ialottery blog

A Milk Run With More: Errand Ends With $10,000 Lottery Prize

There’s something about the every-day aspect of this story, especially during these unusual times, that brings a smile. A southeast Iowa couple has taken home a $10,000 prize from a lottery scratch ticket purchased during a milk run.

Heather Love of Morning Sun claimed the prize earlier this week. She said that her husband, Nick, bought the ticket when he stopped at a local convenience store for milk on the way home from work. She said that Nick rarely buys scratch tickets but decided to get one that day in the “$100,000 Mega Crossword” game.

Heather said she was the one who scratched the ticket later that night after dinner. She thought they’d won big, but said it didn’t really start to sink in until she scanned the ticket on the lottery’s mobile app and it displayed the message: "Congratulations, you won $10,000!"

She said that she and Nick argued good-naturedly over which one of them would actually claim the prize, but agreed that they would use the winnings to buy new carpet and flooring for their home.

Heather said that winning a big prize “kind of makes your heart flutter.” She said she has often heard about people winning the lottery, but now it’s real to her.

Congratulations, Heather and Nick! Thank you for giving us a smile with your story!

They Thought They Won A Little, But It Turns Out They Won A LOT!

The common theme in two winners’ stories this week made me smile because they both ended up taking home so much more than they initially thought!

First in was Sherri Westbrook of Webster City, who claimed an $18,000 prize in the “Win It All” scratch game. She said when she initially uncovered a winning symbol on her ticket, she assumed she’d won a $2 prize. But then she kept scratching and saw multiple zeros and realized she’s won a lot more.

Sherri said she was so excited she woke up one of her daughters and asked her to look at the ticket to verify her win. She also checked it using the lottery‘s mobile app and finally started believing her eyes.

Next up was Roberta Gary of Waterloo. She won a $20,000 prize in the “Four Corners Crossword” scratch game, but said she initially thought she might have won $100. She said she could see that she’d uncovered several words on her ticket. As she kept playing, she raised the amount she thought she’d won to $300. Then to $2,000. But none of those were right!

Roberta said she also used the lottery app on her phone to scan her ticket, and was worried that her phone was lying to her. She said it was finally all sinking in as she claimed her prize at the lottery.

Congrats, Sherri and Roberta! Your eyes weren’t playing tricks on you – and neither was your phone! :) 

Not Even Her Twin Believed Her At First, But It’s True: She Won A $30,000 Prize

A Waterloo woman said she was in utter disbelief when she first realized she’d won a $30,000 prize on a lottery scratch ticket, and as it turns out, so was her twin sister, the first person she told.

Melanie Wagner said she produced the proof by sending her sister a picture of her winning ticket, then she signed it and hid it in a safe spot until she could get to the lottery’s Cedar Rapids office to claim her winnings.

She won the first $30,000 top prize in the $3 “Lucky 3” scratch game, which just hit shelves April 5. Melanie said she decided to buy tickets in the game because its bright pink color was just glowing in the case, calling out to her. She  stopped by a local convenience store to cash in a different ticket that had won a $10 prize when she decided to try the Lucky 3 game.

She said she thought for sure she was mistaken when she first saw the results of her ticket, so she re-read the directions and scanned the ticket using the lottery app on her phone. It turns out, she really had won!

At the time she claimed her prize, Melanie said she didn’t yet have plans for her winnings, but she laughingly was looking forward to hearing everyone else’s input!

Player Comment: I Really Liked That Game! Why Did You Stop Selling It?

Here’s a question that came our way about a scratch game that recently ended, and how and why we stop distribution of a particular game.

The player noticed that we’d stopped distributing tickets in the “3-2-Won!” scratch game. He said he always liked playing it and wished we would have kept it around.

There are a variety of factors in the Iowa Lottery’s decision to end a particular game, ranging from how long that game has been on the market, its current sales level, and whether stores want to replace it with something newer. We always 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 a chance at its top prize!

We have dozens of scratch games for sale at any one time, but there are only so many bins for tickets in our self-service kiosks and spots 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 individual locations can decide which games they want to sell.

Sometimes we have specially-themed games that only run for a short period of time, like our holiday games. Those games come off the market in January each year once the holidays are over. (And it wouldn’t make sense to sell a snowman-themed game in the summer anyway!)

