ialottery blog

What You’ve Asked For: Join the VIP Club & Change Your Password From The App

You’ve been asking about it, and we’re excited to share this update today: Now you can join the lottery’s VIP Club and change the password for your VIP account password from our mobile app.

We all live a lot of our lives on mobile devices these days, and these changes will make it easier for you to access the lottery info. you need while you’re on the go.   

We debuted our app for both Apple AND Android devices back in 2017, and like any technology, we’ve updated it over time. If you already have our app (it’s called the Iowa Lottery’s LotteryPlus) on your device, there’s nothing you need to do to receive this update. It happens automatically, so you already have the new feature available. If you don’t yet have the app, feel free to install it from the Google Play Store® or Apple iTunes Store® as applicable for your particular device.

The most popular way that people use our app is to check the results of their lottery tickets. You can check lotto, scratch and InstaPlay tickets on the app, so you don’t have to visit a store or a lottery office to see if you’ve won. Two other popular ways that people use the app is to enter their tickets into our VIP Club drawings and to check the winning numbers in recent lotto drawings.

Thank you for playing the lottery, and we hope this update makes it even easier for you to reach us!

We'll Mail 2019 Tax Forms To Winners By The End Of This Month

If you claimed an Iowa Lottery prize of more than $600 in calendar year 2019, check your mailbox in the next couple weeks for a form you’ll need as you file your income taxes.

The document is called a W-2G form and it lists the total prize amount as well as any federal and state withholdings from your prize. If you claimed multiple Iowa Lottery prizes of more than $600 in 2019, you’ll receive multiple W-2G forms from us, one for each prize claimed. (And congratulations on your wins, by the way!)

We’re required to mail all W-2G forms by Jan. 31, but we always do our best to have them processed before that date if possible.

In the image here, you can see the envelopes we’ll use to send the tax forms, so check your mailbox for them.

If you think you should have received a W-2G form from us for calendar year 2019 and you've moved since you claimed your prize, please let us know your new address as soon as possible, or your form may end up at your old address. You can contact us at 515-725-7900 or email us at wmaster@ialottery.com.

Be sure to include your name, old address, new address, and phone number in case we need to contact you.

Post-Holiday Question: Can I Use A Gift Card To Buy Lottery Tix In Iowa?

Now that holiday celebrations are winding down for a lot of us, we’re hearing from folks asking if they can use gift cards to buy lottery tickets in Iowa. The quick answer is: Yes. But there are more details involved, so please keep reading. 

From a legal perspective, a gift card is the same as cash, so under Iowa law, it can be used to purchase lottery tickets.

But some retail locations may have policies that bar the use of gift cards for lottery purchases, just as they may ban personal checks for any purchase. Stores can and do develop their own policies for what’s allowed in their place of business, and we understand that.

The same thing applies to the use of debit cards to buy lottery tickets. While it’s legal for debit cards to be used to buy lottery products in Iowa, some stores may have policies against that. To be sure, please check with the business involved.

(Here are some further notes about the use of debit cards: In Iowa, state law prohibits the use of credit when making a lottery purchase. But a debit transaction is always tied to available funds, so as long as the card says DEBIT on the front, it’s OK to use it for a lottery transaction so long as the store involved allows that. If it’s a CREDIT card, it’s illegal to use it to buy lottery tickets in Iowa.

When you’re using a DEBIT card, even if it’s run on the credit setting, the money involved is still coming from available funds, so it is still a DEBIT transaction. A debit card never involves anything other than available funds, meaning cash. We had wondered about that particular detail ourselves, so we checked with the network folks who process the transactions. They confirmed that DEBIT always = available cash.)

Player Mail: Hey! They Carded Me!

With the holiday rush underway, I’m sharing a conversation here on the blog that we had with a player in case you encounter the same thing while you’re out shopping and running errands.

The player reached out to us after being carded at a convenience store as he was buying lottery tickets.

“They made me show my I.D,” he wrote. “The clerk said anyone who looks under 40 must show I.D. I’ve been buying lottery tickets there for several years and never heard this before. I am 55 years old. Is this a thing?”

