tomorrow At The RVTV Party In Rockwell City!

In the lead-up to a certain college football game every year here in Iowa, a home-grown tradition has sprung up that involves a TV sports team driving around in a recreational vehicle, and we’re going to be part of that fun tomorrow. We hope you’ll turn out for it, too!

I’m referring, of course, to “RVTV” from the sports team at WHO-TV in Des Moines. In the week leading up to the Iowa-Iowa State football game, the Channel 13 team drives around the state in an RV, stopping in communities along the way and featuring the festivities on the station’s newscasts. The communities put on impromptu celebrations to welcome RVTV and highlight their team and civic pride.

Rockwell City will be WHO’s RVTV stop tomorrow, and the Iowa Lottery will be part of the moment to highlight an initiative that began there and is now making a difference statewide. The state’s new Public Safety Survivor Benefit Fund was established in July and now receives a portion of the Iowa Lottery’s annual proceeds to state causes. The fund will provide assistance to help pay the costs of accident or healthcare insurance for the surviving family members of Iowa peace officers and fire fighters killed on the job.

The push to provide insurance-coverage help for the families began after a Rockwell City police officer was shot and killed during a standoff in 2013. The Iowa Department of Public Safety will award grants each year through new Survivor Fund, with half the money going to nonprofit organizations that help with the ongoing insurance costs for surviving families of peace officers killed in the line of duty, and half going to nonprofit organizations that help with those costs for the surviving family members of fire fighters killed in the line of duty.

The Iowa Lottery will provide $100,000 in proceeds each year to the Survivor Fund and will make its first transfer to the fund in late October.

At 4:30 p.m. tomorrow, Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn will join local lawmakers on the RVTV stage in Rockwell City’s Courthouse Square to make a presentation about the Survivor Fund.

And from 4-7 p.m. tomorrow, the Iowa Lottery will have a booth in the Courthouse Square where we’ll sell tickets in our “Cash on the Cob” scratch game. Members of the WHO-TV team will have a sweetcorn-eating contest at about 6 p.m. tomorrow, so we thought a corn-themed game would be a perfect fit for the day!

Lottery players who buy three Cash on the Cob tickets ($9 purchase) at our booth will be able to spin our prize wheel to win a merchandise prize. Players who buy five tickets ($15 purchase) will get a lottery T-shirt and have a chance to spin the prize wheel. And every 30 minutes from 5-7 p.m., we’ll hold a contest at our booth to give away a prize package that includes coupons for free Powerball plays, Cash on the Cob scratch tickets and lottery merchandise. We’ll hold five contests, and anyone at least 21 years old can enter at our booth (no purchase necessary).

We hope to see you tomorrow in Rockwell City for RVTV!

Player Mail: It's Gotta Have Scotcharoos!

One of our players wrote to us on Facebook to ask about how we come up with game ideas here at the lottery, and we LOVE the idea he offered up after we answered his question!

The player asked how the Iowa Lottery comes up with the names and themes of its scratch games, and who designs them.   

The short answer is that it’s often a team effort to find just the right game. There are times when just one of us at the Iowa Lottery comes up with something good, and other times we borrow from popular culture. The companies that print our scratch games also offer suggestions for games and ticket designs. Those companies print tickets for lotteries all around the world, so we’re glad that they share their expertise with us.

There actually is quite a science to choosing lottery game names, themes and colors. Part of it is common sense: If every scratch game for sale is green, people could have trouble telling them apart. So, we want to have a mix of game colors on the market at any one time.The same goes for the themes of our games. It’s good to have a few seasonal games each year, some holiday games, some gaming themes and maybe the theme of a popular movie, too.

But when it’s all said and done, people just like what they like. That’s why we have lots of different games for sale at any one time so you’ll have choices.

Over the years, a couple themes have always done well here in our state: Iowa and animals. The Iowa part is easy to understand: We like Iowa and we’re proud of our state! As for the animal part, maybe it’s because pets are such a big part of our lives, or because Iowa has a strong agricultural heritage.

The player who contacted us then gave his own suggestion for an Iowa-themed game. He said it would need to include artwork of corn stalks, pigs, the Eastern Goldfinch and Scotcharoo bars. Hey, we think Scotcharoos make everything better, so why not lottery tickets, too?

