ialottery blog

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.

You CAN Use a Playslip as You Redeem Your Monthly Free Play in the VIP Club

Here’s a question that came our way about the free plays we send out each month to members of the Iowa Lottery’s VIP Club. We rotate the free-play offerings between our lotto and InstaPlay games, and the question focuses on the process of redeeming a free play for a ticket in a lotto game like Powerball® or Mega Millions®.

Some players wondered if they can choose their own numbers when redeeming their free play. The answer is yes, if you are at a lottery terminal. Here are the details:

When you present your free play to the store clerk at a lottery terminal, they will scan the code on it. The prompt shown in the image above then appears on the terminal screen.

The retail employee then has three options:

1. They can insert a completed playslip from the player, allowing the player to choose his or her numbers.
2. They can click the ‘Easy Pick’ button, which instructs the terminal to randomly assign the numbers to the free play.
3. They can click ‘Cancel,’ which cancels the transaction and allows the player to use the free play at another time.

Note that the ability to choose your own numbers can only be done at a lottery terminal. Players can redeem their free plays in lotto games at a self-service kiosk, but only for easy-pick plays. (And playslips are not used in InstaPlay games.)

The Iowa Lottery gives members of its VIP Club a free play every month. The free play is included in the VIP Connection newsletter that is delivered on the first business day of each month.

Why Do We Blur/Crop Out The Ticket Codes In Images?

Here’s an interesting question that came our way about the images we post of players’ winning tickets in our games. We know that you’re always curious about winning tickets and what numbers and symbols are on them, so we often post images to give you a closer look.

In the process, however, we always blur or crop out the security codes on the tickets as you can see in the image shown here. Some folks have asked why.

From a purely technical perspective, the security codes aren’t part of the play area on a ticket, so they aren’t necessary to show the winning numbers or symbols involved. However, the codes are what identify each individual lottery ticket and they’re used in the prize-claim process.

We blur the codes out so we don’t inadvertently cause a complication in the lottery prize-claim process. So, while we know you’re curious about them, there is a reason that those codes are blurred out.

We show as much of the ticket as possible, but the codes will continue to be left out of the images for security purposes.

Lotto America Jackpot Is Now In Record Territory For That Game

Update on Tuesday, Oct. 11:

The Lotto America jackpot is still climbing. No one hit the big prize in last night's drawing, so the jackpot climbs to an estimated $26.1 million annuity, $13.37 million cash option for Wednesday's drawing.  Here are the winning numbers from Monday night's Lotto America drawing: 4-8-14-32-44 and Star Ball 4. The All Star Bonus number was 4. Good luck on your tickets!

Its bigger cousins may get more attention, but Lotto America® is making news of its own. The Lotto America jackpot is in record territory for that game, at an estimated $24.69 million annuity, $12.98 million cash option for tonight’s drawing.

Lotto America also is in the midst of its longest jackpot run ever. The game’s jackpot has been climbing since July 2021. It was last won in the drawing on July 14, 2021. A ticket purchased in Oklahoma won that night’s $8.04 million jackpot.

This isn’t the first time that Lotto America has gone on a long jackpot run. (A run is the period of time that the jackpot grows before it’s won). The game’s jackpot grew for a little more than 14 months from May 2018 to July 2019 before it was won in the drawing on July 10 that year. A Minnesota ticket won that $21.6 million prize.

Before the current jackpot amount, the previous record jackpot in Lotto America was a $22.82 million prize won in the game in March 2018.

Has an Iowan won a Lotto America jackpot? Yes! A Davenport man won a $4.38 million prize in the game in May 2018.

So how high will the current jackpot climb? Only time will tell. One thing is certain: Someone WILL win it, we just don’t know when.

Lotto America costs $1 to play and it has drawings on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The game has a similar design to Powerball® and Mega Millions®, but its jackpots are smaller and a lot easier to win. Lotto America players choose five numbers from a pool of 52 and another number, called the Star Ball®, from a pool of 10. Players who match all six numbers selected in a drawing win the game’s jackpot.

Player Comments In the Middle Of The Night: Your Mobile App Isn’t Working

We’ve heard this week from some players who were having trouble in the middle of the night using the lottery’s mobile app to check their tickets or enter them into promotions. They told us that our app needed to be fixed.

But it’s actually working as it should. There’s just a period of time each night when the app is offline. If you try to use an app function that’s unavailable at that time, you’ll get a message asking you to try again later.

Many of the mobile app’s functions are tied into the lottery’s central gaming system, which links all Iowa Lottery terminals and self-service kiosks in real time along with some functions on the app.

As part of the lottery’s security procedures, the central gaming system is taken offline each night at midnight so that sales from the previous day can be balanced, all plays can be accounted for, and system updates can be made.

When the lottery’s statewide gaming system is offline, ticket checking doesn’t work on the mobile app because that function needs to access the gaming system. And lotto tickets (in Powerball®, Mega Millions®, etc.) can’t be entered into promotions at that time for the same reason.

Tickets in scratch games and InstaPlay games can be entered into promotions when the gaming system is offline because the process for those products is slightly different.

Some nights, the central gaming system is offline for less than half an hour. Other nights when bigger updates need to be made, the system may be offline for a few hours.

We choose to take the gaming system offline just after midnight knowing that’s when foot traffic is lighter in retail locations and there are fewer online visits to our website and mobile app.

So if you’re trying to use the lottery’s mobile app between about midnight and 3 a.m. and you get a message asking you to try again later, please do that. The app’s functions will be live again once the central gaming system is brought back up.

Player Question: Is A Ticket The Same As A Play? Hmmm … Maybe.