Now, some people might interpret that situation as a huge compliment to their youthful good looks (insert smile emoji here), but the fact that stores ask customers to verify their age before buying certain products is a reality, and it’s a step they take to protect their business.

Lottery tickets are an age-controlled product, meaning that you must be a certain age before you can purchase them. Here in Iowa, the minimum purchasing age for lottery tickets is 21.

Retail locations receive licenses to sell age-controlled products, and one of the ways they can violate the terms of their lottery license is by selling tickets to those who are too young to legally purchase them. The business’ license will be suspended or even revoked if that happens, so we explained to the player that some stores have adopted the policy that they will I.D. anyone, not just those they think may be under 21.

We understand the businesses' concerns and support our retailers’ decisions to ensure that laws and regulations are being followed.

So if you’re asked for an I.D. when you buy lottery tickets, know that the store is doing the right thing. (And if you suspect that you definitely do not look 21, maybe choose to have fun in that moment!)

(Literally) Mapping Out Iowa’s Big Winners

It’s time for the latest map in our project this year to track the spots where the biggest lottery prizes have been won in Iowa!

Iowa Lottery players claimed 316 prizes of $600 or more in November, bringing the grand total so far to 4,034 for calendar year 2019.

As you can see from the patterns involved, something that we’ve often said about prize wins holds true: 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'll 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 sold.

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 there are a lot of them!

And as always, remember that our maps only show those big prizes that have been claimed. They don’t include those prizes that have been won but aren’t claimed yet.

Gift-Giving Reminder: Think About Age Restrictions & Content

With the arrival of the holidays, please consider this gentle reminder as you’re shopping for gifts in the days ahead.

We know that lottery tickets will be among the items that people give as presents and put in stockings this year. And at the Iowa Lottery, we’re glad that our products can be part of the fun! But remember that our tickets may not be something you want to give to those underage.

That holds true for lots of products: The content of some video games and movies may not be appropriate for all ages. Alcohol and tobacco-related products have their own age restrictions. Even toys have age-recommendation guidelines. 

In Iowa, you have to be at least 21 years old to buy lottery tickets, and we’ve always considered our products as something reserved for adults. Remember that you are gambling when you play the lottery. 

Be sure to give youngsters age-appropriate gifts in general, and when you give lottery tickets specifically, please keep the person's age in mind to minimize the risks associated with youth gambling.

We also echo the message from the Iowa Department of Public Health about the help that’s available in our state for problem gambling. If you’re concerned that someone you know is struggling with their gambling or if it is an issue for you, there are resources that can help day or night. You can call 1-800-BETSOFF (1-800-238-7633) or go to the Your Life Iowa website to reach help through secure chat or text.

Thanksgiving Thought: We’re Thankful For The Chance To Make A Difference In Iowa

During this week of Thanksgiving, we’re taking a moment to thank YOU for helping the lottery to make a difference in Iowa.

You likely already know that total lottery proceeds to state causes have topped the $2 billion mark. And during the past couple weeks, we’ve had fun celebrating that as we recognized one of today’s most important recipients of lottery proceeds: the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund.

Members of the Iowa Commission of Veterans Affairs joined the lottery in on-field presentations at the Texas-Iowa State game and the Illinois-Iowa game to highlight the nearly $30 million that the Iowa Lottery has raised for the Veterans Trust Fund since lottery proceeds were first dedicated to that cause in 2008.

The money that the lottery raises for the IVTF provides state support to Iowa veterans and their families above and beyond the federal benefits that are available to them. Not every state has something like the Veterans Trust Fund, and we’re thankful that this home-grown success story is working here in Iowa!

So, if you play the Iowa Lottery, thank you. Every time you buy one of our tickets, it makes a difference right here at home.

A quick housekeeping reminder that our offices will be closed tomorrow and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday, so we’ll see you again when business hours resume on Monday, Dec. 2!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today’s News: Happy Blasé Day (Or Can We Even Say That?)

Today, if you didn’t know, is National Blasé Day. So basically, it’s okay to be indifferent/unimpressed/bored with anything you’d like.

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

The calendar points out that the word blasé comes from the French language. We, of course, have many other terms to express the same thing: Meh. Yawner. Bor-ing.

