ialottery blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Player Question: Where Do I Find The Numbers To Enter?

Now that our Million Dollar $ummer is underway, we’ve gotten questions from players re-familiarizing themselves with how to enter tickets in our promotions for a chance to win. There are two ways you can enter: By manually keying in the numbers from your tickets or scanning them with our mobile app. Here are the details for both.

Nonwinning tickets in 15 current scratch games can be entered into the Million Dollar $ummer promotion.

To enter a ticket manually, you'll need to key in the 10-digit entry number from the front of the ticket and the ticket number, which is found on the back. The 10-digit entry number is under the security coating on the front of a scratch ticket and can't be seen until the coating is scratched off. (Three of the numbers in that 10-digit code are inside a rectangular box.) The ticket number is by the bar code on the back of the ticket.

The lottery's mobile app gives you an even easier way to enter: Just use it to scan the barcode under the “Scratch 2 Cash” area on the front of an eligible ticket. You don’t have to key in any numbers that way!

The image posted here shows examples of the numbers you would need to manually enter a ticket as well as the barcode that you can scan from the mobile app.

Good luck with your promo entries!  

Expiration Date Is Next Week For Unclaimed $15K+ Prize In Des Moines

Time is running out for an unclaimed lottery prize of $15,625 won earlier this year in Des Moines.

If you’ve got a lotto ticket at home, please double-check it to see if you’re the winner! At the Iowa Lottery, we’re hoping we can jog someone’s memory in time so the prize can be claimed.

The prize was won in the midday Pick 4 drawing on April 21 with a ticket purchased at Cash Saver, 4121 Fleur Drive in Des Moines. Pick 4 prizes won in Iowa have to be claimed within 90 days of the drawing involved, so the $15,625 prize will expire at 4 p.m. next Tuesday (July 20) if it isn’t claimed by then at a lottery office.   

Pick 4, which has been offered in Iowa since September 2003, features a top prize of $30,000, with odds of just 1:10,000 of winning it. Another intriguing aspect of the game comes in the variety of ways players can choose to play it. Plays in Pick 4 range in price from 50 cents up to $5 for the chance to match a four-digit combination of numbers from 0000 to 9999.

There are several ways to win in Pick 4. A player can choose a straight play, meaning that if the winning numbers are 1-2-3-4, the player wins a prize for matching that combination exactly: 1-2-3-4. Another option is to choose a box play, which allows players to win for matching the winning numbers, but not in the exact order drawn (if the winning numbers are 1-2-3-4, you can win for any combination of those numbers, such as 4-3-2-1). You also can choose a straight/box play, which allows you to win for matching the numbers in the exact order drawn or in any order.

The winning numbers in the midday Pick 4 drawing on April 21 were 3-2-1-0 and the Des Moines ticket was for a $5 play that matched the numbers in the exact order selected to win a prize of $15,625.

Pick 4 drawings are held twice a day Monday-Saturday. The game’s midday drawings are at 12:40 p.m. and its evening drawings are at 9:20 p.m.

Here in Iowa, the money from prizes that expire without being claimed goes into the lottery’s prize pools for future games and promotions, so it will be used to pay prizes, just not those prizes that have expired.

Is This YOUR Million Dollar $ummer?

From now through late August, you can have a shot at nearly $1.2 million in prizes that are exclusively for Iowa Lottery players. Thirteen prizes ranging from $5,000 to $1 million are up for grabs in our Million Dollar $ummer promotion that just opened for entries today.

Iowa Lottery players who are members of our free VIP Club can enter the promotion through noon on Aug. 20. We’ll hold the promotion prize drawings on Aug. 26. We’re applying the “max bet” concept in the promotion, meaning that the size of the prize you could win increases along with the purchase price of the scratch ticket you’ve entered.

Players can enter the promotion with non-winning tickets in 15 current scratch games that range in price from $5 up to $30, including some of our popular “Crossword” and “Game Book” tickets. 

These prizes will be awarded in the promotion’s drawings: 
• 3 prizes of $5,000 from the $5 entries
• 3 prizes of $10,000 from the $10 entries
• 3 prizes of $20,000 from the $20 entries
• 3 prizes of $30,000 from the $30 entries
• 1 grand prize of $1 million from all promotion entries not previously selected. 

