Some incredible VIP basketball packages are on the line in the Suite Seats promotion that started today.
The promotion’s entry period opened at 10 a.m. today. This year’s edition of Suite Seats is similar to a promotion with the same name held in 2019, but with several fun additions.
Members of our free VIP Club can enter nonwinning tickets from the “Money Madness” and “Triple Tripler” scratch games into the promotion for a chance to win. When they enter, they’ll choose between tickets to a session of the national men’s college basketball tournament this March in Des Moines, or a prize package that includes two suite tickets to the Los Angeles Lakers-Minnesota Timberwolves game March 31 in Minneapolis.
Each college basketball prize pack is valued at more than $1,600 and includes 2 suite tickets to Session 1, 2 or 3 of the national men’s tournament (you’ll choose the session you want when you make your entry), as well as food and non-alcoholic beverages, $400 spending cash, tournament merchandise and a parking pass. There are 16 prize packs up for grabs for each of the three sessions at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
Each Timberwolves prize pack is valued at nearly $2,000. It includes 2 suite tickets for the Lakers-Timberwolves game on March 31 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, a 1-night stay at the Loews Downtown Minneapolis Hotel with valet parking, food and non-alcoholic beverages, merchandise and $400 spending cash. Ten NBA prize packs will be given away in the promotion.
The Suite Seats entry period runs through 9:59 a.m. on Feb. 28, with the promotion’s drawings to follow on March 1. A player can win only once per category, but it is possible that someone could win tickets to each men’s college tournament session in Des Moines and the NBA game.
As part of the fun, the Iowa Lottery will hold a special event at the Jan. 29 Iowa Wolves basketball game in Des Moines. VIP Club members will be able to request 4 free tickets to the game, and the lottery will be there with courtside scratch ticket sales, a contest, and giveaways before and during the game.
Update following drawing: The winner of the $1 million prize in the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year® drawing was the contestant from North Carolina, but we think Iowa's Chris Manuel gets the award for the feel-good story from her trip to New York. Chris, thank you for sharing the fun with us!
I blogged earlier this week about our winners from tiny Swan, Iowa, who were headed to New York City – and the update today is that they’re taking it ALL in while they’re in the Big Apple!
#LifeGoals. Seriously.
Chris Manuel of Swan, a Marion County community of 76, won the trip as Iowa’s contestant in the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year drawing. She and her husband, Randy, get to see the iconic New Year’s Eve ball drop tomorrow night during an exclusive Times Square party and Chris will have a chance at the $1 million prize in the special drawing.
But for now, Chris and Randy are out and about in NYC. They’ve done a double-decker bus tour of the city, they’re seeing a performance of the Radio City Rockettes this afternoon and they’ve also got Ellis Island and Lady Liberty on their list of things to see and do.
We love to see them having so much fun!
The $1 million winner in the special Powerball drawing will be announced live on air just after midnight EST during ABC’s broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2023.”
If you want to follow along with tomorrow night's festivities, here are the times you could see Chris and the other contestants in the drawing. (All times below are for the central time zone, when we’ll see the broadcast here in Iowa.)
7 p.m. – The live broadcast on ABC begins. 7:18 p.m. – The first Powerball segment is shown. 7:55 p.m. – The first drawing is held to select 5 finalists from among the 29 nationwide contestants. 8:41 and 10:20 p.m. – On-air interviews are broadcast with the 5 finalists. 11:16 p.m. – The $1 million drawing takes place.
A lottery winner from a tiny central Iowa community will spend New Year’s Eve in New York and have a chance to win a $1 million prize in a special Powerball® drawing.
Chris Manuel of Swan is among 29 nationwide finalists for the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year® drawing. The $1 million winner will be announced live on air just after midnight EST during ABC’s broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2023” from New York’s Times Square.
Chris says she’s excited for the trip, but still worries she’s being punked!
Chris, who’s 60 and a locksmith, has had a trying yet successful year, undergoing cancer surgery and radiation treatments. She said she hopes that in February, she’ll find out she’s cancer free. She said that winning the $1 million prize would mean she could retire early and enjoy time with her husband.
This is the fourth consecutive year for the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year promotion, and it’s the first time since the inaugural edition in 2019 that finalists get to travel to New York City for the event.
Chris says she’s heard from nearly everyone in her Marion County community of 76 about her sure-to-be-memorable New Year’s plans. She said there will be a lot of people watching the drawing that night!
Each of this year’s finalists won an exclusive trip for two to New York valued at more than $28,000. It includes round-trip airfare; a three-night hotel stay in Times Square; two tickets to a theater performance and other iconic NYC excursions; all meals while in New York; $1,000 spending cash; and New Year’s Eve festivities including a Times Square party and viewing of the iconic ball-drop.