But, just throwing this out there: I’m pretty sure that winning the lottery could overcome even the most hard-core case of blasé. So my question is: What prize amount would make you feel like you’d officially won the lottery?

Some of the people we see smiling the biggest are those who have won $100 to $1,000. The folks who win millions are happy, too, but sometimes they seem pretty stunned as well.

Is there an amount that’s “just right” for you?

P.S. I wish you a very "meh" Blasé Day. :)

Billions For Iowa, And A Special Thank You To Our State's Veterans

Sometime in the past month, a lottery player in Iowa purchased the ticket that pushed total Iowa Lottery proceeds to state causes over the $2 billion mark. (And yes, that’s billion with a “B!”) The lottery is still finalizing its results for October, but it’s already clear that we’ve topped that significant new threshold!

Lottery tickets in Iowa made their debut back on Aug. 22, 1985. In the 34 years since then, lottery players have won $4.5 billion in prizes while more than $2 billion in proceeds has been raised for state programs. Lottery sales in Iowa through the years total $7.9 billion.

Lottery proceeds have helped our state in a variety of ways over time, but today, they have four main purposes. They provide support for our state's veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund; support through the Public Safety Survivor Benefits Fund for the family members of Iowa peace officers and fire fighters who die in the line of duty; 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.

To highlight the impact of lottery proceeds in Iowa and help spread the word about the help available to our state’s veterans in need, the lottery worked with the Iowa Commission of Veterans Affairs to produce a new video highlighting the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. The video has just gone live as we head into the Veterans Day holiday weekend and you can see it by clicking on the link above.

It’s a powerful piece that touches on the impact that war has on our veterans, and why it’s so important that help be available to them. Two Iowa veterans who serve on the commission share their own stories and talk about the unique role of the Veterans Trust Fund.

So to everyone who has played a role in the Iowa Lottery’s success through the years, we appreciate your support. And to all Iowa veterans this holiday weekend: Thank YOU!

What Player Mail Do YOU Have For Us?

You’ve seen me blog through the years about lots of the questions we get from players, and as we head into the weekend, consider this is an open-door invitation for you to reach out to us if you ever want to know something about the Iowa Lottery.

While the Internet has certainly given us all new ways to communicate, the amount of MIS-information out there these days is staggering. So if you have a question about the lottery or the tickets we sell, we’d really like the answers you get to come straight from us, rather than some random source online.

Feel free to reach out to us here on the blog or on any of our social media pages, check out our website, or email us at Wmaster@ialottery.com. We’d love to hear from you, and if you have a lottery question you’d like to see answered, leave a comment here!

Holiday Promo Starts Today! 93 Cash Prizes Totaling $200,000 On The Line

You’ve asked us to give you plenty of time to have a shot at winning cash for the holidays, so our holiday promotion this year is starting today! We’ll give away 93 cash prizes totaling $200,000 in our “Ho Ho Dough” promotion, with six drawing dates between now and early January.

We’re applying the “max bet” concept to this year’s promotion, meaning that the size of the prize you can win will increase along with the purchase price of the scratch ticket you’ve entered.

You can enter the promotion using nonwinning tickets in the 11 holiday-themed scratch games we’ll have available this year. Tickets in nine of those games are already in stores, and the final two games debut Nov. 4. 

The promotion’s entry period began at 9 a.m. today and the first drawing date is two weeks from now, on Oct. 24. We’ll hold three prize drawings that day: one for five prizes of $1,000, one for five prizes of $1,500, and one for five prizes of $2,500.

The drawing for the $1,000 prizes can be entered with nonwinning tickets in our $1 and $2 holiday games, while nonwinning tickets in our $3 and $5 games can be entered in the $1,500 prize drawing, and nonwinning tickets in our $10 holiday games are eligible for the $2,500 prize drawing.

That same process will apply to the rest of the promotion’s preliminary drawings, through Jan. 9. Any entries that don’t win a prize in the preliminary drawings will remain eligible for the grand-prize round.

The Ho Ho Dough grand-prize drawings will be held on Thursday, Jan. 9. Again, the max-bet approach will be involved, with grand prizes of $10,000, $15,000 and $25,000 on the line in the applicable categories.