In other instances, if a game has been available for some time and players show us through their overall purchases that they prefer something else, that game will be removed from shelves. In the case of 3-2-Won!, that $2 game had been on the market for two years when we ended distribution of it late last month. Overall sales in newer games simply outpaced it.  

When we discontinue one of our games, the lottery’s district sales representatives pick up any tickets in that game from the businesses that sell them so the game is removed from the retail setting.

Just know that we’ll keep coming up with fun, new games to replace those that are ending!

Player Comment: I Don’t Like Seeing A $5 Prize On That Ticket

We got an email this week from a player who didn’t like the prize amounts he and his wife had uncovered while they were playing one of our scratch games. The background involved deals with the play style in our games and how to keep them different and entertaining.

The player who reached out to us said that he and his wife were playing a ticket in a $20 scratch game and uncovered four winning numbers that each had a $5 prize associated with it, so their prize total on the ticket was $20. The player said they didn’t think a prize amount of less than $20 should be on the ticket.

We agree in part with his thinking, but also disagree.

When our team thinks through the different play styles that can be involved in our scratch games, we want them to be entertaining and for there to be a lot of different ways to win a prize. In some of our games, that means you can multiple prizes on one ticket that add up to a grand total when you’re done. (That was the case with the ticket the couple was playing.) In other games, there may be just one prize amount on a ticket.

In any of our scratch games, the minimum amount you can win on a ticket is always at least the purchase price. So, for a $3 game, the minimum prize level is $3. For a $5 game, the minimum prize level is $5, and so on.

How you arrive at the prize total on your ticket varies according to the play-style options in the particular game you’re playing. So, that means if you uncover a $5 prize on a $10 or $20 ticket, keep scratching: There are more prizes to be uncovered!

Player Question: I Got This Ticket As A Gift And Can’t Cash It

In the past few months, we’ve gotten questions from a few folks who weren’t able to cash the lottery tickets they’d been given as gifts and I’m sharing the background involved here to try to help others avoid that situation.

The latest question came from a woman who emailed us about some scratch tickets she’d gotten as a present. She played the tickets and saw that one of them indicated she’d won a prize. She took the ticket to a local store to cash it and the clerks there told her the lottery terminal couldn’t read the ticket’s results. She emailed us to ask what was going on.

We looked up the details about the game involved and it turns out the tickets she’d received were several years old. The claim period for prizes in the game had expired nearly seven years ago.

She was a good sport about it all and thanked us for our help, saying it would be just her luck to win a prize in such an old game. But we were disappointed for her, and know she was disappointed, too.

Last month, I blogged about a couple items on the Iowa Lottery website that are important when it comes to the prizes in Iowa Lottery games and the timeframes people have to claim them. I’ll highlight the lists again now because they’re important.

First up is the Unclaimed Prizes list where you can see all the prizes of more than $600 in Iowa that are still unclaimed in lotto and InstaPlay games. You can search the list in several different ways – by game, place of purchase, prize amount, date of win, and date of expiration – whichever is most important to you.

Next is the Remaining Prizes list. On that page, you can see the number of larger prizes in our scratch, pull-tab and InstaPlay games, how many of those prizes have been claimed, and the number that remain unclaimed. It’s another important reference item designed to give players insight into the games we have on the market.

For our scratch games and pull-tab games, we also have lists on our website that highlight the current games that are ending and the final date players have to claim prizes in them. There also are lists of the games that have already ended – meaning their prize-claim periods have expired – in the past three years. Click here and here to access those lists.

And if you’re giving lottery tickets to someone as a gift, please be sure they’re from current games.

Silly & Fun: ‘Dad Jokes’ Scratch Game Hits Stores This Week

A new game hitting the market this week here in Iowa has had us at the lottery laughing the entire time we were working on it. It’s just so silly and fun. We hope it makes you smile, too.

The new $1 scratch game is called “Dad Jokes.” To help build suspense, the first part of the joke is printed on the front of the ticket, but the answer is hidden under a box you’ll need to scratch off. (The answer isn’t part of the play area on the ticket where you try to win a prize by revealing three like amounts.)