The initial category drawings and the grand-prize drawing will all be held on Thursday, Aug. 26. All entries submitted in the promotion that aren’t selected as a winner in one of the initial drawings will automatically be eligible for the grand-prize drawing.

And, if you enter tickets in each of the prize categories, you could win a prize at each level. (Yes, the odds of that happening are long, but we’ve seen players win multiple prizes before in our drawings.)

Good luck, thank you for playing, and we hope this turns out to be YOUR million-dollar summer!

She Didn’t Believe It At First, But A SE Iowa Woman Has Won $25,000 A Year For Life

Apparently, realizing you’ve won a big lottery prize but wanting to keep it quiet makes for a VERY long day at work.

That’s the word from a Mount Pleasant woman who claimed a prize today of $25,000 a year for life. Deb Perrott said she realized she’d won the prize before she went to work yesterday, but things hadn’t really sunk in yet. She said she kept feeling like someone should pinch her to see if she was dreaming. She also didn’t want to tell a lot of folks before she could get to the lottery to claim her prize, so with her mind whirling, work just dragged along.

Deb won her prize in Monday night’s Lucky for Life drawing. She said she learned the news just a few hours later when she popped awake about 1:30 a.m. and decided to check her lottery tickets.

She used her phone to check her numbers on the Iowa Lottery website, but was still a bit in doubt. After waking up her husband, Greg, they both were in disbelief about what they were seeing, so she went to a local convenience store to have a clerk there check the ticket on a lottery terminal.

Everything verified that she was indeed Iowa’s 11th big winner in Lucky for Life since the game’s debut in the state in January 2016. 

Deb said she called her adult children to share the news, but they also didn’t believe her at first. She said she’s not known as a practical joker, but for some reason, people kept thinking that she was “pulling their chains.”

Deb, who is 58 and works at a mail-management company, chose to receive her winnings in annual payments of $25,000. Her immediate plans after claiming her prize were to take her husband to lunch! She also said she might do a little traveling, but the bulk of her winnings will make a difference long term, helping with retirement.

The winning numbers in Monday’s Lucky for Life drawing were: 5-7-23-25-48 and Lucky Ball 8. Deb’s ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Lucky Ball to win the game’s second prize of $25,000 a year for life.

Her winning ticket was purchased at Gas Land Express, 309 W. Washington St. in Mount Pleasant. The business will receive a $500 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the winning ticket.

Deb plays the same set of numbers for each Lucky for Life drawing and says she does it just for fun, never truly expecting to win big!

Ticket Purchased In Mount Pleasant Wins Prize Of $25,000 A Year For Life

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

The Mount Pleasant 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 Gas Land Express, 309 W. Washington St. in Mount Pleasant.

This is Iowa’s 11th 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: 5-7-23-25-48 and Lucky Ball 8. Gas Land Express 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 $4 up to $5,000.

Prizes at the top two levels in Lucky for Life need to be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. The lottery’s offices are open Monday through Friday, and prize claims are currently available by appointment. The winner or winners of the Mount Pleasant prize can call the lottery at 515-725-7900 to make an appointment to claim it.

We Really Mean It: If Playing The Lottery Makes You Unhappy, Take A Break Or Stop

You’ve heard us say this before, but it bears repeating: If playing the lottery is making you unhappy or causing you stress, please take a break or stop completely.

We’ve heard from a few folks recently who are really unhappy with their lottery play and have definitely let us know that. Their inquiries were a reminder for me to revisit the issue here on the blog.      

We want you to know your limits, both monetarily and emotionally. Buying lottery tickets should never be a way to fulfill a financial need. Winning AND not winning are both part of playing the lottery. It’s not a source of income or an investment.

Lottery tickets are something you should buy just for fun from your discretionary spending. That's the money you have left to spend, invest or save after you've paid for necessities like food, clothing, and housing. From your disposable income, you can choose to buy things like movies, books, exercise gear – or lottery tickets.

The definition of "playing within your means" varies from person to person along with their income and circumstances. If you decide to play the lottery, determine in advance how much you want to spend and then follow that plan. When you do that, you're more likely to stay within your set limit and not overspend.

We keep a lot of tips and reminders under the “Play Smart, Be Informed” player’s guide on our website. Check out the details there to see how you’re doing in knowing lottery facts.

Do You Have To Live In Iowa To Win?