To enter the promotion, you’ll need to join or already be a member of our free VIP Club. And remember that you can enter by scanning your tickets on our app or through the VIP Club website. 

Here’s the entire Ho Ho dough drawing schedule and the prizes that will be awarded:

We Mean It: If Playing Stresses You Out, Don’t Do It

A recent conversation has stuck with me, and I’m sharing the background from it here on the blog in the hope it can help anyone who’s struggling with gambling.

A man reached out to us to say he’s unhappy that he hasn’t won many lottery prizes, and he expressed concern about how much he plays. He wondered if we’d care about what he had to say.

We do care.

I shared with him something we absolutely mean here at the Iowa Lottery: If playing the lottery is stressing you out or causing you to worry, then don’t do it. We never want anyone to play beyond what they can afford. You’ve heard us say, “Playing smart is a lot more fun,” as a quick way to signify that.

Just like the image above of people coming together to support each other, know that help is always available here in Iowa if you or someone you know is struggling with gambling. The Your Life Iowa program is always just a click away, and 1-800-BETSOFF, the statewide hotline for problem gambling, is available through live chat, texting or telephone.

Mapping It Out: More Winners Are In Areas Where More People Live

We came across a map this week that drives home something we’ve talked about for years when it comes to where you’ll find lottery winners in Iowa.

The map is from the folks at the World Population Review, and in Iowa’s case, the group’s analysis shows that more than a quarter of the state’s population lives in a seven-county area in central Iowa. Polk County is at the center of that region and is Iowa’s largest county, with more than 480,000 people living there.

The other counties in the area that accounts for 26 percent of the state’s population are: Dallas, Warren, Marion, Jasper, Marshall and Story.

Another 23 percent of Iowa’s population lives in six counties in eastern Iowa (Linn, Johnson, Muscatine, Scott, Clinton and Dubuque).

In general, you’ll find that the number of lottery winners follows population patterns. Where more people live, there will be more people buying lottery tickets and winning prizes. It doesn’t mean they’re luckier, it just means that there are more of them.

Another way of putting that 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.

The image for this blog entry shows World Population Review’s map of Iowa at the top, and our latest monthly map of big lottery winners at the bottom. You can definitely see the areas with higher populations on both maps!

A Football Celebration With A Meaningful Twist

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

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

Why Are There So Many Winners From (Insert Store Here)?

One of our players emailed to ask why there seem to be so many lottery winners from certain retail chains in our state. The answer comes down to number density and foot traffic.
 
For example, Casey’s General Stores sells Iowa Lottery tickets at 527 locations in Iowa. When you consider that a total of about 2,400 retailers statewide sell lottery tickets, you can see why a lot of Iowa winners would come from Casey’s. Hy-Vee, meanwhile, sells lottery tickets at 204 locations in Iowa. And because so many of those stores are large supermarkets with heavy foot traffic, you’ll see a lot of Iowa Lottery winners from Hy-Vee, too.

That’s the case for any of our retailers: Those with multiple locations and higher foot traffic will see higher lottery sales overall, and that in turn, will mean more winners from that company’s stores.

But as consumers we all have our favorite spots, so if you like to buy your lottery tickets at one particular store, know that it’s just as lucky as any other. Winning comes down to random luck, and you never know when – or where – the next big one will hit!

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!

Player Mail: What About The Withholding On Lottery Prizes?

One of our recent big winners had some follow-up questions for us this week about taxes, and it’s a topic I’ll cover here on the blog today to share the background involved. Taxes may not be anyone’s favorite topic, but it’s important that we understand the details! 

The player’s questions have to do with the withholdings that apply to lottery prizes. Here in Iowa, a state withholding rate of 5 percent is applied to all lottery prizes of more than $600. And for prizes of more than $5,000, federal withholding of 24 percent also applies.

This particular winner has done exactly what we always suggest by consulting a tax advisor to help her map out the tax implications of her winnings.

The winner said that the withholdings applied to her prize won’t be enough to cover her full income-tax implications. She wondered why we couldn’t have withheld more.

A big part of the answer is that state and federal withholding rates are established by law. So, we can’t withhold at a different rate -- we have to follow the law.

In general, withholdings are designed to help cover the tax implications you may have from gambling winnings, but the precise taxes that you will have as an individual are dependent upon your circumstances outside of winning the lottery.