Chris says that while she and her husband, Randy, are both the “camouflage and blue jeans” type, she’s gotten a manicure with dark, sparkly polish for their trip and they both went clothes shopping.
They plan to take in a lot of New York: dinner at Carmine’s Italian Restaurant in Times Square, a performance of the Radio City Rockettes, a double-decker bus tour of the city, and a ferry ride to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
They also plan to fulfill their grandson’s request for M&Ms® in every color from the M&Ms World Times Square store.
Randy Manuel, who‘s 61 and retired, describes himself as “a totally country boy.” But he says he’s looking forward to New York, even if he is a bit nervous.
Randy says he initially thought something was wrong when his wife told him she had news to share in October. But then she said they were going to New York.
Randy says Chris is pretty lucky, so he hopes her luck keeps going!
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and New Year's Rockin' Eve are registered trademarks of DCP Rights, LLC. All rights reserved.
We’ve gotten the same questions from a few different players about our “Holiday Cash Bash” promotion, so I’ll provide the answers here to share the details with everyone.
The specifics apply to any ticket you’ve entered in an Iowa Lottery promotion through your VIP Club account.
Some players have asked if they need to keep their tickets after they’ve entered them into the promotion. As in, will I need to present the ticket to claim a prize I might win in the promotion?
The short answer is no, you don’t need to keep a ticket for promotion purposes. Entering an eligible ticket into one of our promotions meets the requirement of presenting that ticket to the lottery. So, you don’t need to keep the ticket after you’ve entered it.
A couple folks also have asked if they could mail their tickets to the lottery for the promotion. The answer in that case is no. Entries into our promotions need to be made online, either through the Iowa Lottery’s website or by using our mobile app.
It’s been more than 13 years since any Iowa Lottery promotions have involved the mailing in of tickets. Our players have let us know that they prefer the convenience and time savings of online entry, so that’s what we have offered since 2009.
When you play Lotto America® in Iowa right now, you may get a nice surprise: a free ticket.
From now through the end of the day next Friday (Nov. 25), for every fifth ticket purchased statewide in Lotto America, the lottery terminal or self-service kiosk will automatically generate a free $1 ticket in the game. You’ll hear the “Surprise, player bonus!” sound from the machine as the free play prints out.
With the Lotto America jackpot at its highest level ever -- $30.39 million for Saturday night's drawing -- this seemed like the perfect time to add some extra fun for players in the game.
Every Lotto America purchase of at least $1 counts as one ticket in the promotion, regardless of the number of plays on the ticket.
The free plays kicked in with the start of the business day this morning and will continue through 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 25.
Remember that it’s not every fifth ticket purchased from a specific lottery terminal or kiosk that's eligible for a free play. It’s every fifth ticket purchased statewide, so the free-play bonus will hit in stores all across Iowa during the next eight days,
So listen for the “Surprise, player bonus!” sound when you buy a Lotto America ticket!
From enjoying a rooftop pre-party (with tacos, of course!), to seeing a football game in one of the world’s biggest stadiums and getting to explore the city, our Fly with Cy winners officially took in the sights and sounds of Austin. Click on the video above to hear them talk about their trip and see them in Texas!
Dozens of prizes ranging from $1,000 up to $100,000 are up for grabs in the lottery’s “Holiday Cash Bash” promotion that just opened for entries today.
Last year, we mixed things up and offered warehouse dash shopping trips as well as cash prizes in our holiday promotion. This year, we’re returning to all cash prizes.
The Holiday Cash Bash promotion features 91 cash prizes totaling $355,000, including a grand prize of $100,000. We’re applying the “max bet” concept in the promotion, meaning that the size of the prize you can win increases along with the purchase price of the scratch ticket you’ve entered.
Players could start making entries in the Holiday Cash Bash at 10 a.m. today, and the promotion runs through early January, with its final drawing date on Jan. 12. You can enter tickets on the lottery website or by using our mobile app.
Players can enter the promotion using nonwinning tickets in the 13 holiday-themed scratch games we’ll have available this year. Tickets in 11 of those games are already available in stores. Our final two holiday games for the year will hit the market on Nov. 1.
On each of the promotion’s three initial draw dates, 30 prizes will be awarded. Each time, there will be 10 prizes of $1,000 from among the $1 and $2 entries; 10 prizes of $2,500 from among the $3 and $5 entries; and 10 prizes of $5,000 from among the $10 and $20 entries.
The initial drawings will be on Nov. 17, Dec. 15 and Jan 12. The $100,000 grand-prize drawing also will be on Jan. 12.
Entries will not carry over from one drawing to the next, except for the grand-prize drawing. All entries submitted over the course of the promotion that are not selected as a winner in one of the initial drawings will automatically be eligible for the grand-prize drawing.