We’ve gotten a few questions this month about who can play the Iowa Lottery and win prizes in its games and promotions. Specifically, do you have to be from Iowa to win?

The answer in almost all cases is that anyone from anywhere can play the lottery and win. There is only one instance where you have to be from Iowa to win the prize involved, and I’ll cover that here.  
 
I think there’s a home-state pride involved and it’s fun when someone from your county or maybe even your city wins the lottery. Hey, if you didn’t win the big prize yourself, it’s always nice to have a “close brush” with someone who did!

But the short answer is that people from other states and countries can play – and win – in the Iowa Lottery’s games. The requirements for them are the same as those for everybody else: They have to be at least 21 years old to buy a ticket and the ticket must be legally purchased, legally possessed and legally presented to the Iowa Lottery to claim the prize.

By its very definition, a lottery is a game that can be won by anyone from anywhere, provided that they have a ticket. Within the past year, the vast majority of Iowa Lottery prizes were claimed by folks from right here in Iowa. But our winners have also included a Florida man who claimed a $250,000 prize, a Wisconsin woman and a Nebraska man who each claimed a $100,000 prize, and an Illinois man who claimed a $50,000 prize.         

If you win an Iowa Lottery prize and you’re not a resident of the United States, you may pay a higher amount in withholding than a U.S. citizen would, but it’s perfectly OK for you to play and win!
     
We’re pretty sure that our winners from out of state are glad that people from outside Iowa can buy tickets and win prizes here! And we as Iowans in turn can play the lottery and win prizes when we’re traveling out of state or out of the country. And bottom line, Iowa Lottery sales provide proceeds to help our state, no matter where the person is from who made the purchase.

Folks from outside of Iowa also can enter our Play It Again® promotions and win prizes in them. (As with prizes in our games, the withholding difference will apply to prizes in our promotions if you’re not a U.S. citizen.)

The only time that Iowa residency is required is in our contests that offer actual lottery tickets as prizes. It’s illegal for us to mail or ship lottery tickets across state lines, so in those instances, you do have to be from Iowa to win.

Eastern Iowa Woman Claims $1 Million Mega Millions Prize

An eastern Iowa woman who bought a Mega Millions® ticket on a weekend getaway to her family's cabin along the Mississippi River has won a $1 million prize.

Karen Kramer of Urbana said she initially saw a “1” and some zeroes when she checked her ticket, but didn’t realize just how many zeroes were involved at first. Then it hit her.

Karen, 60, who works as a para-educator in her local school district, said she sent a text about her win to her husband, Brad, and it worried him at first because he only saw the first sentence, which said: “Lightning struck us.”

Then he read the rest of her message where she went on to say: “On Mega Millions, I won $1 million! But please don’t tell anybody yet.”

The couple managed to keep Karen’s big win a secret, not even telling their three adult children before she claimed the prize. She said she wanted to wait until they had completed the claims process, then send out a picture to let them know.

While Tuesday’s Mega Millions jackpot of $56 million was won in Illinois, Karen’s ticket was just one number away from a share of the big prize, matching the first five numbers but missing the Mega Ball.

Tuesday’s winning numbers were: 9-22-39-41-54 and Mega Ball 19. The Megaplier® was 3. Karen’s ticket was one of only two in the country that won a $1 million prize that night, with the other in West Virginia.

Karen bought her lucky ticket at Barry’s Mini Mart, 403 W. Chestnut St. in Harpers Ferry, the community in northeast Iowa where she and her husband have their cabin. Barry’s Mini Mart will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the $1 million-winning ticket.

Karen said that she usually buys one play where she chooses her own numbers, then adds four easy-pick plays where the lottery terminal assigns the numbers. She won big on one of the easy picks. She said she’s predicted that she would have a big lottery win, telling her husband that she had the right numbers, the lottery just didn’t pick them!

The couple plans to invest the bulk of her winnings for retirement and pay some bills. But Karen also has a four-footed addition to their home in mind: a dog.

Software Error Led To Incorrect Results For Handful Of Lottery Tickets At 2 Stores

An isolated software error recently caused lottery terminals at two Iowa stores to misread a small number of tickets that won a total of $51 in prizes, and we at the Iowa Lottery ask any customers with questions to contact us.