Here’s an inside-baseball question we got from a player this week that’s really interesting: Is a ticket the same thing as a play? The answer varies: Yes. No. Maybe. Sometimes? Here’s why.

In a lotto game, a play is the line of numbers on a ticket that you as the player have purchased for an upcoming drawing. Let’s take Mega Millions® as an example.

In the image shown here, you see a Mega Millions ticket that has one play on it. In this instance, the ticket is technically the document (the piece of paper) on which the play is printed. But sometimes, more than one play is printed on a ticket if you buy multiple plays at a time.

For our other products – InstaPlay, scratch, and pull-tab games – each ticket is a play in the game.

I think that’s why the two terms are used interchangeably. I don’t think you’re wrong if you use one reference or the other. It’s just interesting to see the details involved for the different games!

Davenport Ticket Wins Prize Of $25,000 A Year For Life

Someone who bought a lottery ticket at a Quad Cities convenience store has won a prize of $25,000 a year for life in the Lucky for Life® game.

Last night’s big win in Davenport comes just a handful of days after a Cedar Rapids couple claimed the same prize from one of the game’s earlier drawings.

The Davenport ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Lucky Ball in last night’s drawing to win Lucky for Life’s second prize of $25,000 a year for life. The winning ticket was purchased at Kwik Star, 1225 E. Kimberly Road in Davenport.

It’s Iowa’s 14th big win in the game since it debuted in January 2016 in our state.

Last week, a Cedar Rapids couple claimed a prize of $25,000 a year for life that they’d won in the Lucky for Life drawing back on Nov. 4. Chuck and Sherry Thomas said they knew shortly after the drawing that they won, but they purposefully waited to claim their prize until they had a plan in place for their winnings.

The winning numbers in last night’s Lucky for Life drawing were: 2-12-16-29-40 and Lucky Ball 13. Kwik Star will receive a $500 bonus from the lottery for selling the winning ticket.

Prizes at the top two levels in Lucky for Life must be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. The lottery currently offers prize claims by appointment at its offices. Full details are available on the lottery’s website here.

If the winner or winners of the Davenport ticket have questions before coming forward to claim the prize, they’re welcome to give us a shout at the lottery at 515-725-7900 or [email protected]

Players in Lucky for Life have up to 365 days from the date of the drawing to claim prizes won in Iowa.

A Countdown Is Starting For Multi-Draw Tickets In Lotto America

With Monday drawings being added next month in Lotto America®, a countdown is starting on the number of drawings in the game for which you can buy tickets in advance. The countdown is a standard procedure when a major update is made in one of our lotto games, and it’s designed to ensure you have valid tickets.

Powerball® did it last year, and now Lotto America also is moving to drawings three nights a week on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The first Monday drawing in the game will be held on July 18.

In games like Lotto America, you can buy tickets for just one drawing at a time or for several drawings in a row. That decision is entirely up to you as the customer -- some people like to do their lottery shopping for multiple drawings all at once while others prefer to buy their tickets one at a time. When you buy plays for multiple drawings in advance, you have what is called a multi-draw ticket.

Normally, you can buy Lotto America tickets for up to 10 consecutive drawings in advance here in Iowa. But the countdown means that after tomorrow night’s drawing in the game, that number will be down to nine. And after Saturday’s drawing, it will be down to eight.

The countdown on advance plays will reach zero just before the first Monday drawing in the game. Once sales begin July 18 in the “new” Lotto America with three drawings each week, things will reset and you’ll be able to buy tickets for up to 10 drawings in advance again here in Iowa.

During the countdown period, if a clerk at a lottery terminal tries to process plays for drawings beyond the allowable date range, they’ll receive an error message stating: “Draw date not available for sale.” And if you try to purchase plays at a lottery self-service kiosk that are outside the available range, you’ll get an error message stating: “Out of valid draw range.”

Please note that the countdown on advance plays in Lotto America does not impact the advance plays available in our other lotto games. It’s a Lotto America-specific change that will be in place for the next month or so.

Multi-Draw Tickets: What To Do If You Claim A Prize Before All The Drawings Are Done

Here’s a question we’ve gotten this week about a complication some players have had with tickets for multiple drawings in lotto games like Powerball® and Mega Millions®.

The players knew they’d won a prize in one of the early drawings on their ticket, so they went to a local store to claim their winnings. And that’s where a complication came in. I give the background involved below along with details about what you can do if you’re ever in the same situation.

If you’ve never heard of a multi-draw ticket before, here’s how it works: In our lotto games, you can buy a ticket for just the next upcoming drawing or for several drawings at a time. A ticket with plays for more than one drawing is called a multi-draw ticket. It’s a convenience factor in today’s busy times, and a lot of players use the multi-draw option to save on trips to the store.

If you buy a multi-draw ticket and win a prize before the last drawing on your ticket has been held, you can claim your winnings right away, either at a lottery retailer or a lottery office, depending on the amount you’ve won. When your multi-draw ticket is scanned by the lottery terminal, you'll be paid your prize or get a prize claim form (again depending on the amount you’ve won) along with an exchange ticket for the drawings you have left. Your original ticket will be kept by the retailer as part of the prize-claim process.

An exchange ticket has the word “Exchange” printed on it just above the plays. Be sure to look for that word to know you’ve received the exchange ticket. To help you identify an exchange ticket, I've included an image of one here in the Powerball game with the word "Exchange" highlighted.

In the past few weeks, we’ve heard from some players who either didn’t get their exchange ticket when it printed from the lottery terminal or were given back their original ticket. The mix-up meant that they initially couldn’t claim any additional prizes they might have won, and that’s why they reached out to us. The folks in our Security Department were able to research what happened and track down the right details to help. But as a consumer, it’s always best to avoid complications like that.