In any case, we’ll keep coming up with new game ideas, and we invite you to keep letting us know how we’re doing!

Winning Streak In Tiny NE Iowa Community

It may not seem unusual to know there were two big lottery winners in the same town -- until you hear it’s a community of just 315. But that’s what has happened in the Winneshiek County town of Ridgeway in northeast Iowa. Two of the tiny burg’s residents have won sizeable lottery prizes this month!
 
First up was Jill Mitchell of Ridgeway, who won a $30,000 top prize in the “Bonus Crossword” scratch game. She bought her winning ticket at a convenience store in Decorah. 

Five days later, Trisha Kountkofsky of Ridgeway won the 48th and final top prize of $100,000 in the “Mega Crossword” scratch game. She bought her winning ticket at a local convenience store in Ridgeway.

Some people have wondered if it’s something in the water, or whether four-leaf clovers have suddenly cropped up in the town. We know it all comes down to random luck, but what a fun moment for a not-so-big place!

A Day To Say: Relax!

Today’s national designation calls to mind the daydreaming aspect of playing the lottery. It’s National Relaxation Day!

The designation comes from the National Day Calendar™, the website that tracks zany national days that often are observed just for fun.

People have told us they like playing the lottery because it gives them a chance to take a break and think, “What if?” Maybe a fun daydream is something you can enjoy as you celebrate this day of relaxation. The $1 “Luau Loot” scratch game seems to fit in with that, because attending a luau on a beautiful beach would definitely be relaxing!   

According to the Day Calendar, this particular national day was proposed back in 1985 by a 9-year-old boy in Michigan. He suggested that people should spend a day not doing anything of real value. And he noted that cleaning and real work are not part of relaxing.

Sounds like a great definition to me! :)

Two Gifts, A LOT Of Winnings

Two of our biggest winners this month both got their lucky ticket as a gift from a family member!

First up was Terry Dennis of Boone, who claimed the eighth and final top prize of $100,000 in the “Diamond 9s” scratch game. Terry says her son, Troy, bought the ticket when he took her out for coffee. While they were out, they stopped at a local convenience store, where Troy bought some tickets and gave one to his mom.

Terry said she played it and quickly realized she’d won the game’s top prize. She says she was very shaken and very excited, and her son ran back in the store to give the clerk a big hug for selling him the $100,000-winning ticket. They drove straight to Iowa Lottery headquarters to claim the prize.

Next up was Keesha Parker of Sioux City, who claimed the first top prize in the “Wild Bingo” scratch game. Keesha says she got her $25,000-winning ticket from her husband, Kevin. He bought a pair of tickets at a local convenience store and they both scratched one later that night.

Keesha said she initially thought she’d won $500, but they went back to the store to check the ticket and learned the prize was a lot more than that! She said she plans to save part of her winnings, donate some, and buy back-to-school supplies for her grandchildren.

Thoughtful family members for the WIN, indeed!

34 Years In The Making: Iowa Lottery Sets Records

The Iowa Lottery has just posted the best annual results in its 34-year history.

Lottery sales, proceeds to state causes, prizes to players, and retail commissions all set records in fiscal year 2019, which ended June 30. We think the results deliver on our promise to responsibly raise revenues for the state causes that are important to us all.

Click on the video above to see our thank-you message to our players, our retailers, and really, anyone who has an interest in the Iowa Lottery.

Our preliminary figures out today show that the Iowa Lottery generated a record $92.8 million in proceeds to state causes in FY 2019. Annual lottery sales were a record $390.9 million, while prizes to players totaled a record $241.9 million. Lottery sales commissions to the local businesses across Iowa that sell our tickets totaled $25.4 million, also a record.

Scratch games have always been the lottery's leading product category and led the way again in FY 2019, with those games accounting for a record $250.6 million in sales in Iowa. 

The lottery retailer with the most sales in Iowa was again the Hy-Vee store at 20 Wilson Ave. in Cedar Rapids. That location has been the No. 1 lottery retailer in Iowa for five straight years, and it sold nearly $950,000 in lottery tickets in FY 2019.