We’ve heard this week from some players who were having trouble in the middle of the night using the lottery’s mobile app to check their tickets or enter them into promotions. They told us that our app needed to be fixed.
But it’s actually working as it should. There’s just a period of time each night when the app is offline. If you try to use an app function that’s unavailable at that time, you’ll get a message asking you to try again later.
Many of the mobile app’s functions are tied into the lottery’s central gaming system, which links all Iowa Lottery terminals and self-service kiosks in real time along with some functions on the app.
As part of the lottery’s security procedures, the central gaming system is taken offline each night at midnight so that sales from the previous day can be balanced, all plays can be accounted for, and system updates can be made.
When the lottery’s statewide gaming system is offline, ticket checking doesn’t work on the mobile app because that function needs to access the gaming system. And lotto tickets (in Powerball®, Mega Millions®, etc.) can’t be entered into promotions at that time for the same reason.
Tickets in scratch games and InstaPlay games can be entered into promotions when the gaming system is offline because the process for those products is slightly different.
Some nights, the central gaming system is offline for less than half an hour. Other nights when bigger updates need to be made, the system may be offline for a few hours.
We choose to take the gaming system offline just after midnight knowing that’s when foot traffic is lighter in retail locations and there are fewer online visits to our website and mobile app.
So if you’re trying to use the lottery’s mobile app between about midnight and 3 a.m. and you get a message asking you to try again later, please do that. The app’s functions will be live again once the central gaming system is brought back up.
Today is definitely a day for winner news! We’ve just announced the 72 winners in our summer promotions, including the two grand-prize winners of $50,000 in the Explore Iowa promotion. But that doesn’t leave you shut out of the fun. Our Powerball® First Millionaire of the Year promotion is live now with more prizes on the line, and so is the Moola Prize Zone promotion!
On the Promotions Results page of our website, you’ll find the complete drawing results for the Explore Iowa, Fly with Cy and Money Magnet Prize Zone promotions. Those include the winners of the $50,000 cash prize and the $50,000 Polaris® gift certificate package in the Explore Iowa promotion, the 50 winners of VIP trip packages in the Fly with Cy promotion, and the 20 winners of prizes of $300 cash in the Money Magnet Prize Zone promotion.
It’s Friday, so it seems like a good time to send a bunch of people into the weekend on a happy note! Congratulations to all the winners announced today!
It’s Veterans Day at the Iowa State Fair, and we’ve got a whole day’s worth of activities to celebrate the difference you’ve helped us make through the lottery proceeds for Iowa veterans and their families.
First up, our State Fair booth that you can see in the photo here is open at the State Fair today from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. We’re in the big white exhibition tent along the Grand Concourse. The map at the end of this blog entry shows you the tent’s spot in front of the Fair’s Service Center.
We’ll be selling and cashing scratch, lotto, and InstaPlay tickets, and we can help you enter our promotions if you need those details. We’ll have the scratch games available that can get you entries into our Iowa Ironmen Suite promotion, Fly with Cy promotion, and Explore Iowa promotion.
The Polaris vehicles that are the top prizes in our Explore Iowa promotion also will be on display at our tent, so feel free to check them out!
Anyone who makes at least a $10 lottery purchase at our booth gets to spin the prize wheel for merchandise prizes, and we’ve got pull-tab tickets as prizes on that wheel!
And remember that a portion of each $1 spent on lottery tickets in Iowa goes right into the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund to benefit our state’s veterans and their families. We’re proud to share that to date, the Iowa Lottery has raised nearly $35 million for that meaningful cause!
We’ll also be making a couple presentations at the State Fair today to recognize the Veterans Trust Fund and spread the word about the help available through it. One presentation will be just before the Veterans parade at 11 a.m. this morning and the other will be just before the Iowa Military Veterans Band performs at 3 p.m. at the Susan Knapp Amphitheater.
Please join us in thanking and honoring veterans today to make their day at the Fair that much more special!
Last month, we announced the Iowa Ironmen Suite promotion giving folks the chance to win football prize packages to two big rivalry games for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Today, the focus turns to Iowa State, and specifically, the chance to win an exclusive VIP trip to Austin for the Iowa State -Texas football game.
The Fly with Cy promotion has started today! Members of our free VIP Club can enter the promotion with nonwinning tickets in the “Hit It Big!” scratch game. We’ll draw for the Fly with Cy winners on Sept. 15.
Fifty winners and their guests will get to go on a private chartered flight that leaves Des Moines on Oct. 14 and returns from Austin on Oct. 16. Included in the trip package are:
a 2-night hotel stay for two at the Hilton Garden Inn in the Austin University Capitol District,
a reception at the hotel on the evening of Oct. 14,
2 tickets to the Iowa State - Texas football game on Oct. 15 at DKR Texas Memorial Stadium,
Hotel and stadium transfers,
Merchandise swag bag.
