ialottery blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thought Starter: Can My Charity Accept A Winning Lottery Ticket As A Donation?

Here’s a question we received that had a really nice outcome for the nonprofit involved: Can a charitable organization accept a winning lottery ticket as a donation?

The short answer is yes. The amount of the prize involved would ultimately be considered a cash donation to the group. And a lottery prize can be claimed by an organization as opposed to a person.

Here is the background about the particular inquiry we received.

The philanthropy director from a shelter in western Iowa said that a woman came to their location and handed an employee a winning lottery ticket as a donation to the organization. The woman didn’t give her name and said she wanted it to just be a gift.

We congratulated the group on receiving a very fun and creative anonymous donation! We also let them know that businesses and other organizations can and do claim prizes from the Iowa Lottery.

In those cases, the name and tax ID number provided on the prize claim form are those of the organization involved. We do request the ID of the person presenting the winning ticket, but they sign the claim form on behalf of the organization.

About a week after our email exchange, the shelter claimed a $2,000 prize. That’s a great ending, and a really generous gesture by the anonymous donor who started it all!

Player question: Do you have a game just for Halloween? This time, we DO!

It seems like every year as fall gets closer, we’re asked if we’ll have a game just for Halloween. And this year, we do!

Hey, we’re fans, too. And while it doesn’t work out in our game schedule every time, we show Halloween some love whenever we can.

If you haven’t seen it yet, our “Boo Yah Bucks” scratch game is just CUTE. Tickets in it have four smiling monster faces on them. Well, maybe just three, because we’re not sure Frankenstein can actually smile. You decide. :)

Boo Yah Bucks is a $1 ticket and you can win up to $3,000.

And for your calendars: Fall 2024 officially starts on Sunday, Sept. 22, the day of the autumn equinox.

We’re declaring Halloween season open!

Will We Celebrate A $5 Win? You KNOW It!

Today, we celebrated with a guy who is NOT a big prize winner. And it was all his idea!

Justin Palmieri visited our Cedar Rapids regional office this afternoon to claim a $5 prize. Yep, you read it right: He won $5.

Justin, who operates a local food truck in Cedar Rapids, says he always sees pictures of lottery winners getting oversized checks when they claim huge prizes. And he wondered if we’d give him a check for the $5 he won in the Loose Change Progressive InstaPlay game.

When he reached out to us on Facebook, we told him to come on in today when our offices would be open after the long holiday weekend! Justin’s initial reaction: “When you guys said yes, I was like, ‘Wait, no way! Somebody’s just pulling my chain!’”

But we weren’t kidding. And we gave him the red-carpet treatment, complete with a ceremonial check with lots of exclamation points on it, if not lots of zeroes. And yes, Justin put on his winner T-shirt from the lottery before we took his photo!

Through the years, we’ve had a couple other winners of small prizes ask if they could have an oversized check, and we’ve always said yes if we could. Meeting our winners is one of the best parts of working at the Iowa Lottery and we’ll celebrate wins of all sizes!

Justin says his sister asked him what he planned to do with “all that money.” He has some $5 ideas: maybe buy more lottery tickets, a cup of coffee (decaf, because that’s what he drinks), or a new fishing lure.

Justin considers today's prize-claim experience just a warm-up for much larger winnings to come. He says somebody’s going to win big, and it might as well be him!

4 New InstaPlay games start Sunday!

Earlier this week, I shared a preview that 4 new InstaPlay games will debut on Sunday. Now that it's almost time, here’s what you need to know to be among the first to have a chance to win prizes in them!

The new games will be available for sale at lottery terminals and self-service kiosks statewide as soon as our equipment comes up for the day on Sunday. In many locations, that will depend on when a particular business opens that day.

Two of the new InstaPlay games have progressive jackpots – meaning that they grow with each ticket sold statewide in the game until the prize is won. And two of the games have prizes that are all pre-set amounts. The new games range in price from $1 up to $10.

Cash on the Run Progressive is a $1 game with jackpots that start at $650 and grow from there. Fat Wallet Progressive is a $2 game with jackpots starting at $2,000.

The other new games that start Sunday are:

• $50 and $100 Frenzy, a $5 game with prizes from $5 up to $100.
• Hit $250, a $10 game with prizes ranging from $10 up to $500.

As the names in those last two games indicate, they’re loaded with prizes at the $50, $100 and $250 prize levels.

We plan to introduce even more new InstaPlay games in October and November, including Iowa’s first holiday-themed InstaPlay games. So be on the lookout for those!

One further note: As I mentioned in Tuesday’s blog entry, we’ll be ending many of the existing InstaPlay games that have been on the market for some time here in Iowa. Check out that the details in that post so you’ll be aware of the process.

Cash Spectacular InstaPlay Game Ends As 4 New Games Head For Market!

Changes are underway in our lineup of InstaPlay games, and you may have already noticed one of them.

Sales ended in the Cash Spectacular InstaPlay game this past weekend as we gear up to bring 4 new InstaPlay games to the market this Sunday!

This is the first major update we’ve made to our line-up of InstaPlay games since we began offering the product back in 2016. It will be fun to introduce new games so you can check out their features and prizes.

This coming Sunday (Sept. 1), watch for 4 new InstaPlay games to debut! I’ll have more details to share about them on Friday, so check back here.

And that’s not all. We plan to introduce even more new InstaPlay games in October and November, including Iowa’s first holiday-themed InstaPlay games!

With new games hitting the market, many existing InstaPlay games, like Cash Spectacular, will be ending. That’s similar to the standard procedures we use in our scratch games. We leave games on the market as long as we can, especially if there’s still a top prize available. But at some point, players tell us through lower purchase levels that they’re moving on. And at that point, we end the older game to make room for something new.