The issue was quickly resolved. The hard drives in the lottery terminals were replaced and a software update was made to prevent the error from re-occurring.

A review of the Iowa Lottery’s statewide gaming system confirmed that the error occurred during two days in late May at just two stores: Hy-Vee, 1630 E. Seventh St. in Atlantic; and Casey’s, 26701 Scott Park Road in Eldridge.

Retail staff at one of the locations contacted the Iowa Lottery on May 25 to report that they were having difficulty cashing tickets in lotto games: Powerball®, Mega Millions®, Lotto America®, Lucky for Life®, Pick 3 and Pick 4. A review that same day pinpointed the software error and confirmed that it was limited to the lottery terminals in the two locations. The error, which began occurring on May 23, caused the lottery terminals at the stores to read all lotto tickets scanned as nonwinners even if they had won a prize. 

From May 23 to May 25, a total of 47 lotto tickets were scanned on the lottery terminals at the two stores. Of those, 15 had won a total of $51 in prizes, with individual winnings per ticket ranging from $2 up to $6. The lottery terminals indicated at the time that all 47 tickets were nonwinners.

Some of the customers involved later checked their winning tickets at other locations and were able to claim their prizes there. Of the 15 winning tickets that were misread at the two stores, 11 remain unclaimed for a total of $35 in prizes, the largest of which is $4.

Players who still have any of the 11 tickets can cash them at a lottery retail location. Any players with questions are welcome to contact Iowa Lottery Security at 515-725-7900 or Wmaster@ialottery.com.

$1 Million Mega Millions Prize Won In Harpers Ferry In NE Iowa

Last night’s Mega Millions® jackpot was won in Illinois, but two Iowa tickets were just one number away from a share of the big prize. One of those tickets won a $1 million prize while the other won a $30,000 prize.

The $1 million-winning ticket was purchased at a convenience store in far northeast Iowa: Barry’s Mini Mart, 403 W. Chestnut St. in Harpers Ferry. The ticket came within one number of having a share of last night’s $56 million jackpot, matching the first five numbers but missing the Mega Ball.

The Harpers Ferry ticket was one of only two in the country that won a $1 million prize in last night’s drawing, with the other in West Virginia.

The $30,000-winning ticket also was just one number away from a piece of the jackpot. It was purchased at Wayland BP, 213 W. Iowa Highway 78 in Wayland. That ticket initially won a $10,000 prize by matching four of the white balls and the Mega Ball, but the lucky someone who made the purchase also added the Megaplier® option, which multiplied the prize to $30,000. 

Last night’s winning numbers were: 9-22-39-41-54 and Mega Ball 19. The Megaplier was 3. With last night’s jackpot being won in Illinois, the big prize returns to an estimated $20 million annuity, $13.8 million lump-sum option, for the game’s next drawing on Friday.

The Harpers Ferry prize is the third lottery win of at least $500,000 so far this year in Iowa. Barry’s Mini Mart will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the $1 million-winning ticket.

The $1 million prize must be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive, while the $30,000 prize can be claimed at any of the lottery’s offices. Lottery offices are open Monday through Friday, and prize claims are currently available by appointment. The winners can call the lottery at 515-725-7900 to make a prize-claim appointment.

Hey, I’m Having Trouble Getting A Clerk To Scan The Electronic Play Slip On My Phone

A player contacted us this week to ask about a difficulty he’s had while trying to buy lottery tickets, and it caused us to wonder if others have experienced the same thing. The situation involves the scanners on Iowa Lottery terminals that read the barcodes on tickets and play slips.

This particular player said that he enjoys using the lottery’s mobile app, but has had trouble getting store clerks to scan the electronic play slips he’s stored on it. The man said the clerks won’t touch his phone, citing company policy. He wondered if there is an easier way for his electronic play slips to be scanned than by handing his phone to a clerk. The good news is there IS an easier way, and the lottery’s barcode scanners were designed for just that purpose.

The barcode readers at our lottery terminals are mounted on the end of the ticket printer. But they’re not permanently built in. They’re wireless and can be taken off the printer and used as a handheld device. They were designed that way because we wanted retailers to be able to use them without having them tethered to the lottery terminal.

If a customer has an electronic play slip stored on their mobile phone or device, a store clerk can pick up the barcode scanner and hold it over the customer’s screen, easily reading the play slip without needing to touch or handle the customer’s device.