If you’ve won a prize, you’re obviously excited and want to claim it quickly. So, feel free to do just that! But if you won on a multi-draw ticket, be sure to get the exchange ticket for the remaining drawings you still have to go! 

(And, if you want to wait until all the drawings on your ticket have occurred before claiming your winnings, you're obviously welcome to do that. The details here about exchange tickets are helpful tips for those who want to claim their winnings early on.)  

Hey, I Didn’t Get My Coupon For A Free Play This Month

It’s a fact of life that email systems these days can block messages from going through, and every month that trips up some members of our players club who are looking for their free-play coupon.

The good news is, there’s an easy work-around in case our email to you ends up getting stuck out there in cyberspace.

When you log into your VIP Club account, you have access to a few months of the VIP Connection, our players club newsletter. The most recent month’s edition will contain your monthly coupon for a free play and you can print it from there. We still send out the newsletter by email as well, but this offers you another option to easily find it. 

As you likely already know, one of the perks of being a VIP Club member is that you get a coupon every month from us here at the lottery. The coupon is good for a free play in one of our lotto games – Powerball, Mega Millions, Lotto America, Lucky for Life or in one of our InstaPlay games.

The VIP Club newsletter that contains the coupon is emailed out on the first business day of each month to VIP Club members who have opted-in to receive electronic communications from the Iowa Lottery.

Some of our VIP Club members have had trouble receiving their newsletter and coupon by email. In some instances, our emails were getting caught in spam filters or being blocked entirely by particular email service providers. (The providers weren’t doing anything wrong – they took the security steps necessary to best protect their members’ accounts from spam or other malicious content. But in some cases, those safeguards also prevented email from getting through that people wanted, including our monthly newsletter with coupon.)

You can access your newsletter and coupon by logging in at ialottery.com, clicking on VIP Connection & Coupon and choosing the current month.

Please note that you must be logged into your VIP Club account to access the newsletter. If you visit the VIP Club site without logging in, you won’t see the member-exclusive areas, including the link to the VIP Connection newsletter.

And remember that each VIP Club coupon has a unique, single-use code, so even if you have multiple images of your coupon, it can only be redeemed once.

You Can Enter Lotto America Tickets For A Chance To Win Up To $20K In Cash

The Lotto America® game is in the spotlight right now in a promotion that gives you the chance to enter tickets for a shot at $100,000 in prizes, including a $20,000 top prize.

The Lotto America Promotion began at 10 a.m. this morning, allowing VIP Club members to enter eligible Lotto America tickets for a chance at one of 33 cash prizes. In the promotion, the lottery will award:
        • one prize of $20,000
        • two prizes of $10,000
        • five prizes of $5,000
        • 10 prizes of $2,000
        • 15 prizes of $1,000.

The three-week entry period runs through 9:59 a.m. March 29. Only recent tickets can be entered – any Lotto America tickets purchased on or after March 1, 2022, are eligible for entry. And in keeping with past lotto promotions, each ticket entered will equal one entry in the drawing regardless of the ticket value or the number of plays on the ticket.

A player can win only one cash prize in this promotion. To give all tickets the maximum chance of winning, the winner of the highest cash prize will be selected first, with the second-largest second and so on until all cash prizes have been awarded.

The lottery will announce the winners after the drawing on March 31.

Good luck with your promotion entries!

The $1 Million Winner Was From Pennsylvania, But What A Fun Night!

If you watched the broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest,” you saw that a Pennsylvania player was selected as the $1 million winner in the special New Year’s Powerball® drawing live on air. But Iowa’s two finalists in the drawing say it was a fun night from start to finish. And they won prizes for being one of the five nationwide finalists.

In the images here, you can see Rob Long of Waterloo during the national television broadcast along with his wife, Heather, and their daughter, Rylie. And up in Titonka, Shari Beenken and her husband, Rod, were on TV with their children Jack, Madison and Katelyn.

THANK YOU to Rob and Shari for enjoying the moment and making the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year® drawing a ton of fun. After all, this was the first time that any state had more than one finalist for the $1 million prize!

Iowa’s finalists had two very different stories. Beenken, from a Kossuth County community of about 500, entered Powerball tickets in the drawing she purchased on her own, while Long entered tickets he bought on behalf of a group of his co-workers, friends and family who pool their money to buy tickets. He calls the group Lotto 22.

Rob, Shari and the other nationwide finalists received a $10,000 cash prize and a home party package also valued at $10,000, including a 70-inch LED TV, karaoke system and premium laptop computer. And then in the New Year’s drawing, Brian Mineweaser of Honey Brook, Pa., was selected as the $1 million winner.

#PBTwinWinsInIA
#PowerballRockinEve

Did You Already Win? More Than A Dozen Large Prizes Currently Unclaimed In Iowa

There’s never a bad time to win a lottery prize. So here's a reminder from us that more than a dozen large lottery prizes are currently unclaimed in Iowa — so please double-check your tickets!

On our Unclaimed Prizes list on the Iowa Lottery website, you can see all the prizes of $600 or more in Iowa that are still unclaimed in lotto and InstaPlay games. You can sort the list in several different ways — by game, place of purchase, prize amount, date of win and date of expiration — to key in on the details that matter most to you.

As of today, there are a whopping 19 prizes of $10,000 or more that are waiting to be claimed. At the top of the list is a Lucky for Life prize of $25,000 a year for life (or a $390,000 lump-sum option) that was won with a ticket purchased at Casey’s, 641 Edgewood Road NW in Cedar Rapids.