Each trip package is valued at nearly $7,300!
Entries can be made into the promotion until just before 10 a.m. on Sept. 13. We’ll post the winners’ names as soon as we have the details available after the drawing on Sept. 15.
(And for Hawkeye fans, remember that the entry period in the Iowa Ironmen Suite promotion runs through 8:59 a.m. on Aug. 17. You’ve still got time to enter!)
We’re gearing up for a weekend of fun in Newton! The Iowa Lottery will be at the Iowa Speedway starting later today for the Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race Weekend.
We’ll have a tent in the vendor area behind the Grandstand at the Iowa Speedway where we’ll be selling tickets and giving away fun merchandise prizes to the folks who get to spin our prize wheel. And with tonight’s huge Mega Millions® jackpot on the line, it’s a perfect time to get a ticket! We’ll be selling lotto tickets, scratch tickets, and InstaPlay tickets at our tent.
We also get to be part of presentations on the Speedway’s main stage to highlight the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund, one of the most important uses of lottery proceeds in our state. The Iowa Lottery has raised more than $34.8 million for the Veterans Trust Fund to date, and that money goes directly to help Iowa veterans and their families in need.
Sure, you play for the fun and the chance to win a prize. But you also know that a portion of every $1 spent on lottery tickets in Iowa goes to worthy state causes. We’re excited to join veterans and their advocates for these presentations tomorrow and Sunday!
And of course, the winners from this spring’s Powerball® INDYCAR Race Weekend promotion will be at the track for the headline concerts and races. Some of our promotion winners get VIP infield access for tomorrow’s concerts while another group of winners get to take two-seater race car rides on Sunday. It should be an action-packed weekend, all the way around! (Will Iowa will see a big jackpot winner to add to the excitement?!)
The Iowa Lottery’s tent at the Iowa Speedway will be open during these hours at the Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race Weekend:
Iowa football tickets to watch two big rivalry games from a suite are up for grabs in a new Prize Zone Promotion that started today.
The Iowa Ironmen Suite promotion offers 34 VIP football packages, each for two tickets in the Ironmen Suite at Kinnick Stadium for either the Iowa St.-Iowa game on Sept. 10 or the Michigan-Iowa game on Oct. 1. There are 17 prize packages per game and you’ll choose the game you prefer at the time you enter.
Players can enter the promotion with nonwinning tickets in the $10 “Cash” scratch game. Each eligible ticket entered counts as one entry into the promotion. You can enter tickets for a chance to attend either game, and you could win tickets to both! But you can win only one ticket package per game.
Each VIP prize package includes food and non-alcoholic beverages, $200 spending cash, two lottery bags with merchandise, and state withholding paid on behalf of each winner for a total prize package value of $1,152.63.
The entry period runs until 8:59 a.m. on Aug. 17. The drawing will follow on Aug. 18.
And for Cyclone fans, stay tuned! We won’t leave you out of the fun this year.
As the summer goes on and we’re making more stops around the state on our Explore Iowa tour, we’ve gotten questions from some folks asking if we’ll make it to their area.
The short answer is that we’re continuing to add new stops over time and we’re doing our best to hit all areas of Iowa. Our campaign is called Explore Iowa, after all!
To see the list of our upcoming events, please visit the Special Events page on our website here.
Some of the events are at retail locations while others are at football games, baseball games, local festivals and auto races.
We’ve already been to Waverly, Fort Dodge, Des Moines, Mason City, Council Bluffs and Davenport, to name a few. This week we’ll be in Cedar Rapids, Waukee and Cedar Falls.
We’ll keep updating the list of events as summer goes on. At some of the stops, we’re doing special presentations to highlight the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund, one of the most important beneficiaries of lottery proceeds to state causes.
We sell tickets in our Explore Iowa scratch game at each stop, and all lottery products are available at the events at retail locations. And yes, our prize wheel is there! With a qualifying purchase, you can spin the wheel to win lottery merchandise.
We’re spending this spring and summer getting out to celebrate Iowa, and we hope to see YOU at one of our stops!
The Iowa Lottery will be at a number of locations around the state in the next couple months. Some of the events will be at retail locations while others are at football games, baseball games, and auto races.
We’ve already been to Des Moines and Mason City. Today we’re in Council Bluffs, and on Sunday, we’ll be in Davenport.
We keep a list of events in the next couple weeks on our website’s Promotions page and we’ll update that list as the summer goes on.
We sell tickets in our Explore Iowa scratch game at each stop, and all lottery products are available at the events at retail locations. And yes, we’ll have our prize wheel at the events! With a qualifying purchase, you can spin the wheel to win lottery merchandise.