Here’s what you can expect with the InstaPlay lineup in the next few months. If we end a Progressive InstaPlay game that’s been on the market for some time, we’ll do it immediately after the game’s progressive jackpot is won so everyone has a chance to win that top prize.

For InstaPlay games with set prize amounts, the end date will be more dependent upon sales levels and the top prizes still available.

Lucky for Life Winner Kept Checking Ticket To Be Sure He Got The Same Results!

I think we can all relate to this: A Des Moines man kept checking his winning lottery ticket to be sure the results would come up the same!

Paul Freeman just claimed a prize of $25,000 a year for life that he’d won in Monday night’s Lucky for Life® drawing. He says he checked his winning ticket at multiple stores and on the Iowa Lottery’s mobile app just to be sure it was real.

Paul’s wife is currently out of state, so he called her to share the news. She didn’t quite believe him at first, but he's pretty sure that with the winnings deposited in their account, she’ll be convinced!

Paul bought his winning easy-pick ticket at Price Chopper, 1819 Beaver Ave. in Des Moines. He matched the first five winning numbers but missed the Lucky Ball to win big. The winning numbers in Monday’s night’s drawing were: 15-17-35-40-45 and Lucky Ball 6.

His Plans For The Winnings

He chose to receive his prize in its lump-sum option of $390,000. He plans to use his winnings to become debt free.

Paul is 59 and a wine consultant for the Urbandale location of an international wine and spirits company. He says he’s always thought about what he’d do if he won a big lottery prize, so now he’s putting that plan into action. He's going to pay off debt and invest for the future so retirement can be comfortable and happy.

Paul says his wife is the only person he told about his win before he claimed the prize, so he anticipates he’ll get a lot of calls and texts once the news breaks!

Price Chopper will get a $500 bonus from the lottery for selling the winning ticket.

A Stop In Mason City With 1 Month Until Expiration For $500,000 Unclaimed Prize

There’s just one month left for someone to claim a $500,000 Powerball® prize won in Mason City and the Iowa Lottery was at the store today where the winning ticket was purchased to remind players to double-check their tickets.

The $500,000-winning ticket was sold at Kwik Star, 1502 S. Federal Ave. in Mason City. The prize will expire on Sept. 12 if it isn’t claimed by the deadline. Click on the video above to see what went on at the store today!

The prize wasn’t won in a regular Powerball drawing, but rather, in the Powerball Double Play® drawing on March 16. The winning Double Play numbers that night were: 9-11-13-29-69 and Double Play Powerball 12.

The Mason City ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Double Play Powerball to win a $500,000 prize.

The Double Play® option debuted in November for Powerball in Iowa. For an extra $1 per play, Powerball players can add the Double Play option to their tickets. The numbers on that ticket are then eligible to win twice – once in the regular Powerball drawing, and once in a separate Double Play drawing that same night.

Prize Claim Details

The $500,000 prize has to be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. Anyone with questions about the prize or how to claim it is welcome to reach out to us at 515-725-7900 or [email protected].

What Happens To Unclaimed Prize Money In Iowa?

In the last fiscal year (FY 2024), nearly $5 million in lotto and InstaPlay prizes expired in Iowa without being claimed.

That money 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.

Get Free Powerball Tix & Enter Contest For Prize Packages At Mason City Event Today

There’s just one month left for someone to claim a $500,000 Powerball® prize won in Mason City and the Iowa Lottery will have an event there today to remind players to double-check their tickets.

The $500,000-winning ticket was sold at Kwik Star, 1502 S. Federal Ave. in Mason City. The prize will expire on Sept. 12 if it isn’t claimed by the deadline.

The lottery will be at the Kwik Star from 10-11:30 a.m. today, calling attention to the unclaimed prize, giving away free Powerball plays to store customers, and asking them to check the results of any tickets they have. We'll also hold a contest you can enter for a chance to win a scratch-ticket prize package. We hope we’ll jog the winner’s memory in time for the $500,000 prize to be claimed!

The prize wasn’t won in a regular Powerball drawing, but rather, in the Powerball Double Play® drawing on March 16. The winning Double Play numbers that night were: 9-11-13-29-69 and Double Play Powerball 12.

The Mason City ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Double Play Powerball to win a $500,000 prize.

The Double Play® option debuted in November for Powerball in Iowa. For an extra $1 per play, Powerball players can add the Double Play option to their tickets.

The numbers on that ticket are then eligible to win twice – once in the regular Powerball drawing, and once in a separate Double Play drawing that same night.

Prize Claim Details

The $500,000 prize has to be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. Anyone with questions about the prize or how to claim it is welcome to reach out to us at 515-725-7900 or [email protected].

Players in Iowa have 180 days from the date of the drawing to claim prizes in Powerball.

What Happens To Unclaimed Prize Money In Iowa?

In the last fiscal year (FY 2024), nearly $5 million in lotto and InstaPlay prizes expired in Iowa without being claimed.

That money 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.

Buy Lottery Tix Monday At The Iowa State Fair & Meet Luka Garza At Our Tent!

We’ll be at the Iowa State Fair on Monday with a special guest you won’t want to miss!

Monday is Veterans Day at the Iowa State Fair, and as we’ve done for the past several years, the Iowa Lottery is the Day-Of-Fair sponsor to help spread the word about the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund.

The Iowa Lottery will take over the big white exhibition tent that day along the Grand Concourse. We’ll of course have our prize wheel that players can spin after their purchase for a chance to win merchandise prizes.