In some cases, the withholdings may not be enough and in other cases they may be too much. We don’t know each of our winner's individual circumstances, so that’s why we always suggest that they consult a financial planner or lawyer who can help them determine their full tax implications.

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!

Iowa’s Biggest Lottery Winners Were Here (And Here, And Here …)

Another month of 2019 is in the books, so it’s time to look back at the biggest lottery winners in Iowa during July. 

The map here shows all the Iowa Lottery prizes of $600 or more that were claimed in July. There are a total of 390 dots this time, compared to 315 on the June map.

In the first seven months of the year, Iowa Lottery players claimed a total of 2,717 prizes of $600 or more. 

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 there are a lot of them!

As always, remember that our maps only show those big prizes that have been claimed. They don’t include those prizes won but not claimed yet.

He’s Already Won, Whether Or Not His Ticket Wins A Prize

A northwest Iowa man has had some good luck all because he signed his lottery tickets.

The story comes from the manager of the Iowa Lottery’s Storm Lake regional office. His name is Bill and while he was at a local gym there this week, one of his friends told him that he’d recently had to go to the hospital for a medical procedure. The friend said that when he got home, he realized he was missing his money clip that had more than $200 in it.

The next day, the friend got a call from the hospital, asking if he’d lost something. He said he had: his money clip. Someone at the hospital had found it, and the only way they knew it belonged to him was because he also had a couple lotto tickets in the clip, and he’d signed his name on the back of them. That’s an easy security procedure we always suggest players follow to identify their tickets as belonging to them.

So in the end, Bill’s friend got back his money clip, his cash AND his lotto tickets! And it proves two things in my book: 1.) There still are honest people in this world; and 2.) Even if his tickets don’t win a prize, his friend is already a winner!

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. 

Happy World Emoji Day!

If you’re a fan of emojis (and that’s pretty much all of us these days), today is for you. It’s World Emoji Day!

That’s according to the National Day Calendar™, the website that tracks unusual holidays and has a day for just about everything. Today is for celebrating the emoji: those small, digital pictures or icons that are used to express ideas, concepts, and emotions in electronic communications.

"Emoji" is a Japanese expression that roughly translates to: picture word. When Apple released the first iPhone in 2007, an emoji keyboard was embedded in it to help appeal to the Japanese market. But users all around the world quickly found the keyboard and began to use it!

Here at the Iowa Lottery, our favorite emojis of course are those that involve money, happy faces, celebrations and good luck!

The website emojipedia.org tracks emoji updates across all platforms and operating systems. It shows that there are now more than 1,800 emojis, with more being created all the time.

The suggested emoji to use as you celebrate today is the green-and-blue symbol of the earth to highlight that it's WORLD Emoji Day.

It’s Not Just A Ticket

This week across the country, lotteries are pausing to say, “Thank you!” to our players, the businesses that sell our tickets, and really, anyone who’s ever taken an interest in the lottery, whether it be to ask us a question or just to think for a moment about what it would be like to win.

We know that the lottery is not just a ticket. It’s a daydream, something fun to pass the time, the source of meaningful help to vital causes, additional income to local businesses, and prizes to players.

Ever since the first scratch game that hit the market when the Iowa Lottery debuted back in August 1985, we’ve done our best to demonstrate that lottery products can be responsibly offered in a way that is consistent with our values as Iowans. It’s that “Iowa” stamp on everything we do that has brought lottery entertainment – and lottery winnings – to all areas of the state.

To date, the Iowa Lottery has raised more than $1.9 billion for the state programs that benefit us all. We anticipate that sometime within the next year, a lottery player somewhere in Iowa will buy the ticket that will put our proceeds over the $2 billion mark. That’s significant help for good causes that wouldn’t otherwise have been available here in our state, and we’re proud to be making that difference.

And we can’t forget prizes! They’re obviously one of the motivating reasons for people to play the lottery. Since 1985, our players have won more than $4.3 billion in prizes from the Iowa Lottery. It’s been so fun for us to be a part of those winning experiences. From prizes of just a couple bucks all the way up to jackpots of hundreds of millions of dollars, they all matter!