Here’s a question that often comes our way after the entry period closes in one of our promotions: What were the odds of winning a prize in that promotion’s drawing? The answer involved is entirely dependent upon the number of entries that players made.
The details that apply in our promotions are different than those in our scratch, pull-tab and InstaPlay games, where there are a finite number of tickets, some of which are winners. They’re also different than the details in lotto games like Powerball® and Mega Millions® where the odds of winning are based upon the numbers available to play. (For example, the odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball are about 1 in 292.2 million because that’s how many different ways the numbers in the game can be combined to produce plays.)
But in our promotions, the odds of winning are based upon the number of entries that players make in that particular promotion. Our annual holiday promotions where players can enter nonwinning scratch tickets are generally our most popular and routinely receive more than 1 million entries. Other promotions focusing on specific games can involve a smaller number of entries. An example of that is the Powerball INDYCAR Race Weekend promotion that just ended last week. Players made 38,509 entries in that promotion.
We’re always glad to provide details about our games and promotions, so if you ever have a question about the odds of winning, please feel free to reach out.
We’ve added a step-by-step guide to our website to answer one of the questions we get the most about the VIP Club: How do I change my email address?
We get it. Over time, your email can change as you move, switch Internet providers, update your computer and mobile phone, etc. Some folks said they were having trouble finding the spot under their VIP Club profile to change the email address associated with their account.
We now have a page that maps out the process, including screenshots with the instructions.
To help you get started, I’ve included the initial steps of the process in the image you see here. You’ll first need to log in to your VIP Club account. Once you’ve done that, you’ll see the main links along the left side of the page. Click on the “Account Management” link at the top and that will take you to a page with several options.
The first one listed is “Change Email,” which walks you through the remaining steps you’ll follow. But the last link on the list – Update Profile – also will take you to the spot where you will key in your new address and then click the “Submit” button to save your changes.
It’s a quick and easy process with either link. And having the correct contact information in your account is important because if you win a prize in one of our VIP Club drawings, we’ll use the email and telephone number you’ve provided to contact you!
We’re kicking off a summer-long celebration today that focuses on getting outside – and offers you the chance to win some memorable prizes.
The Explore Iowa promotion began this morning and runs through mid-September. Lottery players can enter nonwinning tickets from the $5 Explore Iowa scratch game into the promotion for a chance to win gift certificates for Polaris® recreational vehicles and cash prizes. The promotion will give away a total of $400,000 in prizes.
The Explore Iowa scratch game is easy to identify: Its tickets show a Polaris® recreational vehicle on the front!
The lottery will hold initial drawings in the promotion on June 9, July 21 and Aug. 18 with the grand-prize drawings on Sept. 15. Each of the initial drawings will award three $25,000 Polaris® gift certificates and five cash prizes of $5,000. The grand-prize drawings on Sept. 15 will award a $50,000 Polaris® gift certificate and a $50,000 cash prize. (Each Polaris® gift certificate prize will include state and federal withholding taxes paid on behalf of the winner.)
Entries will not carry over from one drawing to the next, except for the grand-prize drawings. Here’s how that works: All entries for a Polaris® gift certificate that aren’t selected as a winner in the initial drawings will be eligible for the grand-prize drawing for a $50,000 Polaris® gift certificate. And, all entries for a cash prize that aren’t selected as a winner in the initial drawings will be eligible for the grand-prize drawing for the $50,000 cash prize.
Polaris is an official licensed product of Polaris Inc. All rights reserved. POLARIS and the star design are trademarks of Polaris Inc.
They were selected as winners a few months ago during our holiday Warehouse Dash promotion, and now we have the details about how our contestants did during their 90-second dash to grab all the items they could!
This past weekend, the Iowa Lottery’s four Warehouse Dash winners got an exclusive, all-expense-paid trip to Chicago. After a welcome dinner Friday night at Michael Jordan’s Steak House, they each got to make their warehouse dash on Saturday.
Angela McClelland of Des Moines went first, followed by Shelby Nyweide of Tipton, Mike Thompson of Storm Lake, and Fawn Berstler-McCrabb of Marengo. They each had a partner with them for the dash, and their goal was to grab all the items they could fit into two giant wheeled carts. (Under the rules for the dash, one person pushes the cart while the other grabs items off the shelves.) It was fun to see the strategy the teams put into their selections!
Drones were high on the list of the hottest items snagged by this year’s teams! And of course big-screen televisions, laptops and portable speaker systems, but also camping gear and premium cooking sets.
In the end, each winner ended up with an entire pallet piled high with items from their dash. And hopefully, memories of a very fun and unique trip.
Congratulations to our Warehouse Dash winners! Enjoy your loot!
And for all our players, know that we’re making plans now for more exclusive prizes in our upcoming games and promotions! Doing another Warehouse Dash is definitely a possibility.