And from noon-3 p.m. that day, you can meet NBA center Luka Garza at our tent! Garza, the Iowa Hawkeye basketball star who now plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves, will take photos with visitors at the Iowa Lottery tent. And we’ll have autographed photos available while supplies last.

So, why will Luka be there with us? Check our website on Monday for details about the Prize Zone promotion starting that day for the chance to win tickets in a suite at the special pre-season NBA game Oct. 11 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. You could be there to see the Philadelphia 76ers take on the Minnesota Timberwolves!

The lottery’s tent on Monday is right in front of the Fair’s Service Center, and we’ll be there from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. that day.

We’ll sell and cash scratch, lotto, and InstaPlay tickets and you can pay with cash or debit this year. We’ll have the games available that can be entries for our Kickoff to Kinnick™ and Cyclone™ Football promotions.

And most importantly, remember to thank the veterans that day at the Iowa State Fair.

Remember that a portion of each dollar spent on lottery tickets in Iowa goes directly to 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 $40 million for that essential cause!

We look forward to seeing you Monday at the Iowa State Fair!

Crowd Packs Grand Concourse At The State Fair To See Live Lottery Game Show

A central Iowa man won the top prize of $500,000 in front of a huge crowd watching the live lottery game show tonight at the Iowa State Fair!

Steven “Jack” Stout of Indianola, the game show finalist, had a chance to win up to $5 million and came close to it. But he ultimately uncovered the game pieces in the show’s final round to win $500,000. He said it didn’t seem real.

Jack said that from the beginning, he could hardly believe he got a chance to be on the game show. He admitted he got pretty shaky as the show progressed and it became clear he’d win a big prize.

Jack said he doesn’t have firm plans for his winnings, but he may buy a house.

Nineteen other contestants on the game show won prizes ranging from $10,000 up to $100,000, and the Iowa Lottery also awarded three sizeable prizes to audience members watching the show on the 2024 State Fair’s opening day.

What Led Up To The Game Show

The game show was the finale of a summer-long initiative from the Iowa Lottery and the Iowa State Fair, which included the first scratch game named for the State Fair, Iowa’s largest event.

Players who didn’t win instant prizes on their Iowa State Fair scratch tickets could enter them into the lottery’s Fair Fever promotion for a chance to be one of the 20 game show contestants or win concert-ticket prize packages for the Iowa State Fair Grandstand. Lottery players made more than 67,000 entries into the promotion from mid-April through mid-July.

Here are the prizes won by the 19 other contestants on the lottery game show:

1. Craig Bergman of Cedar Rapids, $10,000	11. Jolene Murray of Cedar Rapids, $15,000
2. Michelle Cerwinske of Nashua, $25,000	12. Mary Olin of Des Moines, $100,000
3. Margo Fox of Johnston, $50,000	13. Dawn Petersen of Colfax, $10,000
4. Kristine Frye of Des Moines, $10,000	14. Timothy Roberts of Ottumwa, $15,000
5. Nicole Gulick of Des Moines, $25,000	15. Scott Stewart of Waterloo, $25,000
6. Ryan Habeger of Algona, $10,000	16. Christine Tatman of Orange City, $10,000
7. Gerald Johnson of Iowa City, $75,000	17. Rodney Tucker of Des Moines, $15,000
8. Gerald Kennicker of Dubuque, $10,000	18. Jeff Weiland of Dubuque, $25,000
9. Tamara McMahon of Council Bluffs, $20,000	19. David Wesley of Des Moines, $25,000
10. Steven Moore of Urbandale, $25,000

In addition, the Iowa Lottery gave three prizes to audience members at the show.

• Lori Wellman of West Des Moines won a $5,000 audience-member prize.
• Karen Bowder of Pocahontas won a $5,000 audience-member prize. 
• Mary Little of Brooklyn won a $50,000 audience-member prize.

Powerball Ticket Purchased in Webster City Wins $1 Million Prize

Someone who bought a Powerball® ticket in Webster City won a $1 million prize in the game’s drawing last night!

The $1 million-winning ticket was purchased at Fareway, 942 Second St. in Webster City. It matched the first five numbers but missed the Powerball to win a $1 million prize.

Last night’s winning numbers were: 29-42-44-51-54 and Powerball 12. The Power Play® number was 2. No one matched all six numbers to win the jackpot, so the big prize climbs to an estimated $185 million annuity ($92.1 million lump-sum option) for the game’s next drawing tomorrow.

The Webster City ticket was the only one in the country to win a $1 million prize in last night’s drawing.

Fareway will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the $1 million-winning ticket.

The $1 million prize has to be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. The lottery’s offices are open Monday through Friday, and an appointment is strongly encouraged.

To make an appointment or ask questions about claiming a prize, winners are welcome to call the lottery at 515-725-7900 or email to [email protected].

Powerball prizes won in Iowa have to be claimed within 180 days of the drawing.

Audience Members Can Win Prizes At Our Live Game Show At The Iowa State Fair!

Our live game show at the Iowa State Fair is just a week away, and we’ve got big news about it: If you’re in the audience that day, you’ll have a chance to win up to $50,000!

So how can you have a shot at the audience prizes? First, you’ll need to be at the 2024 Iowa State Fair on its opening day, Thursday, Aug. 8. Then, you’ll need to register to be an audience member. And most importantly, you’ll need to be at the Cash Fever game show when it's held live on the Grand Concourse.

The 20 lottery players who will be contestants on the Cash Fever game show are each guaranteed to win at least $10,000. And the final contestant that day will win at least $500,000, with a chance at a prize of up to $5 million.