We understand why stores would have policies against handling a customer’s mobile device – issues of data protection and germ mitigation come to mind along with the liability of dropping or damaging the device.

But the customer’s question this week was a good reminder that not everyone is as familiar as we are with the way lottery equipment works. And by going over the details about the scanners again for ourselves, we were able to create this quick how-to recap to help.

Ticket To Vegas: How You Can Have A Chance To ‘Fly with Cy’

Here are the details to give you a shot at an exclusive “Fly with Cy” trip to Las Vegas in September! The two most important steps: 1.) Buy a Powerball ticket. 2.) If you’re not already a member of the Iowa Lottery’s free VIP Club, sign up now.

The video above shares the rest of the info. you need to know. We hope to see YOU in Vegas! 

More Drawings Being Added In Powerball And Lucky For Life

Two of the Iowa Lottery’s popular lotto games will get additional drawings starting this summer.

Powerball® will move to drawings three times a week with a new Monday drawing being added to those currently held on Wednesday and Saturday nights.  And Lucky for Life® will move from two drawings per week to drawings each night.

The changes are designed to produce more winners, and in the case of Powerball, generate larger, faster-growing jackpots

The Lucky for Life update will happen first, with that game moving to daily drawings beginning on Monday, July 19. Lucky for Life’s current drawings are on Mondays and Thursdays. The change will give that game’s players a daily shot at winning its top prize of $1,000 a day for the rest of their lives.

Then in August, Powerball will move from two drawings per week up to three, with its first Monday drawing set for Aug. 23.

While the additional drawings will create more chances to win, they won’t change the games’ prize levels, odds of winning, or ticket price.

Players in $2 Powerball will still choose their first five numbers from a pool of 69, and another number – called the Powerball – from a separate pool of 26. The Power Play® option is available for an extra $1 per play.

Lucky for Life players will continue to choose their first five numbers from a pool of 48 and another number – called the Lucky Ball – from a separate pool of 18. Lucky for Life is a $2 game where the top two prize levels are described as “lasting as long as you do,” meaning that they are truly for life. The game has been played in Iowa since 2016.

Tale Of The Ticket: Carefully Scratch Off The Security Coating

A player contacted us this week with a question about a “Colossal Crossword” scratch ticket she and her husband had checked at a lottery terminal after realizing they’d won a prize. They thought they won more than the amount shown on the customer receipt they received, so they reached out to us to ask about it.

As it turns out, they hadn’t scratched off all the security coating on the ticket, and it led to a mistake as they played. I’ve included an image here so you can see the details.

In the “Your Letters” area at the top of the ticket, some of the security coating is still in place in different spots, and in particular, it covers up a portion of the letter highlighted in the red box. At a glance, you might think that letter is an “F,” which is what the couple believed. The letter actually is a “P,” but a portion at the top is still under the ticket’s security coating.

With the letter “F” correctly taken out of the mix, there are four complete words in Puzzle 3 and three complete words in Puzzle 4 for $70 in total winnings on that ticket.

It’s a real-world example of the message you’ve seen me share many times here on the blog: Please closely check the results of your tickets, and if you ever have a question, feel free to reach out to us here at the Iowa Lottery. We’ll be happy to help get you the accurate information.

When Is The Jackpot Money Available After A Drawing?

Some folks who are looking ahead have contacted us this week with a question that must come from their hope of winning the huge Mega Millions® jackpot. (The giant prize has climbed to an estimated $515 million annuity, $346.3 million lump-sump option for tonight’s drawing.) They asked how quickly after the jackpot is won that the winnings are actually available to the winner.

As you know, tickets in big-jackpot games like Powerball® and Mega Millions are sold across the country. Each lottery involved tracks its sales so that when the jackpot is won, they will know how much of the money will come from each jurisdiction.

After the drawing, all of the lotteries in the game transfer their share of the jackpot into a central account so the jackpot prize can be paid. It takes about two weeks for that process to be completed. If a winner comes forward to claim the jackpot before then, we make arrangements for them to receive the money as soon as it’s available.

If you claim your prize after two weeks, the jackpot money (either the lump-sum amount or the first of the annual annuitized payments, depending on the option you choose) can generally be transferred to you the next day.

Now you know, so you’ll be prepared to claim the jackpot if/when it’s your turn!