As for prizes on that list that will expire the soonest, you’ll note that there are numerous prizes expiring on Jan. 3, 2022. That includes a $12,000 Pick 4 prize that was won in the Oct. 3 evening drawing on a ticket purchased at Price Chopper, 4343 Merle Hay Road in Des Moines.

All prizes on the list must be claimed at a lottery office or by mail. The Lucky for Life prize must be claimed at lottery headquarters in Clive. If you have any questions about claiming a prize, give us a call at 515-725-7900 or email us at [email protected]

Central Iowa Ticket Wins $25,000 A Year for Life

 

Someone who bought a lottery ticket at a central Iowa convenience store won a prize of $25,000 a year for life last night in the Lucky for Life game. 

The lucky ticket was purchased at Kum & Go, 409 Nile Kinnick Dr. S. in Adel. It matched the first five numbers but missed the Lucky Ball in Wednesday's drawing to win Lucky for Life's second prize of $25,000 a year for life.

It is Iowa's 12th big winner in the game since it debuted in January 16 in our state.

The winning numbers in last night's drawing were 13-16-18-23-33 and Lucky Ball 17. Kum & Go will receive a $500 bonus from the lottery for selling the winning ticket.

Players in Lucky for Life choose five numbers from a pool of 48 for the white balls and 1 out of 18 numbers for the Lucky Ball. Players can win the game’s top prize of $1,000 a day for life by matching all six numbers selected in one of its drawings. The game’s second prize – for matching the first five numbers but missing the Lucky Ball – is $25,000 a year for life. Other prize levels in the game range from $3 up to $5,000.

Prizes at the top two levels in Lucky for Life must be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. The lottery currently offers prize claims by appointment at its offices. Full details are available on the lottery’s website here.

Helpful Advice From A Big Winner

A northern Iowa woman who won a $10,000 prize has some helpful advice for fellow lottery players: Check your tickets!

Julie Ackley of Osage won the big prize on a “$100,000 Mega Crossword” ticket she purchased at a local convenience store. But after scratching the ticket, she thought it was a nonwinner.

She said she took it back to the store later to double-check she hadn’t won a prize. That’s when she scanned the ticket on the store’s self-checker and realized her big win.

Julie said she scanned the ticket a couple more times just to be sure. She was jumping around the gas station in delight!

Here in Iowa, there are several ways to check your lottery tickets. If you have a lotto ticket in a game like Powerball or Mega Millions, you can check your numbers on our website, www.ialottery.com.

All lotto, scratch and InstaPlay tickets can be checked either at a licensed lottery retailer (as Julie did) or on our LotteryPlus mobile app. When you scan your ticket with the app, it’ll tell you whether or not your ticket is a winner, and if so, the size of your prize. It will also display where you can redeem your ticket: at a lottery location, at a lottery office or at lottery headquarters only, depending on the prize amount involved.

Take heed of Julie's advice and always check your tickets. We'd hate for you to accidentally toss away a winning ticket. Better safe than sorry!

Mega Millions & Powerball Jackpots Combined Are Pushing $1 Billion

The jackpots in Mega Millions® and Powerball® continue their way up and are both now in the Top 10 for each game. The two giant jackpots combined are pushing $1 billion, with the Mega Millions prize amount raised earlier today.

The estimated Mega Millions jackpot for that game’s next drawing tomorrow night now stands at an estimated $520 million annuity, $383.4 million lump-sum option. That’s the 8^th-largest jackpot in the history of the game.

Powerball is nearly as big. Its next drawing is Saturday night, and the jackpot currently stands at an estimated $470 million annuity, $362.7 million lump-sum option. That makes it the 10^th largest jackpot in the history of the game.

Both jackpots have been growing for nearly an identical length of time. Powerball was last won in its drawing on Sept. 15, while Mega Millions was last won on Sept. 16. And now that the prizes are really getting up there, sales are picking up across the country.

This is only the third time that the two jackpots have topped $450 million at the same time.

But like so much else these days, the jackpots have been impacted by the COVID-19 emergency. The jackpots are primarily sales driven, and for months now, folks in wide swaths of the country haven’t been able to run errands or buy everyday items (including lotto tickets) like they normally might in a non-pandemic time. That’s kept the jackpots in both games tamped down. And when the jackpots are lower, sales overall in the games are lower. It can become a bit of a repeating cycle.

So, it’s interesting that both jackpots are on a roll right now, and they’re really close in amount. Hopefully this can be something lighthearted to help give everyone a break to just daydream for awhile. And as we’ve said so many times through the years, remember to play responsibly. It only takes one ticket for a chance to win.

Remember that the deadline in Iowa to buy tickets for the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings is at 8:59 p.m. the night of the drawing. If you buy a ticket after that deadline, it will be for an upcoming drawing and you won’t be in the running for that night’s giant prize.

For Only The Third Time: Jackpots Simultaneously Top $400 Million

UPDATE on Wednesday, Jan. 6: With no jackpot winner in Tuesday's Mega Millions drawing, that giant prize has risen further. Powerball's drawing is tonight! The new details are included here.

Something pretty rare is happening right now in Powerball® and Mega Millions®. For just the third time ever, the games' jackpots have simultaneously topped $400 million.

The Mega Millions jackpot now stands at an estimated $490 million annuity, $372.3 million lump-sum option for its drawing on Friday. The game’s jackpot was last won on Sept. 15 with a ticket purchased in Wisconsin, and it hasn’t been this big for six months. It had reached $410 million in the drawing on June 9 when it was won with a ticket in Arizona.