Now we’re excited to announce that during the game show, we’ll give away two prizes of $5,000 and one prize of $50,000 to those in the audience!

As the game show begins at 5:30 p.m. next Thursday, we’ll give away a prize of $5,000 to an audience member. After the show’s first round, we’ll give away another prize of $5,000. And just before the show heads into its final round, we’ll give away a $50,000 prize to an audience member!

We’ll be registering audience members for the game show from 2-4 p.m. on Aug. 8 in front of the Fair Administration Building on the Grand Concourse. I’ve marked that spot on the map below, and it’s where the game show also will be held. We’ll keep registering folks until 1,200 audience members have been registered or time runs out, whichever comes first.

We’ll give each registered audience member a free ticket in our “Iowa State Fair” scratch game! You can only register once to be an audience member.

Then, to be eligible to win an audience prize, you’ll need to be on the Grand Concourse for the game show. When we announce an audience member’s name as a prize winner, that person will have 2 minutes to identify themselves to a lottery representative at the show. We expect it will be pretty easy to see the winner as they’re smiling and celebrating! But in any case, we’ll have lottery folks with flags around the perimeter of the audience section, so the winners can see them.

If the winner doesn’t come forward within the 2 minutes allowed, we’ll move on and call another audience member’s name for the prize. We’ll try a maximum of three times to award each prize.

We hope this added excitement gets you even more amped up to join us next week at the Iowa State Fair! See you there!

Truth or Myth: Do Easy Picks Improve Your Luck?

Here’s another truth vs. myth question to test your lottery smarts: Are easy picks luckier?

A lot of people seem to think so, but it’s a myth. Every play in our lotto games (Powerball®, Mega Millions®, etc.) has the same odds of winning, whether you choose your own numbers or buy an easy pick.

You’re likely already familiar with the terms, but just to cover the bases, in lotto games, you have the option of choosing the numbers printed on your ticket or letting the lottery terminal randomly choose the numbers for you. A play with numbers selected by the lottery terminal is called an easy pick. A ticket with numbers you choose yourself is called a manual play. 

Today, more people choose easy picks. A lot more people. In some drawings, more than 90 percent of the plays purchased in Powerball and Mega Millions are easy picks.

With that huge percentage of easy pick tickets being purchased, more winners also come from easy picks. That does not mean they’re luckier, it just means there are a lot more of them.

Whether you buy an easy pick or choose your own numbers, the odds of winning are the same for every ticket in a lotto game. That’s because the odds are based upon all of the possible combinations of numbers available to play in the game.

In Powerball, for example, the odds of winning the jackpot are always about 1 in 292.2 million because that’s how many different ways you can combine the numbers available in the game to make a play. The numbers on your play are one of those 292.2 million combinations. The winning numbers selected in the drawing also are one of those combinations. That’s why there are odds of 1 in 292.2 million that the numbers on your ticket will match the winning numbers in the drawing.

Those odds never change, no matter how many people are playing.

So, if you want to choose your own numbers, go ahead. If you’d rather ask for an easy pick, that’s fine, too. Your odds of winning a prize will be the same no matter which way you go.

These 20 Contestants Will Compete On A Live Game Show At The Iowa State Fair!

We now know the 20 contestants who will compete on a live lottery game show at the 2024 Iowa State Fair for a chance to win up to $5
million!

Iowa Lottery players made more than 67,000 entries into the “Fair Fever” promotion that will conclude with the live game show on opening day of this year’s Iowa State Fair.

Here are the 20 players who beat the odds to make it on the show:

1. Craig Bergman, Cedar Rapids	11. Jolene Murray, Cedar Rapids
2. Michelle Cerwinske, Nashua	12. Mary Olin, Des Moines
3. Margo Fox, Johnston	13. Dawn Petersen, Colfax
4. Kristine Frye, Des Moines	14. Timothy Roberts, Ottumwa
5. Nicole Gulick, Des Moines	15. Scott Stewart, Waterloo
6. Ryan Habeger, Algona	16. Steven Stout, Indianola
7. Gerald Johnson, Iowa City	17. Christine Tatman, Orange City
8. Gerald Kennicker, Dubuque	18. Rodney Tucker, Des Moines
9. Tamara McMahon, Council Bluffs	19. Jeff Weiland, Dubuque
10. Steven Moore, Urbandale	20. David Wesley, Des Moines

It’s been years since the lottery has given away a prize of this size at a live event. The image you can see below is from the last time that happened, during a live game show at the 2012 Iowa State Fair! A retired police officer won the $1 million prize at that event. This year’s push began in April, when the Iowa Lottery and the Iowa State Fair celebrated the release of the “Iowa State Fair” scratch game, the first lottery product to be named for Iowa’s largest event.

Players who didn’t win instant prizes on their Iowa State Fair scratch tickets could enter them into the lottery’s Fair Fever promotion for a chance to be one of the 20 game show contestants or win concert-ticket prize packages for the Iowa State Fair Grandstand.

The promotion’s final drawing date was yesterday, including selection of the game show contestants.

What To Expect At The Game Show

The live game show is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 8 on the Grand Concourse in the heart of the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Through a series of games, the contestants will gradually be eliminated until just one remains.

Each contestant will win at least $10,000 and the finalist will take home at least $500,000 with a chance to win up to $5 million.

In addition, the Iowa Lottery is finalizing plans to award several prizes to members of the audience watching the game show. Details about that will be announced soon!

Hawkeye Football Prize Packages On The Line In Kickoff to Kinnick Promotion

Ticket prize packages for coveted seats this season at all 7 Iowa™ home football games are on the line in the Kickoff to Kinnick™ promotion that opened for entries today.