The INDYCAR Series is staging back-to-back races this summer in Newton, and Iowa Lottery players can have the chance at tickets to the race weekend in a Powerball® promotion that started this morning.
VIP Club members can enter eligible Powerball tickets in the promotion with 190 prize packages to the INDYCAR Race Weekend on the line. Up for grabs are 20 VIP Suite Experiences and 75 single-day prize packages for the Hy-VeeDeals.com 250 at the Iowa Speedway on July 23, and 20 VIP Suite Experiences and 75 single-day prize packages for the Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 on July 24.
Each VIP Suite Experience includes two suite tickets (for either the Saturday or Sunday race), food, non-alcoholic beverages, $100 spending cash, lottery swag, and concert tickets. Each single-day prize package includes two grandstand race tickets (for either Saturday or Sunday), concert tickets, food vouchers, $100 spending cash and lottery swag.
All promotion winners get to attend the day’s pre- and post-race concerts. Tim McGraw will put on a pre-race concert on Saturday while Florida Georgia Line will put on the post-race concert the same day. Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton will be in concert on Sunday.
If you’re a VIP Club member, you can enter winning and nonwinning Iowa Powerball tickets today through the morning on May 3. Each Powerball ticket entered equals one entry in the prize category you choose, regardless of the price of the ticket or the number of plays it.
The entry period runs through 9:59 a.m. on May 3, with the drawing to follow on May 5.
This is a question that just came our way but it’s also a common inquiry, so I’ll provide some direct links to the details involved.
The person who reached out wanted a list of recent Iowa Lottery winners but also wondered who won the very biggest lottery prize in Iowa.
Under state law, information about lottery winners is public, so we keep a millionaire’s list on our website that shows all the prizes of at least $1 million won in Iowa and a list of all winners of $600 or more within the past 12 months.
And if you’re looking for details about the winners in our latest promotions and contests, you can find that here.
As you’ll see, lottery players in this state have won five prizes of at least $100 million. And the very biggest amount claimed so far in Iowa was a $343.9 million Powerball® prize won in late 2018.
I know some folks won’t ever truly be satisfied until their name is on the list, but Iowans have taken home a lot of significant prizes through the years!
Here’s a clarification we’ve shared with some players this week who didn’t know why they couldn’t enter their tickets into the Lotto America® Play It Again Promotion® with a total of $100,000 in prizes on the line. It’s the purchase date that determines a ticket’s eligibility for entry, not the drawing date.
Since Monday morning, lottery players in Iowa have been able to enter eligible Lotto America tickets into the promotion where we’ll give away a total of 33 prizes, including a top prize of $20,000. That promotion drawing will be held on March 31.
(And you likely already know this, but the promotion drawing is separate from the Lotto America game drawings, which are held each Wednesday and Saturday.)
We’ve been contacted by some players who thought they should be able to enter their tickets in the promotion and were confused by the “ineligible” messages they received.
It turns out that they were referencing the wrong date.
In a game like Lotto America, the drawing date you’ve purchased the ticket for is in large font in the center, just above the plays you bought. And while players sometimes buy their tickets on same day as the game drawing involved, that’s not always the case. Many times, they buy their plays in advance – and the purchase date is what applies for the promotion.
The purchase date is in the upper right corner of the ticket, in a year-month-date format. You can also see the exact time that the ticket was printed. Lotto America tickets purchased on or after March 1 are eligible for entry into the promotion.
Be sure to double-check the purchase date on any tickets you want to enter in the promotion!
The Lotto America® game is in the spotlight right now in a promotion that gives you the chance to enter tickets for a shot at $100,000 in prizes, including a $20,000 top prize.
The Lotto America Promotion began at 10 a.m. this morning, allowing VIP Club members to enter eligible Lotto America tickets for a chance at one of 33 cash prizes. In the promotion, the lottery will award: • one prize of $20,000 • two prizes of $10,000 • five prizes of $5,000 • 10 prizes of $2,000 • 15 prizes of $1,000.
The three-week entry period runs through 9:59 a.m. March 29. Only recent tickets can be entered – any Lotto America tickets purchased on or after March 1, 2022, are eligible for entry. And in keeping with past lotto promotions, each ticket entered will equal one entry in the drawing regardless of the ticket value or the number of plays on the ticket.
A player can win only one cash prize in this promotion. To give all tickets the maximum chance of winning, the winner of the highest cash prize will be selected first, with the second-largest second and so on until all cash prizes have been awarded.
The lottery will announce the winners after the drawing on March 31.
If you watched the broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest,” you saw that a Pennsylvania player was selected as the $1 million winner in the special New Year’s Powerball® drawing live on air. But Iowa’s two finalists in the drawing say it was a fun night from start to finish. And they won prizes for being one of the five nationwide finalists.