The next Powerball drawing happens at 9:59 p.m. Wednesday. The Powerball jackpot currently stands at an estimated $410 million annuity, $316.4 million lump-sum option. The game’s top prize was last won on Sept. 16 with a ticket purchased in New York. And it hasn’t been this big for nearly a year. The jackpot had reached $396.9 million when it was won in the drawing on Jan. 29 with a ticket in Florida.

Like so much else these days, the jackpots in both games have been impacted by the COVID-19 emergency. The jackpots are primarily sales driven, and for months now, folks in wide swaths of the country haven’t been able to run errands or buy everyday items (including lotto tickets) like they normally might in a non-pandemic time. That’s kept the jackpots in both games tamped down. And when the jackpots are lower, sales overall in the games are lower. It can become a bit of a repeating cycle.

So, it’s interesting that both jackpots are on a roll right now, and they’re really close in amount. Hopefully this can be something lighthearted to help give everyone a break to have some fun daydreaming during this trying time. And as we’ve said so many times through the years, remember to play responsibly. It only takes one ticket for a chance to win.

Here’s something we’re still watching during the current jackpot run: Human beings procrastinate about lots of things, and that applies to lottery tickets, too. The day of the drawing in Mega Millions and Powerball always sees the highest sales, and in Iowa, the busiest stretch has usually been from about 4 to 6 p.m. that day as folks left work and ran errands on the way home. But with so many people working from home right now, we’re still tracking the numbers to see if purchasing patterns will have changed this time around. The commute home from work just doesn’t exist in many instances now.   

Remember that the deadline in Iowa to buy tickets for the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings is 8:59 p.m. the night of the drawing. If you buy a ticket after that deadline, it will be for an upcoming drawing and you won’t be in the running for that night’s giant prize.

The Back-and-Forth Jackpot Race Is Still Going!

As 2020 draws to a close, a friendly competition has sprung up between the nation’s big-jackpot games, with Powerball® and Mega Millions® going back and forth for which one has the highest top prize. The games’ jackpots have both been growing for nearly the same length of time – since mid-September – and it’s become a bit of a race to see which big prize will be won first.

Mega Millions has the next drawing, which happens tomorrow night. The game’s jackpot stands at an estimated $330 million annuity, $252.8 million lump-sum option. The jackpot was last won on Sept. 15 with a ticket purchased in Wisconsin, and it hasn’t been this big for six months. It had reached $410 million in the drawing on June 9 when it was won with a ticket in Arizona.

The next Powerball drawing will be Wednesday night. That game’s jackpot stands at an estimated $321 million annuity, $247.1 million lump-sum option. Powerball’s top prize was last won on Sept. 16 with a ticket purchased in New York. And it hasn’t been this big for nearly a year. The jackpot had reached $396.9 million when it was won in the drawing on Jan. 29 with a ticket in Florida.

Like so much else these days, both jackpots have definitely been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The games’ jackpot amounts are driven by sales, and for much of this year, folks in wide swaths of the country haven’t been able to run errands or buy everyday items (including lotto tickets) as they normally might in a non-pandemic time.

That’s tamped down the jackpot amounts in both games. And when the jackpots are lower, sales overall in the games are lower, too. It becomes a bit of a repeating cycle, and that’s been the case for much of this year.

So, it’s interesting that both jackpots are on a roll right now, and they’re really close in amount. We’re calling them dueling jackpots, and it will be fun to see which one will go out first!

There was a close call here in Iowa on Saturday. Someone who bought a ticket in central Iowa was just one number away from winning at least a share of Saturday’s Powerball jackpot. The ticket ended up winning a $50,000 prize by matching four of the first five numbers and the Powerball. That ticket was purchased at Casey’s, 870 NE Alice’s Road in Waukee.

Player Question: Why Do Some Numbers Come Up More Often As The Multiplier?

A player recently emailed us with a question about the All Star bonus option in the Lotto America game, and since the same concept applies to the multiplier option in Powerball and Mega Millions, I’ll cover all three of them here.

The player wondered why the number 2 comes up more often as the All Star Bonus in Lotto America. You may already know that the Bonus option can be added to a play in the Lotto America game for an extra $1, and it will multiply any prize you win. The All Star Bonus is similar to the Power Play option in Powerball and the Megaplier option in Mega Millions.   

The answer to the player’s question is found in the game rules, which are available on our website as part of the details for each game.  

The All Star Bonus option can multiply a Lotto America prize (except the jackpot) by 2, 3, 4 or 5. So, for example, if your ticket matches the five white balls in a drawing but misses the Star Ball, you’d win a $20,000 prize. But if you’ve added the All Star Bonus option to your ticket and the Bonus number that night is 3, your prize will be multiplied to $60,000.

In the Powerball game, the Power Play option can multiply prizes (except the jackpot and the Match 5 prize) by 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 times. And in Mega Millions, the Megaplier option can multiply prizes except the jackpot by 2, 3, 4 or 5 times.

But when it comes to Lotto America specifically, why does the number 2 come up more often as the multiplier? It’s due to the universe of numbers available to be selected as the All Star Bonus. There are 32 numbers in the All Star Bonus pool. Of them, 15 are 2s, 10 are 3s, 4 are 4s, and 3 are 5s. Here is what that looks like in table form:
32 Total Numbers In All Star Bonus Pool
2X = 15
3X = 10
4X = 4
5X = 3

So, does it stand to reason that the All Star Bonus number would come up more often as 2 or 3? Yes. But the other multipliers also have a shot. It’s the same concept for the multipliers in our other big-jackpot games.