The game offers prizes of up to $1,000, but we think part of the motivation to buy a ticket may be to find out the rest of the joke! There are lots of different jokes on the tickets themselves, so have fun learning them all.

Distribution of the Dad Jokes game has started today and tickets in it will be available at lottery retail locations statewide by Friday.

And yes, some of the jokes are so bad, they may make you groan. That’s by design. They are dad jokes, after all!

Player Question: What Determines The Top Prizes In Your Scratch Games?

A recent Facebook exchange about the top prizes in our scratch games was a reminder for me to highlight that issue here on the blog and share the details about how the Iowa Lottery determines those grand-prize amounts.

Some of the details are identified as we plan out our games, but a big part also is determined by population.

The planning part comes as we do our best to keep a variety of games in the marketplace to meet player tastes. Our goal is to have different game designs, colors, price points, themes and prize structures, understanding that what works for one person may not interest another at all. Variety counts!

Sometimes that means that games at the same price point will have different top prizes because players have their own preferences in the tickets they choose to play.

Take our current $20 scratch games as an example. The “Aces High” game has a top prize of $250,000, while the “Jewel Game Book” and “Super 20s” games both offer a top prize of $100,000. All three games have very different play styles and themes. And while Jewel Game Book and Super 20s both put emphasis on extended playing time with a greater number of prizes that aren’t quite as high, the $250,000 Riches game more concentration on the top prize.

Through the years, we’ve heard from some folks who want to play for bigger prizes while others prefer a better chance to win a prize at any level. We hope that by having a variety of games out there, you’ll find something that you like.

Population is the other big factor when it comes to determining the prizes that can be offered in a particular game. A lottery in a state with a larger population can design a game with bigger prizes and more of them simply because that state will have so many more people playing. A greater population base means larger sales overall, and that in turn supports higher prizes.

With a population of 3.1 million, Iowa is fairly small compared to states like California (39.5 million) or Florida (21.6 million). But we can still be creative when it comes to game planning!

Iowa First: See-Through Scratch Tickets! They're In 'The Cash Game'

A lottery first is hitting store shelves this week in Iowa: clear tickets!

Tickets in “The Cash Game” are printed on a transparent surface. The new $10 scratch game just started distribution today, so you’ll see it soon at your local lottery retailer. While tickets in the game have colorful artwork on them, their background is see-through.

Players can win prizes of up to $100,000 in the game. Nonwinning tickets in it can be entered into The Cash Game promotion that also started today and has another $200,000 in prizes on the line.

Have fun with this new look for Iowa Lottery tickets!

After Their Christmas Gift Exchange, A $10,000 Winner!

After the holidays each year, we look forward to hearing winner stories that are specific to this season: Those folks who found a big prize on a lottery ticket they received as a present!

One of those folks this time around is a northwest Iowa woman. Anne Phillips of Boyden said she and her boyfriend, Mike Kruse, bought each other lottery tickets for Christmas, and as they were scratching the tickets together, he asked her to take a closer look at one of them. He said he thought they'd won something.

Anne took that closer look and realized they’d won a $10,000 prize! Just to be sure, they scanned the ticket on the lottery’s mobile app and it confirmed they’d won big in the “$100,000 Holiday Crossword” scratch game.

Anne said that their lottery win was a bright spot in an otherwise really difficult year. She said they plan to use the winnings to pay off bills and do some home repairs. Sounds like a sensible plan!

Congratulations, Anne and Mike! And, Happy New Year!!!

You Don’t Scratch THAT Spot On “Holly Jolly Luck” Tickets

We’ve gotten questions from some players who thought their tickets in the “Holly Jolly Luck” game were defective, but it turns out they were scratching the wrong area on the ticket. Here are the details so you can avoid that.

The players said they tried to scratch off the “Winning Symbol” starburst area at the top of the ticket, and in the process, they damaged the paper or actually put a hole in it. That’s because the starburst isn’t an area to be played on the ticket.     

The starburst is just a label for the winning symbol on the ticket, which you can see immediately below the label without having to scratch anything. In the case of the example you can see here, the winning symbol on the ticket is the jolly snowman.   

The only area on the ticket that you as the player scratch is the play area at the bottom that includes “Your Symbols” and the “Scratch 2 Cash” spot. On the example ticket here, you would win a prize if any of your symbols from the play area match the jolly snowman, or if you find the “Lucky” symbol as described in the instructions.