We’re often asked how lottery proceeds are used in Iowa today. The quick answer is that they  have four main purposes: Proceeds from the Iowa Lottery provide support for our state's veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund; support through the Iowa Public Safety Survivor Benefits Fund for the surviving family members of Iowa peace officers and fire fighters who die in the line of duty; 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.

We also tip our hats to the retail partners that sell lottery tickets each and every day in Iowa.  Our tickets are sold in about 2,400 locations statewide, and those local businesses receive a sales commission from the Iowa Lottery for each ticket they sell. In fiscal year 2018, lottery sales commissions totaled $24.2 million, and we’re proud to be making that difference in the bottom line for businesses across the state.     

Nationwide, in fiscal year 2018, U.S. lotteries generated $23.4 billion for good causes and provided $4.8 billion in sales commissions to local businesses.  

So, from all of us at the Iowa Lottery, thank you! We look forward to more lottery fun in Iowa – an active demonstration of the good that flows to the public from our state’s lottery.

#LotteryWeek
#MoreThanATicket

All The Latest About Iowa’s Biggest Lottery Winners

With the Independence Day holiday weekend behind us, we’re pausing today to look back at the biggest lottery winners in Iowa during the month of June. 

The map here shows all the lottery prizes of $600 or more that were claimed during June in Iowa. There are 315 dots in total this time, compared to 342 on the May map.

That means that during the first six months of the year, Iowa Lottery players had claimed a total of 2,327 prizes of $600 or more. 

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 always, remember this detail about our mapping initiative: Our maps only show those big prizes that have been claimed. They don’t include prizes that were won but haven’t been claimed yet.

New State Support For Families of Fallen Peace Officers, Fire Fighters

A new law that took effect this week will mean additional help with insurance costs for the families of Iowa peace officers and fire fighters who have died in the line of duty.
 
Under the new law, a state program called the Iowa Public Safety Survivor Benefits Fund has been created. The fund will provide grants to organizations that provide assistance to help pay the costs of accident or health care insurance coverage for the surviving family members of Iowa peace officers and fire fighters killed on the job. The program will receive funding each year through the proceeds that the Iowa Lottery raises for state causes.

The Iowa Lottery joined the Iowa Department of Public Safety and state lawmakers at the Iowa Peace Officer Memorial near the state Capitol today to highlight the new program.

The Survivor Fund is the latest development in a years-long discussion about insurance for the surviving spouses and children in these tragic situations. Until 2018, if an Iowa peace officer or fire fighter died in the line of duty, the state, county or city government for which the person worked was sometimes not authorized to continue accident or health insurance coverage for that person’s family.

In 2018, state law was changed to allow that continuing coverage option and for the state, county or city involved to pay the full cost or a portion of the insurance costs involved. Family members can opt to pay any remaining expense themselves.

But some families and small communities have had difficulty paying those costs, and that’s where the new Survivor Fund comes in. The Iowa Department of  Public Safety will award grants through the fund each year, with half the money going to nonprofit organizations that help with 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. During discussions of the concept in this year’s legislative session, state lawmakers said they think $100,000 in state support will be enough to help with insurance costs for the families involved.

The Iowa Lottery will make its first transfer to the Survivor Fund in late October as part of its initial quarterly proceeds transfer to the state for the 2020 fiscal year. It will continue to transfer proceeds to the fund each October.

Many of the details regarding the new fund are still being finalized, including the administrative rules for its operation. Once those rules have been adopted, DPS will open the application process for nonprofit organizations interested in receiving grants from the fund. DPS hopes to begin the application process in late calendar year 2019 or early 2020, and will make a grant application form available at that time.

A Little Piggy With Lottery Luck!

This story speaks to all things Iowa, and it’s too good not to share! The main characters are a kind-hearted Iowa Lottery employee and a tiny little piglet now named Tot.

Last week, my co-worker Andrea McNamara was driving home after work at lottery headquarters in Clive when rush-hour traffic on the interstate came to a stop. She saw cars in front of her swerving into other lanes like they were trying to avoid hitting something. A few moments later, Andrea could see a tiny piglet in the road.