The largest prize won by an Iowa Lottery player in FY 2019 was a $343.9 million Powerball jackpot, and six other prizes of at least $1 million also were won in the state during the year. 

Couple Both Buy Their Own Lottery Tickets And Both Win (But She Wins More)

Here’s a story out of South Carolina to give us all a smile: A husband and wife both bought tickets in the same lottery scratch game and both won. But she won more – a lot more.

The couple in Lancaster, S.C., both bought tickets in a $5 scratch game there called “Giant Jumbo Bucks.” He won $200. She won one of the game’s top prizes of $150,000!

As she claimed her prize, the wife told officials at the South Carolina Education Lottery that her hubs threw a fit when he realized she’d won so much more than him!

Hey, they’re definitely a lucky household in my book!

Checking An Item Off His Bucket List

 A northern Iowa man is planning a trip he’s always dreamed about now that he’s won a $100,000 lottery prize.

Brian Staudt says he’ll use some of his winnings for a trip to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. The 60-year-old Charles City man says he’s always wanted to go there, and this is a fine opportunity to do it.

Brian claimed one of the $100,000 top prizes in the “Spectacular Riches” scratch game this week. And get this: He says absentmindedness set the stage for his big win. He says he meant to buy a ticket while out getting groceries, but forgot. Then on the way home, he stopped to buy another item on his shopping list, but again forgot to buy a lottery ticket. He finally went to a local Casey’s store and bought a handful of scratch tickets, including the Spectacular Riches ticket where he won big. He says that being forgetful pays off sometimes!     

All of us at the Iowa Lottery send you our congratulations, Brian. Now just don’t forget to go to Cooperstown! :)

New Supply Of Tickets Added To Our ‘Silverado’ Game

Our “Silverado” scratch game is officially a summer hit – so much so that we’ve ordered more tickets in it!

The Silverado game went on sale here in Iowa on May 6 and it’s selling quickly. You likely know that the game is tied to our “Summer of Silverado” promotion where we’re giving away trucks and cash prizes in drawings that run through mid-September. But within the game’s first month of sales, five of its top prizes had already been claimed and with its tickets selling so fast, we were afraid the supply wouldn’t last as long as our promotion!

So, we placed a re-order. There now are more Silverado tickets available to purchase and that also means there are more prizes to win! You may have noticed that the total number of top prizes in the game went up this week from the initial eight to the current 11. That’s due to the additional tickets that have been added to the mix. The prizes at the game’s other prize levels (ranging from $5 up to $1,000) also increased, but it’s the top prizes that generally catch the most attention.

Click here to see the list of remaining prizes in Silverado, our other scratch games, and our InstaPlay and pull-tab games.

So, game on! Thanks for playing, and good luck with your lottery tickets.

It’s National Corn On The Cob Day!

Here’s another sign of summer’s impending arrival: It’s national Corn on the Cob Day!

That’s according to the National Day Calendar™, the website that tracks unusual and unique national days and has a day for just about everything.

In the calendar’s details about today, it notes that corn on the cob has a lot of different regional names, some of which I’ve never heard before: pole corn, cornstick, sweet pole, butter-pop or long maize. The most common ways of preparing it are boiling, steaming, roasting or grilling.

Corn on the cob is a sweet corn that we harvest and eat while the kernels are still tender, meaning they’re immature. And that brings up another interesting statistic. According to the Iowa Corn Growers Association, only 1 percent of the corn planted in the United States is sweet corn. The rest is field corn, a grain harvested when the kernels are dry and fully mature. It's processed for everything from cereal, oil and syrup to livestock feed and ethanol production.

Here at the lottery, we’ve brought you our own way to celebrate today: the “Cash On the Cob” scratch game. The $3 game offers prizes of up to $30,000 and its tickets of course feature images of bright yellow ears of corn on the cob. 

Other fun corn facts: Iowa is the nation’s No. 1 corn-producing state. The number of kernels per ear of corn can vary from 500 to about 1,200. Corn is grown on every continent except Antarctica. A bushel of corn weighs 56 pounds. And, corn is in more than 4,000 items you’ll find in the grocery store, including shampoo, toothpaste, chewing gum, marshmallows, crayons and paper.