I hope this background helps as you play Holly Jolly Luck!

Player Comment: Hey, Your Crossword Games Don’t Follow The Rules …

A woman who recently emailed us pointed out that our Crossword scratch games don’t follow the same rules as traditional Crossword games. We let her know that’s correct, and if they did, players could end up missing out on a prize. Here’s why.

It appears that the woman had seen a list of guidelines online for crossword puzzle creators. But our Crossword scratch games have a purposefully different play style.

In a traditional crossword puzzle, all the spaces are blank, and the player uses the clues given to fill in the words that they think are correct and fit the spaces provided. But a word they choose may or may not be the correct answer within the overall puzzle.

In our Crossword scratch tickets, the words are already provided in the play area. As the player, you scratch off only those letters found in the “YOUR LETTERS” section of the play area. If the selection provided in “YOUR LETTERS” allows you to uncover a certain number of words on your Crossword ticket, you win a prize as indicated on the ticket.

If our Crossword tickets had only blank spaces on them, you as the player could end up filling in an incorrect word, which ultimately could cause you to miss out on a prize.

The rules governing our scratch games are published on our website. To see the rules for a specific Crossword scratch game, visit the scratch games page on our site and click on the game you want to play. When that individual game loads, you'll see a blue link to the official game rules for it.

BIG Start To The Week! Prizes Of $276,296 And $300,000 Claimed On Same Day

Maybe Mondays aren’t so bad after all! Our week started out with a definite rush as two players both claimed big prizes within about an hour of each other.

First up was Marissa Besler of Monticello, who claimed one of the top prizes in our “Colossal Crossword” scratch game. Her $300,000 win was quickly followed by Don Burd of Hiawatha, who claimed a jackpot of $276,296 in the “Extreme Green Progressive” InstaPlay game. That’s the biggest prize ever won in an InstaPlay game since the product debuted four years ago in Iowa!

The same theme runs through Marissa and Don’s stories: Disbelief.

Marissa is 34 and an occupational therapist assistant. She said she was shocked when she realized she’d won $300,000 on a lottery ticket she scratched while waiting on a load of laundry. She said she wandered around her house for a while to catch her breath, then downloaded the Iowa Lottery app on her phone so she could scan her ticket, which she bought at Great Pastimes in Monticello. The app verified her win and she said she was in even more disbelief!

Marissa has some real-world plans for her winnings: She said that having no mortgage or a car payment will be a huge weight off her shoulders.

In Don’s case, it was his wife who initially couldn’t believe he’d won a giant InstaPlay prize. Don said he bought a handful of tickets in the Extreme Green Progressive game on Sunday and realized that one of them had won the game’s jackpot, which had climbed to $276,296. He said he called his wife, Shawnee, right away to share the news. He told her he’d hit the game’s jackpot and then said how much it was. He said she really didn’t believe him, but it was definitely real!

Burd, 56, who owns the Otter Creek Country Store in Robins where bought his winning ticket, said he’s still figuring out exactly what he’ll do with his winnings. But he'll definitely continue to help a good cause in his area. Burd donates the fuel needed by his local fire department to help support its critical work.

Congratulations, Marissa and Don! Thanks for helping our week get off to a great start. Woo-hoo, indeed!

Player Question: How Do I Enter 'Jewel Game Book' Tickets In Your Promo?

One of the scratch games that can be entered into our big “Summer Cash Bash” has stumped some players who weren’t able to find the codes on the ticket that they need to enter the promotion.

We’ve added the details to answer that question on the FAQs page for the promotion in the hope that we can help folks get their tickets entered before the deadline on the morning of Sept. 8. I’m also giving those details here, along with photos to help highlight the areas involved.

The Jewel Game Book is a little different than our other scratch games because it has multiple pages of play, all in one ticket. That means there are more possibilities for where the codes involved might be printed.

If you're using our mobile app to enter a Jewel Game Book ticket into the promotion, you’ll find the square code that you’ll need to scan at the bottom of Page 6, under the security coating on the Scratch 2 Cash area.

