ialottery blog

The Powerball Jackpot Hasn’t Been At This Level In 10 Months

The Powerball jackpot is back up at a level it hasn’t seen in 10 months.

That’s not a typo. The game’s jackpot hasn’t climbed this high since last March. The jackpot for tonight’s drawing is at an estimated $394 million annuity, $274.6 million lump-sum option.

It hasn’t been at this level since last year, when it kept climbing all the way up to $768.4 million annuity in the drawing on March 27, 2019. It was won that night with a ticket in Wisconsin.
     
What’s the story behind our recent “jackpot drought”? There have been a lot of winners in Powerball and Mega Millions, but as luck would have it, the jackpots in both games have been won in the past handful of months at what some would call a “lower level.” Now, all those prizes were still in the tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars. But if it seems like things have been kind of quiet lately on the jackpot front, that’s because they have.

Mega Millions got some steam going last month when it reached $372 million annuity in the drawing on Dec. 17. It was won that night with a ticket in Ohio.

The Powerball jackpot was last won in the drawing on Nov. 2 by a ticket in California.  The next time it’s hit, it will be the first Powerball jackpot won in 2020.

There will always be peaks and valleys in lottery jackpots, so we’ll all just have to wait and see how high the jackpots climb this time around. Maybe we just got used to all the big jackpots we saw in the past couple years!

Christmas Gifts Lead To Two $10,000 Lottery Prizes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Player Mail: Hey! They Carded Me!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Five Iowa Friends Split $1 Million Prize

Five friends who chipped in to buy lottery tickets together had quite a moment today as they claimed a $1 million Mega Millions® prize.

Tim Harless of Eldora bought the group’s $1 million-winning ticket at a local convenience store for Tuesday night’s Mega Millions drawing. The friends call themselves “Just Us” and have played the lottery together for about 15 years. Harless said they’ve won smaller prizes during that time, but now they have a very different story to tell!

Harless is in the middle in the photo here. The four other members of the group are (left to right): Dave Twedt, Steve Wright, Dennis Dickenson, and Julia Salazar. They all live in Eldora and know each other through the Hardin County community of about 2,700.

The four men say that Salazar keeps the rest of them fed. She has managed the local Casey’s convenience store for 20 years, and it’s their regular stop for lunch, snacks and drinks.

Salazar said she checked the results of the drawing and called Harless yesterday morning to share the news that they’d won big. He said she was talking so fast he couldn’t understand her at first, but it finally sunk in.

Salazar also said she was contacted by the Iowa Lottery’s Security Division as part of its verification work for a ticket winning a sizeable prize. That review includes checking the store’s security-camera system for footage of the ticket purchase.

Salazar said that as she watched the security footage with the lottery’s security investigator, she hoped she would see Harless on camera coming into the store and buying a ticket. And there he was!

Dickenson, who works for Harless at the city’s street department, has a story of double good fortune: Last month, he survived quadruple bypass surgery, and now he and his friends have won a big lottery prize. He said he definitely feels lucky!

Harless bought the $1 million-winning ticket at Casey’s, 1807 Edgington Ave. in Eldora. The group’s easy-pick ticket came within one number of having a share of Tuesday’s $372 million jackpot, matching the first five numbers but missing the Mega Ball. A ticket purchased in Ohio won that night’s jackpot. Tuesday’s winning numbers were: 22-30-53-55-56 and Mega Ball 16. The Megaplier® was 2.

Six prizes of at least $1 million have now been won this year in Iowa. Casey’s will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the $1 million-winning ticket at one of its stores.

All the members of the Just Us group talked about putting their winnings into savings, paying off bills or investing for retirement. And for Wright, who’s already retired, another possibility is on the list. He said there might have a new pickup in the spring.

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

Someone who bought a lottery ticket in Iowa City has an extra reason to celebrate this holiday season: Their ticket won a prize of $25,000 a year for life in the Lucky for Life game!

It’s Iowa’s sixth big winner in the game since it debuted here in January 2016.

The Iowa 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 the Kum & Go at 1310 S. Gilbert St. in Iowa City.

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 would prefer that rather than lifetime annuity payments.

The winning numbers in last night’s Lucky for Life drawing were: 1-16-27-39-45 and Lucky Ball 10. Kum & Go will receive a $500 bonus from the lottery for selling the winning ticket at one of its stores.

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. You 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. If you think you’re the Iowa City winner and you have questions before coming forward to claim the prize, please give us a shout at the lottery at 515-725-7900 or email us at Wmaster@ialottery.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Thanksgiving!

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

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

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

Lottery proceeds have helped our state in a variety of ways over time, but today, they have four main purposes. They provide support for our state's veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund; support through the Public Safety Survivor Benefits Fund for the family members of Iowa peace officers and fire fighters who die in the line of duty; help for a variety of significant projects through the state General Fund; and backing for the Vision Iowa program, which was implemented to create tourism destinations and community attractions in the state and build and repair schools.

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

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

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

What Player Mail Do YOU Have For Us?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our VIP Club Newsletter Went Out Early & Here’s Why

The members of our VIP Club got their October newsletter and free-play coupon a few days early, and there’s a reason why.