In the images here, you can see Rob Long of Waterloo during the national television broadcast along with his wife, Heather, and their daughter, Rylie. And up in Titonka, Shari Beenken and her husband, Rod, were on TV with their children Jack, Madison and Katelyn.
THANK YOU to Rob and Shari for enjoying the moment and making the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year® drawing a ton of fun. After all, this was the first time that any state had more than one finalist for the $1 million prize!
Iowa’s finalists had two very different stories. Beenken, from a Kossuth County community of about 500, entered Powerball tickets in the drawing she purchased on her own, while Long entered tickets he bought on behalf of a group of his co-workers, friends and family who pool their money to buy tickets. He calls the group Lotto 22.
Rob, Shari and the other nationwide finalists received a $10,000 cash prize and a home party package also valued at $10,000, including a 70-inch LED TV, karaoke system and premium laptop computer. And then in the New Year’s drawing, Brian Mineweaser of Honey Brook, Pa., was selected as the $1 million winner.
UPDATE on Jan. 1, 2022: The $1 million winner was the finalist from Pennsylvania. Brian Mineweaser of Honey Brook, Pa., was selected in the drawing for the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year®.
Congratulations to Shari Beenken of Titonka and Rob Long of Waterloo, two of the five nationwide finalists for the $1 million prize! The winner will be announced live on air during ABC’s broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest” from New York's Time Square. The drawing will be held about 12:15 a.m. EST in the new year.
We switched things up a bit in our holiday promotion this year, and the change means you’ve got 2½ more weeks to enter for your shot at the grand prize of $100,000!
A lot of times in our promotions, entries for the grand prize drawing end at the same time as those in the last of the initial drawings. But that’s not the case with the Warehouse Dash® promotion.
The winners have been selected for the Warehouse Dash trips and the $5,000 prizes up for grabs in the promotion’s initial drawings, but the entry period for the $100,000 grand prize lasts until the morning of Jan. 4. You have until 9:59 a.m. that day to enter eligible tickets from our holiday scratch games for a chance to win that prize.
And, if you already entered tickets earlier in the drawing and those entries weren’t selected in one of the initial drawings, they also remain eligible for the grand-prize drawing for $100,000. We’ll hold that drawing on Jan. 6.
So, congratulations to the 20 winners of $5,000 cash in the Warehouse Dash’s first four drawings and the four Warehouse Dash shopping spree winners:
• Mike Thompson of Storm Lake • Shelby Nyweide of Tipton • Angela McClelland of Des Moines • Fawn Berstler of Marengo
We’re excited to see who will be selected as the $100,000 winner next month!
(We’ve heard from folks asking what it’s like to get to do the Warehouse Dash because they’ve had so much fun thinking about it. If you haven’t seen the videos of our 2012 winners, you can check them out here and here. As one of the winners says, there’s a whole lot of strategy and planning, but it all kind of goes out the window once the contestants start running!)
Warehouse Dash is a registered trademark of Hinda, Inc. Please note that sales in the "Reindeer Games" holiday scratch game ended Nov. 6, but any eligible tickets purchased in it can still be entered into the Warehouse Dash promotion.
Here’s some exciting and unexpected news: Iowa has two of the five nationwide finalists for a $1 million prize that will be awarded in a special Powerball® drawing just after midnight in the New Year.
Iowa’s finalists have two very different stories. Shari Beenken of Titonka, a Kossuth County community of about 500, entered Powerball tickets in the promotion she purchased on her own, while Rob Long of Waterloo entered tickets he bought on behalf of a group of his co-workers, friends and family who pool their money to buy tickets. He calls the group Lotto 22.
With two players in the running, Iowa has a 40 percent chance of having the $1 million winner. The other finalists for the prize are from Illinois, Louisiana and Pennsylvania.
Shari, 57, is an office administrator at an Algona business. She said her heart was pounding, she had tears in her eyes and she was a bit in shock when she learned she was one of the finalists.
Rob, 50, is a warehouse associate in Waterloo, He said he also was shocked by the news, but then had fun sharing the details with his group. A lot of them didn’t know he’d entered their tickets in the promotion, and he said he loved seeing the surprise on people’s faces.
Iowa and 28 other lotteries in the Powerball game participated in this year’s edition of the First Millionaire of the Year promotion, which gave players the chance to enter their Powerball tickets for a shot at more winnings. Iowa Lottery players could enter tickets into the promotion back in September, and on Sept. 30, the Iowa Lottery selected 20 of them (including Beenken and Long) as semi-finalist winners of $2,500 each.
Those 20 Iowa winners along with the semi-finalists from the other states in the promotion were all then entered into a random drawing to determine the five finalists for the $1 million prize. And Iowa ended up with two of the five!