Here are the details for the Power Play option in Powerball:
43 Total Numbers In Power Play Pool
2X = 24
3X = 13
4X = 3
5X = 2
10X = 1

And here are the details for the Megaplier option in Mega Millions:
15 Total Numbers In Megaplier Pool
2X = 5
3X = 6
4X = 3
5X = 1

Player Question: Why Is There A Sales Cut-Off Before A Drawing?

A player who emailed us with questions about our lotto drawings unfortunately had some conspiracy theories to share as well, so I’m addressing those here in case the same rumor has made it way to you.

The player wondered why there is a sales cut-off time before the drawings in games like Powerball® and Mega Millions®. The player said he wants people to be able to buy tickets right up until the time of the drawing, arguing that doing so would eliminate the rumored possibility he’s heard that drawing officials sometimes spray a substance on the drawing balls used in lottery drawings to keep certain numbers from being selected.

That last part isn’t true, and the sales cut-off times in the games are there for a reason. Here’s the back story:

Sales cut-off times are one of the security processes that lotteries use to ensure that everything is ready to go for a drawing. With millions – and sometimes billions – of dollars involved in our drawings, it’s obviously important that mistakes are avoided!

Before a drawing can be held, all the lotteries in that game have to verify that their sales figures balance and all plays are recorded in the system. It’s a meticulous process, and we know it’s what the public expects.

The good news is that as computer speeds and technology have improved through the years, it now requires much less time to accomplish that work. So today, our sales cut-off times here in Iowa are an hour or less before our drawings. Years ago, the sales cut-off times were often two hours before the drawing, but we’ve been able to reduce that. And we hope it’s a convenience for our players and retailers.

I would imagine there will always be some time required for balancing and verification before a drawing can happen, but perhaps in the future, the time involved can be even shorter than it is today.

The exact sales cut-off times vary from state to state, depending upon the requirements in that particular state. Check your state lottery’s website for the information that applies in your area.

And when it comes to the drawings themselves, there are multiple layers of security involved.

For example, the machines and sets of numbered balls used in the drawings are kept in double-locked and sealed vaults, and are only taken out when the drawing manager, security officer, and independent auditor are all present.

And those aren’t ping-pong balls in the machines. The drawing balls are actually made of rubber and have to meet exact specifications through testing, weighing and measuring.

Multiple sets of balls are available for the drawings along with multiple sets of machines. The exact machines and numbered balls used in each drawing are randomly selected and everything that happens with them once they’re out of the vault is recorded on audio and video.

There also are testing procedures leading up to each drawing, with the entire process carried out under the supervision of an auditor and security officials.

Player Question: How Are The Remaining Prizes Tracked?

A player who reached out to us on Facebook asked an important question about the Remaining Prizes list we keep on our website: Where do those numbers come from?

If you’re not familiar with the Remaining Prizes list, it can be found here. (I also included a screenshot below from that page.) It lists the prizes of $100 or more available in our scratch, pull-tab and InstaPlay games, the number of those prizes that have already been claimed, and the number that are still available. The details automatically record as tickets are scanned on the lottery’s statewide gaming system.

The list on our website is then updated each morning to provide the latest snapshot of our games and prizes.

We want you to know the stats and have regular updates about the tickets that are out there, and the list is a quick way to keep all of those details in one place.

We also keep an Unclaimed Prizes list on our website of the prizes that have been won but not yet claimed in our lotto games including Powerball® and Mega Millions® as well as our InstaPlay games. That information also records automatically as tickets are scanned on our system, and the list on our website is refreshed each morning.

Feel free to check out those lists when you’re looking for the latest details, but if you ever have further questions, feel free to reach out to us. We’ll be glad to help.

Iowa Lottery Meets Budget Targets In Latest Fiscal Year

We've released the Iowa Lottery's annual results today, with its sales, proceeds to state causes, and prizes to players all meeting budget targets for fiscal year 2020 even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s gratifying to be able to look back at the past 12 months – and particularly the months of the public health emergency – and see that we’ve been able to adapt and deliver on our promise to responsibly generate revenue for important Iowa causes.

The preliminary figures today show that the lottery generated $81.5 million in proceeds to state causes for the year. Annual lottery sales in FY 2020 were $372 million, while prizes to players totaled $236.3 million. Lottery sales commissions to the local businesses statewide that sell its tickets totaled $24.3 million.

All of those figures are understandably down a bit from the previous year’s numbers. The lottery’s FY 2020 results were largely impacted by two main factors: the COVID-19 pandemic and a relative lack of big jackpots in national lotto games.  

The jackpots in Mega Millions® and Powerball® both repeatedly climbed into the stratosphere in fiscal year 2019, with the Mega Millions grand prize in particular reaching more than $1.5 billion in October 2018, the largest jackpot in the history of that game. But in FY 2020, both games’ jackpots were won more often at lower levels ($40 million to $100 million). That meant lower overall sales in both games, and the COVID-19 emergency impacted the lotto category even more, with sales in lotto games nationwide falling during the pandemic.

But at the same time, scratch-game sales in Iowa had a strong year. Scratch games sold well throughout FY 2020, including during the months of the pandemic. Iowans who suddenly had a lot of time at home made scratch tickets part of their entertainment options along with the puzzles, board games and bicycles that have been selling at such high rates they’re now in short supply in many places.      

Scratch-ticket sales in Iowa have set annual records each year since FY 2015, and did that again in FY 2020, totaling $262.4 million. That’s an increase of $11.8 million from the previous year’s total for that product.

The lottery retailer with the highest sales in Iowa for the year was the Hy-Vee at 1843 Johnson Ave. NW in Cedar Rapids. That store sold more than $911,000 in lottery tickets in FY 2020.