If you're entering a ticket in the game manually using our website, you’ll need to enter two codes of numbers. You’ll find a 10-digit code at the top of Page 6 of the game book, which contains the “Emerald Riches” game. That code is under the header reading "Your Numbers, Winning Numbers, Prize." And like any other scratch game, there's a 9-digit code you’ll need to enter that is above the barcode on the back of the ticket.

I hope these details help with your ticket entries!

Our Winners Are Celebrating National Dog Day, Too!

Doing curbside prize claims as we have during this public health emergency has given us a first-hand look at who – and sometimes what – our players have with them as they’re claiming their prizes. And two winners who visited our Mason City office helped proved why today is National Dog Day.

Our four-footed companions are very much part of our every-day lives, and some of them even get to go along as their humans claim lottery prizes.

If you haven’t already heard, today is National Dog Day. That’s according to the National Day Calendar™, the website that tracks unusual national days and has a day for just about everything. This special day has been celebrated since 2004 and encourages dog ownership of all breeds.

Sharon Hays of Mason City had Obie, her four-footed family member, with her as she claimed a $2,000 prize yesterday. It turns out that Obie wasn’t such a help – he made it difficult for Sharon to fill out her prize-claim paperwork because he kept getting on her lap to be petted! Sharon did manage to get her paperwork completed and won her prize in the “Word Search” InstaPlay game.

Daniel Preteroti of Leland also has his four-footed family member with him as he claimed a $1,000 prize. Cooper was more nonchalant about the experience, and didn’t get in Daniel’s way. :) Daniel won his prize in the “Bonus Bucks” scratch game.

Congratulations to all our winners, those with dogs and without. And if you’ve got a canine friend at home, celebrate today with them. Extra treats for all for National Dog Day!

Third Time Lucky: Fort Dodge Man Wins Top Prize On Ticket No. 3

Here’s a story of lottery luck that just kept growing: A Fort Dodge man won bigger and bigger amounts on the tickets he was buying in a scratch game, and his last win took a huge jump up.

Harold Hinds said he recently made his usual stop for coffee and a scratch ticket and ended up winning $10. He decided to go back to the store to redeem his prize and buy another ticket. That time around, he won $30. That sent him back to the store again for another ticket, and that time, he won the top prize of $100,000 in the “$100,000 Mega Crossword” game.

Harold, who is 80, won the 15th top prize in the game. There are 10 more top prizes still available in it. He says that he and his wife plan to use his winnings on home repairs and possibly a new car.

We would say that this story is an example of the phrase: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, but Harold succeeded every time – just sometimes larger than others! Congratulations, Harold!

Happy 85th! Central Iowa Woman Claims $77,777 Prize On Her Big Day

We think this definitely qualifies as celebrating your birthday in a big way: A central Iowa woman claimed a $77,777 prize on the day she turned 85!

Nedra Schultz of Adel says her birthday today is the best one she’s ever had.

Nedra bought a ticket in the “7 7 7” scratch game because seven has always been her lucky number. And it definitely came through for her this time!

She says she finally believed it was all real once she had the prize check from the lottery in her hands.

She bought her winning ticket at her local Casey’s, 816 Greene St. in Adel. 

Well, happy, happy birthday, Nedra, from all of us at the Iowa Lottery! We're glad to have been a fun part of your big day.  

It’s Started Today: Our Summer Promotion Will Give Away $250,000 In Prizes

We’re making the move into summer here at the Iowa Lottery with today’s start of the “Summer Cash Bash” Prize Zone promotion that will give away a total of $250,000 in cash prizes by mid-September.

The promotion will award 90 cash prizes totaling $250,000 during the next two months. To keep things interesting, every two weeks, we’ll change up the prizes on the line and the scratch games that can be entered inti the promotion.

The Summer Cash Bash officially started this morning, and the first entry period runs through the morning of July 28. The first drawing takes place on July 30, and we'll give away 22 prizes that day totaling $60,000. Nonwinning tickets from five scratch games can be entered into this first round of the promotion: Quick 5s, Money Ball, Amazing Money, $50,000 Classic Black, and $100,000 Mega Crossword.

We’ve got details about the next couple upcoming rounds of the Summer Cash Bash on our promotions page, so feel free to check out the current games that can be entered as well as the details that are on deck.