Do Easy Picks Have A Better Chance?

With the Mega Millions® jackpot really climbing into the stratosphere (it's currently an estimated $515 million for Friday’s drawing), the question of easy picks vs. your own numbers has come our way. And specifically, which type of play has a better shot at winning? The answer: Neither, the odds are the same for both. Here’s the background:   

You’re probably already familiar with this, but if not, in lotto games like Mega Millions and Powerball®, you have the option of choosing your own numbers or letting the lottery terminal generate the numbers for you. A play with numbers selected by the lottery terminal is called an easy pick. A ticket with numbers you choose is known as a manual play.

Through the years, easy picks have become more prevalent in our lotto games. Today, more than 90 percent of the plays in Powerball and Mega Millions are generally easy picks. Like their name indicates, they’re easy to play!

And with easy picks making up more than 90 percent of the tickets being purchased, they also make up more than 90 percent of the games’ winning tickets. It doesn’t mean that easy picks are luckier, it’s simply that there are a lot more of them.

The odds of winning are the same for every ticket in our lotto games, no matter the play type. So, if you like to choose your own numbers, go ahead and do that. Or, if you’d rather just ask for an easy pick, feel free. It won’t impact your odds of winning a prize.

And remember that the Iowa Lottery’s mobile app (I’ve included an image of it here) allows you to create and save ePlayslips for your favorite lotto games. After you’ve created your ePlayslip, a lottery retailer can just scan it from the screen on your device to print your ticket.

Waterloo Man Claims $2 Million Powerball Prize

A Waterloo man has claimed two prizes from Saturday’s Powerball® drawing – with one a bit bigger than the other!

Anton Garrett claimed a total of $2,000,021 in Powerball prizes. He bought five Powerball plays on one ticket, and on one of those plays he won a $21 prize. On another, he won $2 million.

He chose his own numbers, playing a combination of family birthdays, anniversaries and other significant dates.

Anton said he always dreamed he would win, that it was something he could just see.

He bought his winning ticket at New Star Liquor, 1625 W. Fourth St. in Waterloo. On one of his plays, he initially matched the first five numbers but missed the Powerball to win $1 million. But he also added the Power Play® option to his ticket, which multiplies that prize at the Match 5 level to $2 million. It multiplied his smaller prize from an initial $7 to $21.

Anton’s ticket was the only one in the country to win a $2 million prize in Saturday’s drawing.

Anton, who is 48 and works at Tyson Foods in Waterloo as a forklift operator, bought his winning ticket at New Star Liquor, 1625 W. Fourth St. in Waterloo. The store will receive a $2,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the $2 million-winning ticket.

Anton’s wife, Astrid, traveled with him as he claimed his prize and admitted that she had given him a hard time about buying lottery tickets. But he said with a smile that he did good on Saturday.

Saturday’s winning numbers were: 12-17-20-21-26 and Powerball 8. The Power Play number was 3. No one matched all six numbers to win the jackpot, so the big prize climbs to an estimated $168 million annuity ($117 million lump-sum option) for Wednesday.

Anton said he learned early yesterday that he had won a big prize when he stopped at another nearby store for coffee and had the clerk there check his Powerball tickets. He said the lottery terminal there started spitting out paper, which included his receipt for checking the ticket as well as a lottery claim form. Anton said the clerk read the paperwork and excitedly told him he’d won $2 million!

Anton said that he and his wife plan to invest his winnings for retirement and buy a new home.

Ticket Purchased In Waterloo Wins $2 Million Powerball Prize

Someone who bought a Powerball® ticket in Waterloo won a $2 million prize in last night’s drawing. It’s Iowa’s second big Powerball win this year.

The $2 million-winning ticket was purchased at New Star Liquor, 1625 W. Fourth St. in Waterloo. The lucky ticket came within one number of having at least a share of last night’s $155.9 million jackpot.

The ticket initially matched the first five numbers but missed the Powerball to win a $1 million prize. But whoever bought the ticket also added the Power Play® option to the purchase, which multiplies the prize at the Match 5 level to $2 million.

The Waterloo ticket was the only one in the country to win a $2 million prize in last night’s drawing.

The winning numbers were: 12-17-20-21-26 and Powerball 8. The Power Play number was 3. No one matched all six numbers to win the jackpot, so the big prize climbs to an estimated $168 million annuity ($117 million lump-sum option) for Wednesday’s drawing.

