ialottery blog

Did You Notice? Something Unusual Happened In Powerball

Something pretty unusual has happened twice now in Powerball in just the past two weeks. Did you catch it?

Last night’s $80 million jackpot was won with a ticket in New York, but that’s not what I’m talking about. The unusual thing has to do with the Power Play feature in the game.

The 10X was selected as the Power Play multiplier in last night’s drawing and in the drawing a week earlier, on Aug. 28.

Overall, the 10X has been selected as the Power Play number just four times: once in 2017, once in 2018, and now twice so far in 2019.

When you add the Power Play option to your Powerball ticket, it will multiply any prize you win (except the Match 5 prize and the jackpot) by the number selected as the Power Play multiplier in that night’s drawing. A Powerball ticket costs $2 per play, and you can add the Power Play option for an extra $1 per play. 

When the Powerball drawing occurs, the first five numbers and the Powerball are selected by the iconic ball-drawing equipment we’ve all seen through the years, and there is a separate drawing to determine the Power Play number.   

In last night’s drawing, the Power Play number was 10, so the lucky folks who added the Power Play option to their tickets won 10 times the regular amount of their prize!

Here in Iowa, a total of 1,612 plays won prizes last night that were multiplied by 10X. The biggest of them was at the Match 4 level, meaning that the ticket involved matched four of the first five numbers and missed the Powerball. That ticket initially won a $100 prize, but with the Power Play option added, it won $1,000!

It’s relatively unusual for 10X to be selected as the Power Play multiplier because it’s not always available. When the jackpot for the next Powerball drawing is an estimated $150 million or less, a 10X is added to the pool of numbers that can be selected as the Power Play. When the jackpot in the game is more than $150 million, the 10X feature isn’t available, so the multipliers in the pool are 2X-5X.

With the 10X included, there are 43 numbers in the Power Play pool. Of those numbers, 24 are 2s, 13 are 3s, three are 4s, two are 5s, and one is a 10. Here’s what that looks like in table form:

43 Numbers In Power Play Pool
2X = 24
3X = 13
4X = 3
5X = 2
10X = 1

(When the 10X isn’t included, there are 42 numbers in the Power Play pool, and the breakdown of the rest remains the same.)

So, does it stand to reason that the Power Play number will be 2 more often? Yes. But the other multipliers also have a shot. And sometimes the 10X will come up!

Player Mail: Why Aren’t There Expiration Dates On Scratch Tickets?

One of our players recently sent us a question that sparked a really interesting discussion. I’ll share it here on the blog, in case you’ve wondered the same thing: Why aren’t expiration dates printed on lottery scratch tickets?

The woman who emailed us said she’d recently tried to claim a prize from an expired ticket and she was frustrated that she couldn’t still cash it.

In our reply, we explained that there are a lot of factors in when a particular scratch game will end, and the timing of some can’t be predicted. That’s why it isn’t possible to assign a hard and fast end date to a scratch game when the tickets in it are printed.

For example, when the last top prize in one of our scratch games is claimed, we stop sales in it. We don’t want a game on the market if you don’t still have a chance to win a top prize in it! But we don’t know when the last top prize will be claimed -- that all depends on when someone will buy that particular ticket.

Sometimes we have specially-themed games that are only on the market for a short period of time, such as our holiday games. Those games come off the market in January each year because it just wouldn’t make sense if we were selling a game like “Merry Crossword” in July! (We work hard to keep the odds of winning the same in those games as they are in others that are on the market for much longer.)

And at other times, if a game has been on the market for some time and players show us through their (lack of) purchases that they prefer something else, it also will be removed from the shelves. 

We have dozens of games for sale at any one time, but there are only so many bins for tickets in our vending machines and slots for tickets in our dispensers. That means some stores simply don’t have enough room for all the games on the market, and the retail location can then decide which games it wants to sell.

We keep all the details about our games on our website, including game rules, a list of the scratch games currently available in stores, a list of the games where distribution has ended but prizes can still be claimed, and a list of games that have officially ended.  

We’ll keep doing our best to come up with fun, new games to replace those that are ending!

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.)