The largest lottery prize won during the year in Iowa was $1 million, and two players each claimed that amount. Shane Saxen of Correctionville claimed a $1 million Powerball prize in March, and a group of five friends from Eldora calling themselves "Just Us" claimed a $1 million Mega Millions prize in December.

Calhoun County Man Claims Prize Of $25,000 A Year For Life

A northwest Iowa man has claimed a prize of $25,000 a year for life that he won in a drawing late last month.

David Holder of Pomeroy is Iowa’s eighth big winner in the Lucky for Life game since its 2016 debut in the state. He bought his winning ticket at Country Stores of Rockwell City at 730 High St. in Rockwell City. His ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Lucky Ball in the drawing on April 27 to win the game’s second prize of $25,000 a year for life.

Holder’s prize claim was received in the Iowa Lottery's secure dropbox and processed Wednesday at lottery headquarters in Clive. He chose to receive his prize in its lump-sum option of $390,000.

The winning numbers in the April 27 Lucky for Life drawing were: 1-5-9-28-35 and Lucky Ball 9. Country Stores of Rockwell City will receive a $500 bonus from the lottery for selling the winning ticket at one of its locations.

Ticket Purchased In NW Iowa Wins Prize Of $25,000 A Year For Life

Someone who bought a lottery ticket at a northwest Iowa convenience store has won a prize of $25,000 a year for life in the Lucky for Life game.

The Rockwell City ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Lucky Ball in last night’s drawing to win Lucky for Life’s second prize of $25,000 a year for life. The winning ticket was purchased at Kimmes Rockwell City Country Store, 30 High St. in Rockwell City.

It is Iowa’s eighth big winner in the game since it debuted in January 2016 in our state.

Lucky for Life is a $2 game with drawings twice a week, at 9:38 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays. The game’s top two prize levels are described as “lasting as long as you do,” meaning that they are truly for life. The minimum guaranteed payout for those two prize levels is 20 years, and there is a lump-sum option for players who prefer that rather than lifetime annuity payments.

The winning numbers in last night’s Lucky for Life drawing were: 1-5-9-28-35 and Lucky Ball 9. Kimmes Country Stores will receive a $500 bonus from the lottery for selling the winning ticket at one of its locations.

This prize must be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. During the current public health emergency, public access to lottery offices is restricted to email and telephone, so players can mail or ship their tickets to the lottery to claim prizes and there also is a secure dropbox option at the Clive location. Full details are available on the lottery’s website here.

If the winner or winners of the Rockwell City ticket have questions before coming forward to claim the prize, they’re welcome to call us at the lottery at 515-725-7900.

There's plenty of time for this prize to be claimed: Players in Lucky for Life have up to 365 days from the date of the drawing to claim prizes won in Iowa.

Have Iowa’s Back: Participate In The 2020 Census

During the next couple months, you’ll see messages from us at the Iowa Lottery reminding everyone why it’s so important that we help our state by completing the 2020 Census.  

For the next two weeks and again for two weeks in May, the lottery will run special messages on its lotto tickets encouraging everyone to participate in the Census. We’ll also have Census messages on the display screens at our lottery terminals and self-service kiosks where you buy tickets.

If you buy a lotto ticket this week in a game like Powerball® or Mega Millions®, look at the top. We hope the message you see there is self-explanatory:

Make Iowa count! Complete the 2020
Census online or by phone or mail.

The Census is a once-in-a-decade count that gives a snapshot of our nation about who we are and where we live. The results of the Census are used to make any number of critical decisions, like where communities should build new schools, where new roads are needed, and how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding should be spent in programs including Medicaid, Head Start, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The Census also determines the number of seats Iowa has in the U.S. House of Representatives and is used to draw the boundary lines for Congressional and state legislative districts.

In a nutshell, a complete and accurate Census count helps ensure that we as Iowans receive the political representation we deserve and that our taxpayer dollars are spent in a way that helps our state.

Iowa had top ranking in 2000 in getting its residents counted, with 76 percent of households in the state returning their Census forms. And in 2010, Iowa helped lead the way in the mail-in process for the Census, with 78 percent of households sending back their forms.

Earlier this month, U.S. households began receiving official Census Bureau mail with details about how you can complete the 2020 Census online, by phone or by mail. And if a count hasn’t been submitted for your household by later this year, Census staffers will visit homes from May to July to help make sure everyone is counted.

The Census Bureau is required by law to deliver its counts to the president and Congress in December.

So please take a few minutes to complete your Census form. Be counted for Iowa!   

The Look Of The Iowa Lottery In Your Local Store Will Change Next Year

One of the biggest projects we undertake here at the Iowa Lottery reached an important milestone today, and it means that the look of the Iowa Lottery will get an update next year.

The lottery itself won’t change, and we’ll still have the products you expect on the market. But much of the equipment now used here in our state to sell and cash lottery tickets will be replaced.

The project was discussed during today’s meeting of the Iowa Lottery Board, a public meeting held via teleconference due to the ongoing public health emergency. The Board voted 5-0 to allow the lottery to proceed with contract negotiations for a new statewide gaming system with Scientific Games International (SGI), a company based near Atlanta. The company was selected following a public and months-long competitive bid process.

Like any technology, lottery equipment needs to be replaced over time. Most of the lottery equipment now in the field in Iowa has been in use since 2011.               

SGI also supplies the Iowa Lottery’s current gaming system, and the lottery’s contract for it expires in July 2021. So during the next 15 months, new equipment for Iowa will be manufactured, and then our existing system will be changed out for a new version.