 

We’ll be doing some maintenance on the Iowa Lottery’s website beginning on Monday, and for a period of time, members of our VIP Club won’t be able to log in to their VIP Club account and may not be able to access their monthly coupon. So, bonus for them: This month’s edition of the VIP Connection newsletter, which normally would have gone out on Tuesday (Oct. 1), was sent out today. That means they’ll have extra time to redeem the coupon inside.
 

The October free-play coupon will be valid from today through Oct. 31.

The changes to our website should make it easier for everyone to navigate the VIP Club and enter Play It Again® promotions. Things should be back to normal on the website within 24-48 hours.

 

Once we’re done with the maintenance, if you have a bookmark or shortcut to the VIP Club website, you’ll need to update it because the link involved will change slightly.

We’ve Topped 3,000 Big Winners For The Year

Eight months ago we started providing this unique view of just how many prizes of $600 or more were claimed each month. And with August now in the books, we’ve topped 3,000 big winners for the year!

August brought us 337 more lucky winners of $600 or more, bringing the grand total thus far to 3,054 for the year. On average there are about 382 winning claims filed each month. August was just below that average, but with summertime coming to an end, vacations winding down and normal routines setting back in, we’ll likely see even more winners in September, as that seems to be the pattern.

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.

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

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

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

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

Player Mail: It's Gotta Have Scotcharoos!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Winning Streak In Tiny NE Iowa Community

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Expiration Date Coming Close For $50,000 Powerball Prize In Central Iowa

A $50,000 Powerball prize in central Iowa will expire in about a month if it isn’t claimed in time and we’re reminding players to double-check their tickets.

The $50,000 unclaimed prize was won in the drawing on Sept. 1, 2018, with a ticket purchased at Fareway, 5500 E. University Ave. in Pleasant Hill. The ticket came close to winning that night’s $90 million jackpot, matching four of the first five numbers and the Powerball to win a $50,000 prize. The winning numbers that night were: 11-54-55-61-66 and Powerball 9.

Players in Iowa have up to 365 days from the date of the drawing to claim prizes in the Powerball game. But if the expiration date falls on a weekend or holiday when the lottery’s offices are closed, the winner has until the close of business on the next business day to turn in the ticket.

The Pleasant Hill ticket would have expired Sept. 1, but since that date is a Sunday and Sept. 2 is the Labor Day holiday, the winner or winners have until 4 p.m. Sept. 3 to claim the $50,000 prize at a lottery office.

The money from prizes that expire in Iowa 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.

34 Years In The Making: Iowa Lottery Sets Records

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Checking An Item Off His Bucket List

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

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

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

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

Happy World Emoji Day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

All The Latest About Iowa’s Biggest Lottery Winners

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

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

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

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

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

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

Iowa Co-Workers Celebrate $1 Million Win

Eleven members of the Cedar Rapids office pool sharing the $1 million prize in the “Woo Hoo A Million For You Giveaway” had fun celebrating today as they claimed the group’s winnings!

An Anamosa woman made the winning entry into the promotion on behalf of her office pool at Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids. The 34 co-workers in the office pool who call themselves The Dream Big Team each received about $29,000 before taxes.

Click on the video above to see the team members tell their story!

From May 29 through last Tuesday morning, lottery players could enter the Woo Hoo A Million For You Giveaway with any Powerball ticket they purchased in Iowa during that three-week timeframe. Players made a total of 165,265 entries into the promotion.

Laurie Ginder purchased the ticket that became the $1 million-winning entry at Casey’s, 500 E. Main St. in Anamosa. Casey’s will receive a $1,000 bonus from the lottery for selling that lucky ticket at one of its stores. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sales Suspended In An InstaPlay Game After Vendor Glitch

A vendor system glitch has led to sales being suspended in one of our InstaPlay games.

Our initial review shows that the error caused 28 duplicate plays to be sold to players during a 25-minute span this morning in the Cherry Twist Progressive InstaPlay game.

Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn summed up our response really well today.

“The number of players impacted and the tickets involved in this situation may be modest, but you simply cannot put a price on doing the right thing,” he said. “The right thing today was to suspend sales of the game in question and have our team work to fix the issue. Maintaining the integrity of Iowa Lottery products and giving every player a fair chance to win every time must be job one.”

The Cherry Twist Progressive InstaPlay game appears to be the only Iowa Lottery product impacted. Sales in that game were suspended about 9:30 a.m. today, and remain suspended at this time. Lottery records show that of the 28 duplicate plays sold in the game, 8 indicated winnings totaling $23.   

The $2 Cherry Twist Progressive InstaPlay game has been sold in Iowa since November 2016. Its top prize is called progressive because it starts at $2,000 and increases with each ticket sold statewide until it is won.

Shortly after 9 a.m. today, the lottery and the vendor for its statewide gaming system noticed that sales in the Cherry Twist Progressive InstaPlay game appeared to have reset to a point several hours earlier as an apparent result of a system and equipment reset that the vendor performed this morning. The glitch caused duplicate plays to be issued in that game. Once the issue was identified, sales in the game were immediately suspended. A total of 28 duplicate plays in the game were sold to lottery players from about 9:05 a.m. until 9:29 a.m. Sunday.