Player Mail: Why Aren’t There Expiration Dates On Scratch Tickets?

One of our players recently sent us a question that sparked a really interesting discussion. I’ll share it here on the blog, in case you’ve wondered the same thing: Why aren’t expiration dates printed on lottery scratch tickets?

The woman who emailed us said she’d recently tried to claim a prize from an expired ticket and she was frustrated that she couldn’t still cash it.

In our reply, we explained that there are a lot of factors in when a particular scratch game will end, and the timing of some can’t be predicted. That’s why it isn’t possible to assign a hard and fast end date to a scratch game when the tickets in it are printed.

For example, when the last top prize in one of our scratch games is claimed, we stop sales in it. We don’t want a game on the market if you don’t still have a chance to win a top prize in it! But we don’t know when the last top prize will be claimed -- that all depends on when someone will buy that particular ticket.

Sometimes we have specially-themed games that are only on the market for a short period of time, such as 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 game like “Merry Crossword” in July! (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 at other times, if a game has been on the market for some time and players show us through their (lack of) purchases that they prefer something else, it also will be removed from the shelves. 

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

We keep all the details about our games on our website, including game rules, a list of the scratch games currently available in stores, a list of the games where distribution has ended but prizes can still be claimed, and a list of games that have officially ended.  

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

Graduation Gift To Himself: College Grad Buys Lottery Ticket, Wins $50,000

A new college graduate bought a lottery scratch ticket after a celebratory dinner with his family and won $50,000.

Jonathan Labrador of Davenport said he and his family had just finished dinner and were on their way back to the hotel where his parents were staying for his graduation weekend at St. Ambrose University when he and his father stopped at a convenience store for fuel. While they were there, they also decided to buy some lottery scratch tickets. Jonathan, who said he remembered playing the computer version of the game years ago, decided to buy a “Frogger Level II” scratch ticket.

He scratched the ticket that night at the hotel where his parents were staying and realized he’d won big. He said it was “just like going on a roller coaster in five seconds.” It was the first Frogger scratch ticket he’d ever played and he called it “a perfect way to jump in.”

Jonathan said his parents are from Puerto Rico, so his big win made them feel better about how he’s situated for the future as they were leaving to head home. Jonathan is 22 and majored in mechanical engineering at St. Ambrose. His good news has continued this month, as he’s just received a job offer at a Davenport company.

Jonathan bought his winning ticket at the Kwik Shop at 303 W. Locust St. in Davenport. He claimed his $50,000 prize Monday at the Iowa Lottery’s regional office in Cedar Rapids. He won the sixth of 10 top prizes of $50,000 available in the $5 scratch game.

He said that his lottery winnings will definitely help with his student loans.

©Konami Digital Entertainment

We’re Declaring It The “Summer of Silverado”

We’ve decided to call it the “Summer of Silverado®” because during the next four months, we’ll give away four all-new 2019 Chevy Silverados. They’re the grand prizes in our summer promotion that that runs through mid-September.
 
It all starts with the “Silverado” scratch game you’ll find in lottery retail locations statewide. The $5 Silverado tickets are easy to spot because they have an image of a Chevy Silverado on them! You can win instant prizes in the game of up to $50,000, but if your ticket is a nonwinner, you can Play It Again® by entering it into our Summer of Silverado promotion for a chance to win a truck or a cash prize.

We’ll hold four drawings in the promotion and each time, we’ll give away a Chevy Silverado LT Trail Boss and five prizes of $5,000. The drawings will be on June 13, July 18, Aug. 15 and Sept. 12.

It’s been five years since the Iowa Lottery has given away a vehicle as a prize, but the Summer of Silverado is definitely changing that!

DEFINITELY Some Beginner’s Luck!

Here’s a story of luck to send us into the weekend: A Cedar Rapids woman has won a $50,000 prize with the first lottery ticket she ever bought.

Ameka Washington said she was out buying groceries when something just told her to stop and buy a lottery ticket. She said she decided to buy a scratch ticket even though she’d never done that before. She took it home and scratched it that night after making dinner for her family. And she quickly realized she’d won a $50,000 prize!