For being selected as a finalist, Shari and Rob each will receive a $10,000 cash prize and a home party package also valued at $10,000, including a 70-inch LED TV, karaoke system, premium laptop computer, and deluxe dinner for eight.
Rob held a drawing with the help of a member of his group and his wife to determine how the Lotto 22 would split up the home entertainment package. They put all the group members’ names in a bowl and selected winners of the merchandise prizes. The group is evenly splitting the $10,000 cash prize.
Shari said that if she’s the $1 million winner, she and her husband, Rod, plan to invest a majority of the winnings. But she said she’d spend a little of the money as well. She said she’s not extravagant, but she needs a new dishwasher.
If Rob is the $1 million winner, the prize will be split amongst his group, with each member receiving about $45,500 before taxes. Rob said that his wife, Heather, would like a newer vehicle, so his share of the winnings will likely go towards that. But he also has a purchase of his own in mind.
Rob said he’s an ‘80s guy who has always loved arcade games, and he wants his own Donkey Kong machine.
Shari, Rob and the other three finalists for the $1 million prize will be in their hometowns on New Year’s Eve. The national television broadcast will check in with them throughout the night. Then just after midnight EST, the $1 million winner will be announced!
For those wondering, here are the members of the Lotto 22:
From Clarksville: Scott Herrmann and Victor Herrmann From Denver: Bruce Gonnerman From Dunkerton: Michael Nicolaus and Nancy Smock From Independence: Bryan Cain and Kristen Kayser From Jesup: Ronald Kester From La Porte City: Bruce Long From Oelwein: Ellyn Perkins From Plainfield: Valeria Marks From Raymond: Randy Ruehs From Shell Rock: Grant Clark From Waterloo: Trish Bandfield, Mark Burke, Steven Foster, Kelvin Holmes, Rob Long, Nesffy Molina, Mike O’Connor, Martin Van Horn, Eric Woodward.
Ever since we offered it the first time, players have talked about it. So we’re bringing it back: the Warehouse Dash®!
Starting today, you can enter eligible tickets from our holiday scratch games for a chance to win a Warehouse Dash shopping spree or cash – you choose! The promotion will give away four 90-second, all-you-can-grab Warehouse Dash shopping sprees, 20 prizes of $5,000, and a grand prize of $100,000.
Entries started at 10 a.m. today and the promotion runs through early January, with its final drawing date on Jan. 6.
Players can enter the promotion using nonwinning tickets in the 13 holiday-themed scratch games we’ll have available this year. Tickets in 11 of those games are already on sale, with two more holiday games hitting the market on Nov. 1.
In each of the promotion’s four initial drawings, a Warehouse Dash shopping spree will be awarded along with five prizes of $5,000. As you’re making your entries, you’ll choose the prize category you want. Each ticket entered counts as one entry in the promotion, regardless of the purchase price of the ticket.
All entries not selected in one of the initial drawings will remain eligible for the grand-prize drawing for $100,000. Entries will not carry over from one drawing to the next, except for the grand-prize drawing. You can win only one Warehouse Dash prize in the promotion, but you can win a $5,000 prize in each of the initial drawings and the $100,000 grand prize if you enter them all.
The initial drawings will be on Nov. 4, Nov. 18, Dec. 2 and Dec. 16, with the $100,000 grand-prize drawing on Jan. 6.
So, what’s it like to do the Warehouse Dash? Check out videos of our 2012 winners here and here. There was so much strategy and list-making – followed by running and yelling and cheering! I think it’s safe to say that their heart rates really got up there!
Thank you for playing, good luck in the promotion, and remember to limber up for the dash!
Warehouse Dash is a registered trademark of Hinda, Inc. Please note that sales in the "Reindeer Games" holiday scratch game ended Nov. 6, but any eligible tickets purchased in it can continue to be entered into the Warehouse Dash promotion.
A northeast Iowa woman has been able to move up some major life plans after winning the $1 million top prize in the Iowa Lottery’s “Million Dollar $ummer” promotion! Click on the video above to hear Susie Blazek of Delhi tell her story.
Huge congratulations to Susie Blazek, the $1 million top-prize winner in our Million Dollar $ummer promotion! Susie is from Delhi, a community of about 460 in northeastern Iowa.
We were able to talk with Susie today about her plans for the future and how her $1 million prize will make a difference. Let’s just say she’s already planning a lot of trips!
Check out the video above to hear Susie tell the story.
As the lottery’s vice president of external relations, I’m a member of the senior management team at the Iowa Lottery, where I’ve worked since 1999. I’ve spent my years at the lottery learning as much as I can about all the ins and outs of the lottery industry. I’ll put that knowledge to work here so I can share the behind-the-scenes details with you!