Definitely Fireworks Of A Different Kind -- All Predicted By Her Horoscope

I love everything about this story: The fireworks show, the fact that she didn’t play her ticket until afterwards, and the fortune that came true. Especially the fortune!

All those details belong to Susan Legge of Granger, who claimed a $30,000 lottery prize Monday. She won one of the top prizes in the “Amazing Money” scratch game.    

Susan said she bought her winning ticket on the Fourth of July as she was on her way to watch a local fireworks show. She didn’t play the ticket until she got home that night and said she didn’t trust what she was seeing at first. So she handed the ticket to her daughter to double-check it.

Susan said that her daughter scanned the ticket with the Iowa Lottery’s mobile app and it showed that she had indeed won a $30,000 prize. But wanting one more source to verify it, they rushed back to the Casey’s store in Granger where she’d bought her ticket and had it scanned on the lottery terminal there, which also showed that she’d won the game’s top prize.

And here’s where the fortune comes in: Susan said she’d read an online horoscope the day before that predicted something good would come her way, that she should expect a miracle. And then she bought a winning lottery ticket. She said she’s still stunned!

She said she plans to use her winnings for a down payment on a house and to upgrade her camper.

Congratulations, Susan! Now maybe the rest of us will have to take a closer look at our horoscopes, too!

Two Big Prizes Claimed On Same Day With Tickets From Same Store

An Ottumwa convenience store is definitely having a run of luck, with two players claiming big prizes on the same day with tickets they bought there.

Jackie Hamilton of Ottumwa claimed a $10,000 prize in the “Mega Crossword” game on the same day that Danelle Besco of Bloomfield won a $50,000 prize in the “Super Crossword” game. They both bought their winning tickets at the MAD Ave Quik Shop at 405 S. Madison Ave. in Ottumwa.

With tickets randomly distributed in our games, not even we know where the next big winner will hit and it’s always fun to see the stories that can come along.

Congratulations to Jackie, Danelle and the MAD Ave Quik Shop!

Player Question: Why Do Some Tickets Seem to Scratch Differently Than Others?

Some players who buy different scratch games have noticed that the security coating on the tickets can vary from game to game, and they’ve asked why. In many cases, it’s because they’re specifically designed that way, but I have more background below.

The material on scratch tickets that you remove when you play them is called a security coating. There are different types of security coatings on our tickets, depending on the specific game that you’re playing.

For example, in some of our games, the security coating has to be transparent so you can see through it to the letters, numbers and symbols that you’ll scratch off in the play area. In other games, the security coating covers up the details below it so the play area can’t be seen until you scratch the ticket.

In addition, the scratch games that we sell here in Iowa can come from different companies. (There are only three companies that print the scratch tickets available in the U.S. market, and the Iowa Lottery has printing contracts with them all so we can access the popular concepts they each offer.)

For all those reasons, the security coating on our tickets can vary from game to game. Sometimes it can be a powdery substance when you scratch it off and other times it will be a bit gummy. Sometimes the coating is purposefully thin, and other times it can have multiple layers. That also means you likely will need to apply different amounts of pressure as you scratch off the security coating on different tickets.

All our games go through testing to ensure that the security coating involved meets the parameters required for those particular tickets.

I hope this background helps! And, happy scratching.

Ways To Win: A Number Within A Number, A Word Within A Word Don’t Count

We’ve gotten this question before about words within words on our “Crossword” scratch tickets, but here’s a slightly different twist on it, asking about numbers within numbers in the “Cash Multiplied” game.

The player in this instance asked that if the numbers they needed to match to win were 4 and 8, and on their ticket they found a 14 and an 18, does that mean they won? Could they win if any of the numbers on the ticket contained a 4 and an 8?

The short answer is no. A number within a number doesn’t count. The number 14 is only that number – it can’t be “taken apart” to count as a 1, 4, or 14.

That same concept applies in our Crossword games: Words within words, meaning partial words, don’t count. So, for example, if the word “someone” is in the play area on your ticket, you must complete the whole word. You can’t try to make “some” or “one” a word on their own and ignore the word as a whole.

I hope that the answers we provide here on the blog help make the rules clear for everyone.

Have a good weekend, and stay safe!

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!