New Star Liquor will receive a $2,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the $2 million-winning ticket.

Prizes of $2 million must be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. The lottery’s offices are open Monday through Friday, and prize claims are currently available by appointment. The winner or winners of the Waterloo prize can call the lottery at 515-725-7900 to make an appointment to claim it.

In February, a western Iowa man claimed a $500,000 prize, Iowa’s first big Powerball win of the year. Gene Dice of Sergeant Bluff had purchased his ticket at a local convenience store for the Feb. 20 drawing. 

Powerball prizes won in Iowa must be claimed within 365 days of the drawing in which they were won. The lottery reminds players to double-check their tickets for any prize they may have won.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can Lottery Prize Winners Remain Anonymous In Iowa?

I definitely think that Iowans like to plan ahead based upon the number of questions we receive about the process involved when you win a big prize. Or maybe we’re just a bunch of eternal optimists?

A common thread in that conversation is whether lottery prize winners in Iowa can remain anonymous. The short answer is no. But here are the details:

Under Iowa law, lottery winner’s information is public. It’s possible for individuals, groups of winners or a trust to claim a lottery prize in our state, and all those scenarios have happened through the years. In the case of groups or trusts, the members’ names are released in addition to the name of the larger entity involved.

A recent example is a group of friends from western Iowa who called themselves The Misfits and split a $100,000 prize earlier this month. Their ceremonial check was written out to The Misfits, but the three members of the group also were identified.

The Iowa Lottery will redact sensitive information such as your Social Security number before we release the details, but all other information from the winner claim form is considered public information in our state.

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Many Big Lottery Prizes Have Been Won In Iowa?

Here’s a question that comes our way and appears to have origins in the urban myth that “no one from here ever wins”: How many big lottery prizes have been won in Iowa?

The first hurdle that likely needs to be cleared is how you define the term “big lottery prize.” For simplicity’s sake, I started out with the threshold of $5 million, and then looked at our winners’ lists to determine how many of those prizes have been won through the years here in Iowa. The answer? Iowa Lottery players have won 25 prizes of at least $5 million.

If that level isn’t considered big enough by someone’s definition, we can jump up to the $10 million level. The answer there: Iowa Lottery players have won 13 prizes of at least that amount.

If you keep going up, lottery players in this state have won five prizes of at least $100 million. And the very largest lottery prize claimed to date in Iowa is a $343.9 million Powerball® jackpot that was won in late 2018.

I know some folks won’t ever truly be satisfied with our “big winner” definitions until their name is on the list, but the specifics I’ve shared here show that Iowans have taken home a lot of significant prizes through the years.

Under state law, the Iowa Lottery winners’ lists are public, so we keep a millionaire’s list on our website that shows all the prizes of at least $1 million won in Iowa as well as a list of all winners of $600 or more within the past 12 months.

Tiny Town, Big Win!

An eastern Iowa man who bought a lottery ticket in a tiny town has won big!

Gary Knief of Bellevue won a jackpot prize of $160,074 in the Extreme Green Progressive InstaPlay game.

He purchased his winning ticket Saturday at Kalmes Store, 100 N. Main St. in Saint Donatus, a Jackson County community with a population of about 135.

Gary claimed his prize yesterday at the Iowa Lottery’s Cedar Rapids regional office.

The Extreme Green Progressive jackpot starts at $20,000 and increases with each ticket sold statewide in the game until it is won.

The InstaPlay product combines features from instant-scratch and lotto games. InstaPlay tickets are called "scratchless" because they have no security coating that needs to be removed to determine the prize won. And rather than having supplies of tickets printed in advance like those in traditional scratch and pull-tab games, InstaPlay tickets are printed on demand from the lottery terminal.

Congratulations on your win, Gary! You’re proof in action that big lottery wins can pop up anywhere! 

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

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

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

There are a variety of factors in the Iowa Lottery’s decision to end a particular game, ranging from how long that game has been on the market, its current sales level, and whether stores want to replace it with something newer. We always discontinue sales in a particular scratch game when the last top prize in it has been claimed. We don’t want a game on the market if you don’t still have a chance at its top prize!