Some of the prize packages are for stadium-seat tickets while others are for premium spots in the exclusive Iowa Ironmen Suite in Kinnick Stadium™. And all of the prize packages include spending money to make for a great game-day experience!

The promotion is built around the Iowa Lottery’s “Hawkeye™ Gold” scratch game. Its distinctive tickets have a bright gold background, feature a large image of the Iowa Tigerhawk™ logo, and offer players the chance to win cash prizes ranging from $5 up to $50,000.

Lottery players who don’t win an instant prize on their Hawkeye Gold scratch ticket can enter it into the Kickoff to Kinnick promotion for a chance to win Iowa football ticket prize packages for the upcoming season.

How To Enter For A Chance To Win

A total of 41 football prize packages will be given away in the promotion. Players will select the ticket prize package and game of their choice at the time they enter.

The promotion’s entry period continues through 9:59 a.m. on Oct. 16. There will be four drawing dates in the promotion. Please pay close attention to the deadlines involved: The home games earlier in the season will be closed to promotion entries once the applicable deadline has passed.

To get in on the promotion, players must join or already be members of the Iowa Lottery’s free VIP Club. Players can visit the lottery’s website at ialottery.com to enter or scan an eligible Hawkeye Gold ticket with the Iowa Lottery’s mobile app.

Here are the ticket prize packages that will be given away in the promotion:

Aug. 15 drawing date
1 prize package awarded

• This package includes 4 stadium-seat tickets, $1,000 cash and a parking pass for the Illinois St.-Iowa game on Aug. 31.

Aug. 27 drawing date
19 prize packages awarded

• 17 VIP packages with 2 tickets each in the Ironmen Suite for the Iowa St.-Iowa game on Sept. 7 with food, water and soda provided in the suite, and $100 spending money.
• 1 stadium-seat package with 4 tickets, $100 spending money and a parking pass for the Iowa St.-Iowa game on Sept. 7.
• 1 stadium-seat package with 4 tickets, $100 spending money and a parking pass for the Troy-Iowa game on Sept.14.

Sept. 26 drawing date
19 prize packages awarded

• 17 VIP packages with 2 tickets each in the Ironmen Suite for the Washington-Iowa game on Oct. 12 with food, water and soda provided in the suite, and $100 spending money.
• 1 stadium-seat package with 4 tickets, $100 spending money and a parking pass for the Washington-Iowa game on Oct. 12.
• 1 stadium-seat package with 4 tickets, $100 spending money and a parking pass for the Northwestern-Iowa game on Oct. 26.

Oct. 17 drawing date
2 prize packages awarded

• 1 stadium-seat package with 4 tickets, 4 passes to the pre-game hospitality village, 4 field passes, $100 spending money and a parking pass for the Wisconsin-Iowa game on Nov. 2.
• 1 stadium-seat package with 4 tickets, 4 passes to the pre-game hospitality village, 4 field passes, $100 spending money and a parking pass for the Nebraska-Iowa game on Nov. 29.

Here’s Where You Can Walk Down Memory Lane With 40 Years Of Iowa Summers

There’s a new spot where you can look back at 40 years of the best of summer in Iowa.

Today, we had the honor of putting up a new installation in the Iowa State Fair Museum. Photos going back to 1985 show the many times the Iowa State Fair and Iowa Lottery have worked together through the years to amp up the fun for fairgoers.

Did you know that some of the very first lottery tickets in Iowa were sold at the Iowa State Fair? It was a rainy day for the inaugural day of Iowa Lottery sales on Aug. 22, 1985, but people still lined up to buy tickets during the kick-off celebration on the State Fairgrounds. (If you want to see 1985 fashion in Iowa, you’ll find it in that display!)

Fast forward a few years, and you’ll see that Iowa Lottery proceeds were used to renovate and save the iconic Iowa State Fair Grandstand we all know and love.

Other highlights of the display:

• A Powerball drawing was held live on the Grand Concourse at the 2006 Iowa State Fair.
• The lottery helps to celebrate our state’s veterans each year at the State Fair.
• The lottery introduced the first scratch game named for the Iowa State Fair.
• And next month, someone will have the chance to win a lottery prize of up to $5 million in a live game show on opening day of the 2024 Iowa State Fair!

The Iowa State Fair Museum is in the Heritage Village area of the State Fairgrounds, up near Pioneer Hall. The new display is on the museum’s feature wall, so it’s prominent and easy to find once you’re inside.

The display will remain up in the museum for the next year, so lots of folks will have the chance to see it as they take tours of the State Fairgrounds. And a bonus if you visit the museum during the Iowa State Fair: It’s one of the few air-conditioned buildings on the State Fairgrounds, so it’s a great spot to pause and cool off as you learn some interesting history!

Where People Are Buying The Most Tickets: Is Your Store On the List?

Here are a couple interesting lottery numbers in Iowa, both in terms of where people are buying tickets and the prizes being won. Is YOUR favorite lottery spot on the list?

The store in Iowa that sold the most lottery tickets during the past year was a Hy-Vee supermarket in Cedar Rapids. And 14 Iowa players won prizes of at least $500,000 in fiscal year 2024, with a $2 million Powerball® prize at the top of the list!

We’ve gathered these details as we work toward announcement later this month of the Iowa Lottery’s latest annual results. Here is the Top 10 list of retail locations in Iowa for lottery sales in FY 2024. Do you shop at one of these stores?