Ameka, 21, said she ran through the house screaming, “I won! I won! I really won!” She said her mom didn’t believe her at first, but the reality eventually sank in.

Ameka is a makeup artist and makes wigs for women undergoing cancer treatments or who have a skin condition that causes them to lose their hair. She said she plans to buy a car for her family and invest in her business.

Ameka won one of the top prizes available in the “$500 Loaded!” scratch game. She bought her winning ticket at the Hy-Vee store at 1556 First Ave. NE in Cedar Rapids.

Big Prizes Were Won HERE This Past Month

We’re officially into the fourth month of 2019, so in keeping with the new initiative we started this year, it’s time to look back at the biggest lottery prizes claimed in Iowa during the past month.

This map shows all of the lottery prizes of $600 or more that were claimed in March. You’ll find 418 dots on it, as compared to 399 on February’s map. So even with the many, many weather challenges that this winter and spring have brought our way, we were glad to see that people still made it in to see us and claim their prizes!  

Click here for a direct link to this map in an interactive format where you can see the details involved. Each dot shows the retail location where the winning ticket was purchased, the prize won, the game involved, and the date the prize was claimed.

The dots are in different colors for the four types of lottery games here in Iowa: scratch games, lotto games, InstaPlay games and pull-tab games. Scratch tickets have always been the Iowa Lottery’s leading product and they’re represented on the map by red dots, so it makes sense that there are a lot of them!

As I’ve done in the past couple months, I’ll give the reminder here that this map only shows those big prizes that were claimed in March. It doesn’t include prizes that were won but haven’t been claimed yet.

Another Take On It: Why There Are More Winners In Higher-Population Areas

In a recent blog, we posted a fun, interactive map that shows all the lottery prizes of $600 or more that were claimed in February. The map brought up some good questions from folks, particularly about the patterns it revealed.

One reader wondered how there could be more winning tickets in higher-population areas when the distribution of tickets is random. The man said he thought that if ticket distribution truly was random, there would be no way that population or the sales at a particular store would matter. But simply by the math involved, they do.

Maybe these visual examples can help make things clear:
 
Store A, which sells 70 tickets per week

Let’s say that each day, a particular store has 50 customers, and 20 percent of them buy a lottery scratch ticket. That means the store sells 10 tickets a day, or 70 tickets in a week. And that means there are only 70 possibilities for winning tickets from that store. 

Store B, which sells 350 tickets per week

In this example, the store involved has 250 customers per day, one in five of whom buy a lottery scratch ticket. That means the store sells 50 tickets a day, or 350 tickets in a week.

Because the busier store sells more tickets, there also will naturally be more winners there. That doesn’t mean the store is luckier, it’s just a matter of sales volume.

For a store with less foot traffic, it will take longer to sell more tickets. And fewer tickets being sold overall means that fewer winning tickets will be sold.

Winning tickets are distributed randomly throughout the entire supply in any of our scratch games. And, our tickets are delivered to the 2,400 lottery retailers in Iowa in no particular order. So, there truly is no way to know when and where the next winning ticket will be purchased.

Stores that sell the most lottery tickets generally are in the biggest communities in our state simply because that’s where more people live and do business.

All The Spots With Big Prizes In February

We’ve made it to the other side of a snowy-nasty February, so we’re pausing to look back at the biggest lottery prizes claimed in Iowa during the shortest month of the year (which sometimes felt like the longest this time around).

This map shows all of the lottery prizes of $600 or more that were claimed in February. You’ll find 399 dots on it, as compared to 427 on January’s map. The difference comes down to February’s shorter number of days, because both months averaged about 14 to 15 big winners per day. So even with the wintry weather, people still made it in to see us and claim their prizes!  

I said it when we looked at January’s numbers and I’ll say it again now: The patterns on this map put into perspective something that we’ve often said about prize wins: In bigger cities, more people are buying tickets and winning prizes. That’s not a matter of luck, it’s a matter of population.

Another way of putting it is that if 5 percent of lottery tickets are sold in a particular area, you expect to find about 5 percent of the overall winners there. Everyone has the same chance of winning, but there will be more winners in places where more tickets are being sold. That’s why there are more dots (prizes) on this map in areas where there are bigger populations. But there really is no telling where the next big winner will hit.