We’ll flip the switch to Iowa’s new lottery gaming system on July 11, 2021. Like our current system, it will link all 2,400 retail locations in Iowa where lottery tickets are sold. The gaming system includes a central communications backbone as well as the lottery terminals, self-checkers, self-service kiosks, and lighted jackpot signs in the local businesses where you buy lottery tickets.

I’ll emphasize again that with the new system, you’ll still be able to buy lotto tickets in Powerball, Mega Millions and your other favorites. And of course we’ll still sell scratch, pull-tab and InstaPlay games. But the machines that print and cash your tickets will change next year and the lotto and InstaPlay tickets you buy will probably look a little different once the new system begins use.

We’ll have more updates as the go-live date gets closer, but now you know to be on the lookout for cool, new lottery equipment next year!

(And you may have already seen our updates about the Iowa Lottery’s efforts to protect against the spread of COVID-19 illnesses as we continue doing business with safety first, but if not, please check out our Q-and-A here.)

Were You One Of Our 322 Big Winners In September?

We’ve been tracking our big winners all across Iowa for the past nine months in the hopes to give a greater perspective on just how many winners we have all over our great state. Each month’s map represents just how many prizes of $600 or more were claimed.

September brought us 322 more lucky winners of $600 or more, bringing the grand total thus far to 3,375 for the year. On average there are about 375 winning claims filed each month.

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!

Only In Iowa: Powerball Players Have Chance At $1 Million Prize

Now is your chance: For the next three weeks, Powerball® players in Iowa can enter a promotion for a shot at a $1 million prize.

Any Powerball ticket purchased in Iowa from today through 8:59 a.m. on June 18 can be entered into the “Woo Hoo A Million For You Giveaway.” After the three-week entry period, we’ll hold a drawing on June 19 to determine the winner of the promotion’s $1 million prize.

Call it our version of recycling! Back in April, a $1 million Powerball prize expired in central Iowa without being claimed. Someone bought that ticket at a Casey’s store in Nevada for the Powerball drawing on April 11, 2018. But the prize was never claimed, so it expired on April 11 of this year.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a $1 million prize has ever gone unclaimed in Iowa. We repeatedly called attention to the prize to try to find the winner, and now we’re dedicating our efforts to ensuring that this prize money finds its way to a new Iowa Lottery winner.

This is a truly Iowa-made effort: Our leadership team at the Iowa Lottery thought through how we could give away this $1 million, one of the district sales representatives in our Cedar Rapids office came up with the promotion name, and only Powerball tickets purchased in Iowa can be entered into the promotion for a shot at the prize.

Please note this important detail: Simply buying a Powerball ticket during the next three weeks won’t automatically enter you into the promotion. You have to be a member of the lottery’s free VIP Club and enter your ticket in your VIP Club account to be entered. Click here for a direct link to the VIP Club homepage where you can find details about joining if you’re not already a member. 

You’ve heard us say many times that the money from lottery prizes that expire without being claimed in Iowa goes into our prize pools for future games and promotions. Well, this big unclaimed prize gives us the chance to demonstrate that!

Each eligible Powerball ticket entered will count as one entry into the promotion, regardless of the number of plays on it or how many drawings the plays may span.

The lottery retailer that sells the promotion’s $1 million-winning ticket will receive a $1,000 bonus from the lottery. That also was the case with the $1 million ticket in Nevada: Even though it was never claimed, Casey’s still got a $1,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling that ticket at one of its stores. Our retailers work hard every day to sell our tickets, and this is one more way we can thank them.

We know that Iowa has faced some really challenging weather-related events this year, and folks in a large swath of our state are still finding their way through those difficulties. Maybe the buzz surrounding this unclaimed prize mystery and new promotion can give us all a short break to think about something else – and then as Iowans, we’ll get back to work to ensure our state recovers. And the Iowa Lottery will keep doing its best to raise proceeds to help with vital state causes right here at home.

Des Moines-Area Man Claims $2 Million Powerball Prize

A Des Moines-area man is Iowa’s fourth big winner of the year. Robert ‘Rob’ Maser of Urbandale is a regular lotto player. When he realized he’d won a $2 million prize in Wednesday’s Powerball drawing, he called to tell his family and friends. Problem was, they didn’t believe him!

Rob called his dad and told him he’d won the lottery and said he was keeping his promise to buy him a boat if he ever won big. His dad called him a liar.

Rob then took photos of his winning-ticket receipt and sent them to his dad, wife and others so they’d know it was real.

He said this win will be going toward retirement. He doesn’t have plans to quit his day job but he does plan to take care of a few things around the house, like new carpet and paint.

Rob bought his winning ticket at Kum & Go, 4585 156th St. in Urbandale, where's he's a regular. He went there to scan his ticket first thing this morning and even the staff there didn’t believe it at first. Once they realized he really did win, they were very happy for him and took a few photos. The Kum & Go store will receive a $2,000 bonus check for selling the $2 million-winning ticket at one of its stores.

He said he always adds the multiplier options to his lotto tickets in case a win just like this came up. He said he would have been disappointed if he’d only won  $1 million knowing it could have been $2 million for an extra buck. He initially matched the first five numbers but missed the Powerball to win a $1 million prize. But sine he added the Power Play® option to his purchase, it multiplied his prize to $2 million.

Wednesday’s winning numbers were: 7-17-33-61-68 and Powerball 4. The Power Play number was 2. No one matched all six numbers to win the jackpot, so the big prize climbs to an estimated $270 million annuity ($168.9 million lump-sum option) for Saturday. The Urbandale ticket was the only one in the country to win a $2 million prize in Wednesday’s drawing.

Big Prizes Were Won HERE This Past Month

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

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

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

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

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