Top 10 Ranking	Store and Address	FY 2024 Lottery Sales
No. 1	Hy-Vee, 1843 Johnson Ave. NW, Cedar Rapids	$1,340,574.00
No. 2	Hy-Vee, 5050 Edgewood Road NE, Cedar Rapids	$1,044,789.00
No. 3	Hy-Vee, 2323 W. Broadway, Council Bluffs	$960,645.50
No. 4	Albia Road BP, 1340 Albia Road, Ottumwa	$939,354.50
No. 5	Hy-Vee, 3235 Oakland Road NW, Cedar Rapids	$936,142.00
No. 6	Porters Convenient 66, 1512 Lincoln Way, Clinton	$910,507.50
No. 7	Hy-Vee Drugstore, 1520 Sixth St. SW, Cedar Rapids	$903,385.00
No. 8	Hy-Vee, 2540 E. Euclid Ave., Des Moines	$867,583.50
No. 9	Hy-Vee, 1107 E. Army Post Road, Des Moines	$847,289.00
No. 10	Hy-Vee, 410 N. Ankeny Blvd., Ankeny	$832,441.50

And with lottery sales come lottery prizes! The biggest prize won in Iowa last fiscal year was $2 million. Three players won at that level in Powerball.

Another two players won prizes of $1 million in Powerball and Mega Millions®. And nine Iowans won prizes of $500,000 in FY 2024!

Here are the 5 biggest lottery prizes won in Iowa in the past year:

Prize Amount	Game	Winner	Date Claimed
$2 million	Powerball	Mega Balmer, Garwin	July 11, 2023
$2 million	Powerball	Danny Buckelew, Treynor	Jan. 17, 2024
$2 million	Powerball	Mark Krogman, Clinton	April 16, 2024
$1 million	Powerball	Trent Baker, Newton	April 8, 2024
$1 million	Mega Millions	Michael Hoogerwerf, Davenport	July 17, 2023

Cardinal & Gold: New Scratch Game Tied To ISU Football, Including Game In Ireland!

A new lottery scratch game has started arriving in stores today, and this one is ALL cardinal and gold.

You can win up to $50,000 instantly on a Cyclone™ scratch ticket or enter for a chance to win exclusive Iowa State football prize packages, including the grand prize of a trip to see ISU play in Ireland!

Tickets in the exclusive Cyclone scratch game are hitting store shelves today and will be available statewide by Friday. The new game is tied to the lottery’s Cyclone Football promotion, which opened for entries today and offers premium ticket prize packages to see Iowa State play at home, at Arrowhead, or even across the pond.

A total of 17 ticket prize packages will be given away in the promotion. They include premium seats at Jack Trice Stadium, suite tickets when ISU plays on the road at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, and a trip to see ISU play at Aviva Stadium© in Dublin.

Players will select the game of their choice when they enter a ticket into the promotion.

How To Enter

To enter the Cyclone Football promotion, you’ll need to join or already be a member of the Iowa Lottery’s free VIP Club. The promotion’s entry period opened this morning and runs through 9:59 a.m. on Nov. 20. There will be four drawing dates in the promotion for ticket prize packages.

Players can visit the lottery’s website at ialottery.com to enter the promotion or use the Iowa Lottery’s mobile app to scan an eligible ticket for entry. Please pay close attention to the entry deadlines involved. The games earlier in the season will be closed to promotion entries once the applicable deadline has passed.

Drawings & Prizes

Here are the drawing dates and the ticket prize packages that will be given away in the Cyclone Football promotion:

Aug. 15 drawing date
4 game-day prize packages awarded
Each includes: 2 premium seat tickets for the N. Dakota-Iowa St. game on Aug. 31 at Jack Trice Stadium; $200 spending money; 1 parking pass for the game; 2 pre-game field access passes; 1 Cyclone merchandise prize pack.

Sept. 19 drawing date
8 game-day prize packages awarded
Each includes: 2 private suite tickets for the Baylor-Iowa St. game on Oct. 5 at Jack Trice Stadium; complimentary food, water and soda provided in the suite; $100 spending money; 1 parking pass for the game.

Oct. 17 drawing date
4 game-day prize packages awarded
Each includes: 2 private suite tickets for the Iowa St-Kansas game on Nov. 9 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.; complimentary food, water and soda provided in the suite; $100 spending money; 1 parking pass for the game; $500 Visa gift card for lodging.

Nov. 21 drawing date
1 Ireland Cyclone Football package awarded
It includes tickets to 2 Iowa State games, one in Ames, and the other in Ireland.
       For the first game, the winner will receive 2 premium seat tickets including hospitality at the Kansas St.-Iowa St. match-up on Nov. 30 at Jack Trice Stadium and 1 parking pass for the game. The winner will be featured that day in an on-field presentation announcing that they will be going to Dublin as the winner of the travel package for ISU’s 2025 game in Ireland.
        For the second game, the winner will receive 2 game tickets for the Kansas St.-Iowa St. game on Aug. 23, 2025, in Dublin, Ireland; a travel package to Ireland including hotel stay in Dublin and airfare to Dublin from a major airport; and $5,000 spending money.

All entries not selected as a winner in one of the promotion’s initial drawings will remain eligible for the final drawing for the package that includes the Ireland Cyclone Football Experience.

Players can enter multiple tickets into the promotion but can win only one football prize package per game date.

Sneak Peak Of Live Lottery Game Show With Top Prize Of Up To $5 Million

The buzz has started, and we’re getting questions about the live lottery game show at this year’s Iowa State Fair where someone will win the top prize of up to $5 million.

The video above gives a sneak peek of the fun. We break down how the 20 game show contestants will be chosen, the prizes they’ll win (hint: at least $10,000) and your chance to be part of it.