Click here for a direct link to this map in an interactive format where you can see the details involved. Each dot shows the retail location where the winning ticket was purchased, the prize won, the game involved, and the date the prize was claimed.

The dots are in different colors for the four types of lottery games here in Iowa: scratch games, lotto games, InstaPlay games and pull-tab games. Scratch tickets have always been the Iowa Lottery’s leading product and they’re represented on the map by red dots, so it makes sense that there are a lot of them!

I’ll note that this map only shows those big prizes that were claimed in January. It doesn’t include prizes that were won but haven’t been claimed yet.

A $50,000 Valentine From Her Husband

An eastern Iowa woman had quite a story to tell as she claimed a $50,000 lottery prize: The lucky ticket was a Valentine’s Day gift from her husband!

Angelena Madsen of Lisbon claimed her prize yesterday at our Cedar Rapids office. She said that her husband, John, gave her a box of chocolates, a card and a “$500 Loaded!” scratch ticket for Valentine’s Day.

She scratched the ticket and uncovered the matching numbers that she thought meant she had won one of the game’s $50,000 top prizes. Then she gave the ticket to her husband to double-check.

Angelena said she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, but her husband just said: “Happy Valentine’s Day!”

$1 Lottery Win Makes International News

A central Iowa man’s $1 lottery prize has now made international news. And yes, you read that right.
 
Tyler Heep of Urbandale decided to have some fun with it when he won $1 on a lottery scratch ticket. He came to lottery headquarters in Clive earlier this month and asked if we’d give him a ceremonial check for his prize just like we do for our very biggest prize winners. We said of course – it’s a winning experience, after all! Tyler then posted the picture of him proudly posing with his oversized check on social media, and the story took off from there.

His story has now been shared across the country. Media outlets also have picked it up and it’s officially gone international: The Daily Mail in London has run an article about Tyler’s “big” win.

Just like our very biggest prize winners, Tyler was asked what he planned to do with his winnings. He said he’s already spent his $1 -- on half a gallon of gas.

Thank you, Tyler, for reminding us all to have fun in life!

Nope, Those Tickets AREN’T Fakes!

Similar reactions from two of our recent winners caught my attention because they both referenced fake lottery tickets.

First up was Don Burd of Hiawatha, who claimed a progressive InstaPlay jackpot of more than $64,000 on Dec. 24. Don said his initial thought when he saw his winning ticket was that someone must have given him a phony one because there’s no way he would be so lucky. But it wasn’t a fake and Don WAS lucky, taking home a prize of $64,494 on Christmas Eve.

Then a couple days later, we met Laci Kane of Prairie City, who claimed a $50,000 scratch-game prize on Dec. 26. Laci said she won her big prize by buying some lottery tickets to help pass the time while she and her husband drove back from a family Christmas gathering in western Iowa. She told us she was looking forward to showing her family her ceremonial check as evidence of her win because none of them believed her news! She said they all thought it was a fake.

So, while fake lottery tickets do exist and people have been known to give them as a joke, Don and Laci’s tickets were real! And they both have something extra to celebrate for the holidays.

The Holiday Prize Rush Is ON Here At The Lottery!

I don’t know if it’s something in the water, or if it’s because people have been saving up their tickets for awhile, but whatever the reason, winners have kept us BUSY at the Iowa Lottery in the past couple days.

On Monday, Iowa Lottery players claimed 19 prizes of $900 or more, including the largest prize claimed that day, a $100,000 top prize in the “Star” scratch game.

Our offices were closed yesterday for the Christmas holiday, but we’ve been off to the races again today! Lottery players in Iowa claimed a total of 28 prizes today of $800 or more. The largest prize claimed today was one of the top prizes of $300,000 in the “Colossal Crossword” scratch game.

And in addition to the prizes that have already been claimed, a “JACKPOT PARTY® Progressive” InstaPlay jackpot also was won this afternoon in Coralville. The winner of that $11,508 prize, won with a ticket purchased at Keystone Liquor & Wine, 517 Second St. in Coralville, has not yet come forward to claim it.

JACKPOT PARTY® and © 2018 Bally Gaming, Inc. All rights reserved.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!