Andrea said the piglet was just frozen in place and with traffic at a standstill, she thought she could safely reach the frightened animal. Andrea said she got out of her car, scooped up the piglet, and took her to the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, an animal shelter in Des Moines.

Staff at the ARL examined the piglet and said that although she had a little road rash, she was otherwise in good shape.

The ARL has a special barnyard section for rescued farm animals, and the piglet was welcomed there where she’ll receive care before being made available for adoption. The ARL has a foster dog named Tater, so volunteers there named the piglet Tot.

In my lottery opinion, this little piggy hit the jackpot!

Eastern Iowa Woman Wins Promotion’s $1 Million Prize, Will Split With Office Pool

An eastern Iowa woman won the $1 million prize in our “Woo Hoo A Million For You Giveaway” with a ticket she bought on behalf of her office pool.

We held the promotion’s prize drawing today, and an entry that Laurie Ginder of Anamosa made on behalf of her office pool was selected as the $1 million winner. Laurie and the 33 other co-workers in her office pool at Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids call themselves The Dream Big Team. 

Click on the video above to see Laurie’s reaction when Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn called to share the big news with her.

In April, a $1 million Powerball® prize expired in central Iowa without being claimed. The Iowa Lottery had issued several reminders about that unclaimed prize and held repeated events at the Nevada store where the winning ticket was purchased, but a winner never came forward.

Under Iowa law, the money from lottery prizes that expire without being claimed goes into the lottery’s prize pools for future games and promotions, so the lottery decided to hold a promotion this spring to give away the $1 million. The promotion’s name was a nod to the lottery’s long-time catch phrase of “Woo Hoo For You™.”

From May 29 through yesterday morning, lottery players could enter the promotion with any Powerball ticket they had purchased in Iowa during that three-week timeframe. Players made a total of 165,265 entries into the promotion.

Laurie purchased the ticket that became her office pool's $1 million winning entry at Casey’s, 500 E. Main St. in Anamosa. Casey’s will receive a $1,000 bonus from the lottery for selling that lucky ticket. 

This is the fifth lottery prize of at least $1 million to be won in Iowa so far in 2019.

Entries Have Ended & The $1 Million Prize Drawing Is Tomorrow!

Entries have ended in the “Woo Hoo A Million For You Giveaway,” and the prize drawing to determine the $1 million winner will be tomorrow!

Iowa Powerball players made a total of 165,265 entries in the promotion during its three-week entry period that closed at 8:59 a.m. today. I’d say the possibility of winning a $1 million prize in an Iowa-only promotion definitely caught people’s attention!

You’ll obviously want to know who won the big prize as quickly as possible – and we want that, too! Just know that behind the scenes, there are layers of security protocols involved and details that have to be double-checked. We do our best to complete the process as quickly as possible, but that work takes some time.

That’s why in the rules for the promotion, we explain that we’ll post the winner’s name on the lottery website by the end of the day on Thursday, or as soon as the information is available. We’ll announce the details just as soon as we can!

We’ll reach out directly to the $1 million winner at the email address provided in their VIP Club account and we’ll also call that person.

There’s no annuity option for the $1 million prize in the promotion, meaning that the winner will receive a check from the lottery for the net prize amount after withholdings. Here in Iowa, 24 percent federal withholding applies (which in the case of the $1 million prize is $240,000) along with 5 percent state withholding ($50,000 in this instance), so the winner will receive a prize check from the Iowa Lottery for $710,000.

The winner will need to claim the prize in person at lottery headquarters in Clive by 4 p.m. on June 27. Good luck to everyone in tomorrow’s drawing, and thank you for playing!

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.

Where Have Winners Hit Big In Iowa?

We’re beginning a new month with warmer weather (FINALLY!), so in keeping with the mapping initiative we decided to undertake this year, it’s time to look back at the biggest lottery prizes claimed in Iowa during the past month.

The map here shows all the lottery prizes of $600 or more that were claimed during May in Iowa. There are 342 dots in total, compared to 426 on the April map.

So that means that through the end of May, Iowa Lottery players had claimed a total of 2,012 prizes of $600 or more so far in 2019. 

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!

Remember that this map only shows those big prizes that were claimed in May. It doesn’t include prizes that were won but haven’t been claimed yet.