You have until the morning of July 16 to enter the Fair Fever promotion for a shot to be on the game show! The drawing to select the contestants will be held July 18.

And then we’ll all wait for opening day of the 2024 Iowa State Fair!

Is It Fair When Some People Scan Their Promo Entries & Others Key Them In?

Here’s an interesting question from a lottery player who was worried that the way they entered a lottery promotion could impact their chance of winning. In reality, all entries into our promotions are treated equally – the system does not favor one method over another.

There are two ways that you can enter tickets into an Iowa Lottery promotion for more chances to win. The majority of people these days use the lottery’s mobile app to enter by scanning the QR code on the front of their ticket. Other folks key in the information by hand, manually entering the identifying numbers on their ticket.

Either option is perfectly fine. The same details are being recorded for the tickets involved.

Years ago, we phased out the mailing in of tickets as entries in Iowa Lottery promotions. Electronic entries are faster and more convenient – and you don’t need postage!

Each eligible entry into one of our promotions is recorded by the time and date it was entered in your VIP Club account. When you’ve successfully completed an entry, a message will appear at the top of the ticket-entry page stating whether the entry was valid.

The valid entries you’ve made in a particular promotion will appear in the ticket history for your VIP Club account.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve scanned the ticket electronically or manually keyed in the numbers. Both options have the same shot at winning!

Truth or Myth: All the winners are from big cities/small towns, not my area

Here’s another entry in our Truth or Myth series to see if everyone has their thinking caps on! This is about a comment we get a lot, and it comes from people all over the state: All the big winners are from big cities/small towns, this county/that county, eastern Iowa/northern Iowa, etc., etc.

It’s definitely a myth, and it seems to be based upon the area the person is from, no matter where that is. I think the truth of the matter is that the people likely won’t truly be satisfied until they’re the big winner, but maybe you have another theory.

Here's an example of that myth in action, but on a national scale: We were talking one day with the folks from the DC Lottery in Washington. I told them about the comment we get that "no one from here ever wins." They laughed and said what they hear is that "it's always those people from Iowa who win the jackpot."

In reality, people all across Iowa – and all across the country – can and do win lottery prizes every day.

Now, it is true that there will be more winners in spots where more people are buying lottery tickets. Another way of putting that is that if 5 percent of lottery tickets are sold in a particular area, you can expect to find about 5 percent of the overall winners there.

That's always been the case with the Iowa Lottery. Everyone has the same chance of winning but there will be more winners in places where more tickets are being sold.

You want to know when you buy a lottery ticket that you have the same fair chance of winning as anyone else. And it’s our job at the Iowa Lottery to ensure that the case, with winners in our games being determined by nothing other than pure, random chance.

Whether you play the lottery or not, we want everyone to have an accurate understanding of how the lottery works. This Truth or Myth series is part of that effort.

See You This Weekend At The Iowa Speedway!

If you’re headed to the NASCAR® races in Newton this weekend, stop by and see us! The Iowa Lottery has a booth at the Iowa Speedway for all three days of racing.

We’re on the concourse near Ticket Booth 2, just across from the Newton Club! We’re selling and cashing tickets at our booth, there are merchandise prizes you can win in the wheel spin, and we’ve got staffers handing out free pull-tab tickets from time to time along the concourse.

Full details, including our booth hours, are in the video!

NASCAR®, NASCAR Cup Series Championship Weekend™ and NASCAR Cup Series™ are trademarks of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC, and used with expressed permission. Iowa Speedway® is a registered trademark of Iowa Speedway, LLC.

$500,000 Powerball Double Play Prize In Mason City Still Unclaimed

A $500,000 Powerball® prize won in Mason City has reached the halfway point in its claim period, so if you’ve got a ticket you haven’t checked, now is the time!

The prize is a little unusual because it was won with Powerball’s Double Play® option, which just was added to the game in November in Iowa.

The $500,000-winning ticket was purchased at Kwik Star, 1502 S. Federal Ave. in Mason City. The prize will expire on Sept. 12 if it isn’t claimed in time.

What Is Double Play & How Does It Work?

Here’s a quick recap of Double Play: For an extra $1 per play, players can add the Double Play option to their Powerball tickets. (A Powerball play costs $2, and with Double Play added, a ticket costs $3.) The numbers on that ticket are then eligible to win twice – once in the regular Powerball drawing, and once in a separate Double Play drawing that same night.

It’s possible for a player to win a prize in the regular Powerball drawing and the Double Play drawing on the same night.

In the case of the Mason City ticket, it matched the first five numbers but missed the Double Play Powerball in the Double Play drawing on March 16 to win a $500,000 prize.

That night’s winning Double Play numbers were: 9-11-13-29-69 and Double Play Powerball 12. The Mason City ticket was the only one in the country to win a $500,000 prize that night.

Other Big Unclaimed Prizes

The Mason City prize is among four lottery prizes of at least $20,000 in Iowa that will expire by early October if they aren’t claimed in time. Here are details about the other three (listed by prize amount):

Game	Drawing Date	Amount Won	Retailer	Expiration
Powerball	Dec. 16, 2023	$50,000	Casey's, Des Moines	June 13, 2024
Powerball	April 10, 2024	$50,000	Hy-Vee, Des Moines	Oct. 7, 2024
Mega Millions	March 26, 2024	$20,000	Kum & Go, Ankeny	Sept. 23, 2024

While all of the prizes need to be claimed at an Iowa Lottery office, the $500,000 prize in particular has to be claimed at lottery headquarters in Clive. Prize-claim hours at lottery offices are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday, with offices closed on state holidays.