We have dozens of scratch games for sale at any one time, but there are only so many bins for tickets in our self-service kiosks and spots for tickets in our dispensers. That means some retail locations simply don’t have enough room for all the games that are out there, and individual locations can decide which games they want to sell.

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

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

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

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

How To Help: Find The Play ‘Em All Option

An eastern Iowa woman’s email prompted this blog entry, and I’ll do my best here to walk you through how to find the ‘Play ‘Em All’ feature on the lottery terminal in case you ever have trouble buying it.

If you’re not familiar with the Play ‘Em All option, it lets you buy plays to cover all the numbers for the Powerball, Mega Ball and Star Ball in the three different games involved. For example, if you buy the Play ‘Em All option in Powerball, you’ll get 26 plays to cover all the numbers in the Powerball pool (1-26). In Mega Millions, the Play ‘Em all option will give you 25 plays, one for each of the Mega Ball numbers; and in Lotto America, you’ll get 10 plays, one for each of the 10 Star Ball numbers.

The woman who emailed us this week said she was having trouble buying the Play ‘Em All option because employees in some of the stores in her area didn’t know about the option or how a customer could buy it. We’ve asked if she can share with us the stores involved so we can follow up with them to go over the details. But sometimes the best plan as a consumer is to have the information yourself.
 
Here in Iowa, the clerk can find the Play 'Em All feature on the lottery terminal by touching the "Special Offers" tab in the top right-hand corner of the terminal's main screen. That tab brings up the Play ‘Em All screen, and the clerk can then touch the icon for the game you want to buy.

If you’re buying a ticket at a lottery self-service kiosk here in Iowa, after you select a play option in Powerball, Mega Millions or Lotto America, in the upper right of the screen, you'll see a button that says: Play 'Em All. By touching that button, you can play that option.

I hope these “insider” tips can help you walk through the process – and make it easy!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Player Question: How Does A Prize Claim By A Group Actually Work?

Maybe someone’s planning ahead and looking forward to the time when we can all be out and about again! With the Powerball jackpot now up to an estimated $200 million for tomorrow night’s drawing, we got a question from a player who asked how the process actually works when a group wins a big prize.

A peek back at some very happy Cedar Rapids co-workers who claimed a $1 million lottery prize shows a lot about the process. There definitely was cheering and celebrating the day that The Dream Big Team came to the lottery!

When a group wins a lottery prize in Iowa, just one person signs the back of the ticket, but they indicate it’s on behalf of the group. You would use whatever name your group has chosen, so the details would read something like this: John Smith on behalf of The Dream Big Team.

If the prize involved is more than $600 and requires a claim form, you check the box showing that more than one person is claiming the money. Each member of the group then provides information on a Federal Form 5754 identifying themselves and listing how much of the prize they’re claiming. That’s a very important detail for tax-reporting purposes.

The lottery issues a check for the prize to the person who signed the back of the ticket. That person then can deposit or cash the check and split the winnings with the group!

We keep reminders about group lottery play as a permanent feature on our website, so feel free to check out those details as well. For example, one of the quick tips we give is for the person buying tickets on behalf of a group to keep a careful list of everyone who contributes money, how much they give and when! That can help avoid questions later about who was “in.”

Not Many Progressive Jackpots Left -- What Will Happen When They're Won?

Our blog post last month highlighting the remaining prizes list on the lottery’s website led to this blog entry today after a player question. A player named Billy reviewed the list and asked what will happen when all the progressive jackpots have been claimed in the Cherry Twist Progressive InstaPlay game.

The answer to Billy’s question highlights the unique nature of InstaPlay games, and how they combine features from both scratch and lotto games.

If you go to the remaining prizes list, you’ll see that 93 of the progressive jackpots in the game have been claimed with three still to go. But Cherry Twist Progressive won’t end when all the jackpots have been won.  

The prizes shown on the list are for the tickets released to date in Cherry Twist Progressive. Over time, as the supply of tickets in particular InstaPlay games has been purchased, the lottery has ordered more tickets. When that happens, players will notice that the available prizes increase along with the new supply of tickets. The tickets currently available in Cherry Twist Progressive are actually the third re-order in that game. We anticipate that the fourth round of tickets in the game will hit the market in the near future.

That same situation sometimes applies in scratch games. If a particular scratch game is popular, the lottery can order additional tickets to keep it available in the marketplace, knowing that customers like it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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