Any players with questions should contact Iowa Lottery Security directly at 515-725-7900 or Wmaster@ialottery.com. And if you think you have one of the tickets involved in the Cherry Twist Progressive InstaPlay game, please take that ticket to one of our regional offices or mail it to us at: Iowa Lottery, 13001 University Ave., Clive, Iowa 50325-8225.

The Latest Player Mail Questions About Our $1 Million Promotion

Entries have been coming in for a little more than a week now in our “Woo Hoo A Million For You Giveaway,” and players have been asking some really good questions about the promotion, too. I’m sharing the Q-and-A here on the blog so you’ll have the same info.!

Q: Why can’t I enter a ticket from the May 29 Powerball drawing?

A: The ticket must have been purchased on May 29 or after to be eligible for entry into the promotion. A ticket from the May 29 Powerball drawing may have been purchased on an earlier date, so double-check the details on your ticket.  

Q: If I have a winning Powerball ticket, doesn’t the retail location keep the ticket after it is cashed?

A: Yes, that’s what happens. Iowa Lottery retail locations keep the winning tickets they cash for accounting and security purposes. So if you want to enter a winning Powerball ticket into the promotion, be sure to do that BEFORE you claim the prize.    

Q: Do I need to keep my Powerball tickets after I enter them into the promotion?

A: No. The entry itself provides the information we’ll need in the promotion drawing. (Just be sure to keep the ticket until after the Powerball drawing you bought it for so you can check to see if you won a prize in that drawing.)

Q: I want to enter the promotion, but I can’t access your website.

A: Were you at work when you tried to log onto the lottery’s website? Many employers block access through their networks to any gambling-related website, and that applies when you’re using your own device through the company’s wifi or you’re on a computer directly connected to the company network. You may get several different error messages in that situation. Try accessing our website from home, where you’ll be using your own Internet connection.

Q: Can I enter tickets from other lotto games in the promotion? What about Powerball tickets from other states?

A: Tickets in any game other than Powerball are ineligible, and will be disqualified from the promotion drawing. Powerball tickets from other states also aren’t eligible. Only Powerball tickets purchased IN IOWA during the promotion’s entry period from May 29 through 8:59 a.m. on June 18 are eligible.

Q: If I bought a Powerball ticket in Iowa, does that mean I’m automatically entered in the promotion?

A: No. You have to be a member of the lottery’s free VIP Club and enter your ticket into your VIP Club account to be entered. If you’re not already a member, click here to join.

Q: My Powerball ticket was good for more than one drawing. Does that mean I’ll get multiple entries in the promotion?

A: No. Each eligible ticket entered counts as one entry into the promotion, regardless of the number of plays on it or the number of Powerball drawings for which the ticket is eligible. To put it another way, 1 ticket = 1 entry.

We’re Declaring It The “Summer of Silverado”

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

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

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

What You’ve Asked For: Our App Now Shows Prize Amount

You’ve been asking about it, and we’re excited to share this update today: Our mobile app now displays the prize amount you’ve won when you scan a winning ticket.

Back in 2017, we debuted our app for both Apple AND Android devices, and like any technology, we’ve updated it over time. The latest update allows the app to display the prize amount involved when you use it to scan a winning ticket.

Before this change, the app showed whether a ticket was a winner or nonwinner, but it didn’t specify the prize amount involved for a winning ticket. And it might seem like a simple change, but making this update took a lot of time, programming and testing. But we’re there now!

If you already have our app (it’s called the Iowa Lottery’s LotteryPlus) on your device, there’s nothing you need to do to receive the update. It happens automatically, so you already have the new feature available. If you don’t yet have the app, feel free to install it from the Google Play Store® or Apples iTunes Store® as appropriate for your particular device.

In addition to the details about what you’ve won, the app also displays where your winning ticket can be redeemed: at a lottery retail location, at a lottery office, or at lottery headquarters only, depending on the prize amount involved.

Our players have been asking for this update and we’re glad to see it go live! It’s a convenience factor for sure, and it’s also another important security feature that allows you to determine the outcome of your lottery tickets on your own. (You also can use a self-checker at a lottery retail location or check our website as other review tools.)

Hoops Winners Having A ‘Suite’ Time At The Tourney!

We had two sessions of “Suite Seats” winners who got to enjoy men’s college basketball tournament games yesterday in Des Moines and we’ve got another round to go tomorrow!

A total of 48 promotion winners and their guests are joining us this week at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines to watch the tournament games. Our winners have gotten to hang out in a private suite, cheer for some of the best college players in the country and watch for the big upsets that this time of year almost always seems to bring!

In the photos here, you can see four of our winners: Ed Heritage of Grimes, Dennis Mokaya of Ames, Dawn Devito of Indianola, and James Doeden of Ankeny.       

Des Moines is getting good reviews in its second go-round as one of the tournament’s regional hosting cities. And even as the basketball games are still being played this week, Des Moines officials are already looking ahead to the next time they’ll have the chance to bid to host the men’s tournament again.

Congratulations again to all our Suite Seats promotion winners! We hope you’ve had fun with us at the tournament.