If you’ve got a question about how to claim an Iowa Lottery prize, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] or 515-725-7900.

The money from lottery 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.

Serial Numbers Are Being Phased Out On The Back Of Lotto And InstaPlay Tickets

A change is underway for the paper used to print lotto tickets and InstaPlay tickets in Iowa, and I’m calling your attention to it to help answer questions.

Serial numbers have been printed for years on the back of the paper stock used to produce tickets from lottery terminals and self-service kiosks in Iowa. Lotto tickets in games like Powerball® and Mega Millions® are printed on that paper, as are tickets in InstaPlay games.

But those serial numbers are being phased out now.

Technology updates have allowed additional identifying security features to be printed on lotto and InstaPlay tickets as they’re being generated. Those new security codes have replaced the need for serial numbers on the back of paper ticket stock in Iowa.

The Iowa Lottery is using up its existing supply of paper with serial numbers on the back, then moving to the new paper without the serial numbers. The new stock is being distributed as locations run out.

During this transition period, you may buy a ticket that has a serial number on the back at one store and get a ticket without a serial number at another location. Both tickets are valid – there is nothing wrong with either kind.

We anticipate that the supply of paper stock with serial numbers on the back will soon be gone statewide, and then all lotto and InstaPlay tickets will be printed on the new stock.   

Have fun playing the lottery, and if you’ve noticed the change, thank you for being a vigilant consumer! I hope the details here have helped shine a light on the update that’s happening.

WOW!! 0-0-0-0 Hits In Pick 4, Big Prizes Won All Across The State

Wow, today’s Pick 4 results! They show just how popular “quads” are in the game.

The winning numbers in today’s midday Pick 4 drawing were 0-0-0-0, and multiple Iowa Lottery players matched all 4 numbers to win prizes ranging from $6,000 up to $60,000! There of course were lots of smaller winners as well, but those were the top of the list.

Plays in Pick 4 cost 50 cents up to $5. The more you bet, the more you can win. The largest prizes in today's drawing were won with plays ranging in price from $2 up to $5. One ticket for today's drawing had two $5 plays on it, and each won a $30,000 prize.

I’ve blogged before about the popularity of plays containing identical numbers in our Pick 3 and Pick 4 games. Those are combinations like 2-2-2 in Pick 3 and 5-5-5-5 in Pick 4. They’re called “trips” in Pick 3 and “quads” in Pick 4, and they’ve always been some of the most popular plays in those games.

When those winning numbers are selected in a drawing, the results can be eye-catching, just like today. It’s happened before, like when 7-7-7-7 hit in Pick 4 back in October, or 5-5-5-5 hit in Pick 4 2021.

Here are the locations of the big winners in today’s midday Pick 4 drawing:

$60,000 prize
Hy-Vee Drugstore, 1520 Sixth St. SW in Cedar Rapids

$30,000 prize
QuikTrip, 2300 ML King Jr. Parkway in Des Moines

$24,000 prize
Casey’s, 2245 Karr Ave. in Early

$12,000 prize
Kwik Star, 10912 Douglas Ave. in Urbandale
Athertons Phillips 66, 2900 W. Broadway in Council Bluffs

$6,000 prize
Macs, 1530 N. Second St. in Clinton
QuikTrip, 2300 ML King Jr. Parkway in Des Moines
Liquor Tobacco & Vape, 122 S. Second St. in Clinton
QuikTrip, 4575 NW Second St. in Des Moines
Kwik Star, 1800 Blairs Ferry Road NE in Hiawatha
QuikTrip, 849 Army Post Road in Des Moines
QuikTrip, 1424 E. Euclid Ave. in Des Moines
Hy-Vee, 1107 SE Army Post Road in Des Moines
Hy-Vee, 1990 Grand Ave. in West Des Moines
Neighborhood Mart, 2100 Lafayette St. in Waterloo

Players have up to 90 days from the date of the drawing to claim Pick 4 prizes in Iowa.

I accidentally tore my ticket! Can I still claim my prize?

A player reached out to us this week who was worried about a damaged ticket. He wanted to know: Can a ticket still be checked or cashed if the QR code on it that normally would be scanned is damaged or missing?

Many times, yes. But there are limits.

The player said that as he was playing his ticket, he scratched it a little too hard. He ended up accidentally tearing the QR code on the ticket that usually is scanned to check the results. He worried he wouldn’t be able to claim his prize without that code.

In his case, we were able to help and he claimed his prize!

Here is the background about how that happened.

Each lottery ticket has identifying numbers on it that manually can be entered on a lottery terminal to check the results of the ticket if its QR code is damaged or missing. (In the image of the damaged ticket you can see above, we put a blue box around the identifying numbers.)

As a player, you can’t key in the numbers on your own by using the lottery’s mobile app on your smart device or at a self-service kiosk or self-checker in a store. The QR code is required in each of those instances.

But if the QR code can’t be read and the rest of the ticket is still in good condition, a clerk in a retail location or a staffer at one of our lottery offices should be able to check the results by manually entering the ticket’s identifying numbers on a lottery terminal.

If the clerk at your local store doesn’t know how to do that, they can always call the Iowa Lottery’s retail hotline for help. And you’re always welcome to visit one of our offices or send your ticket to us at the lottery for us to try to check it.

But there are limits!

If a ticket is too badly damaged, not even we’ll be able to determine its results.

Through the years, we’ve seen tickets that were just a ball of mush after being put through the wash. Others were ripped up, and the player only had a small piece of the ticket that didn’t have any identifying numbers on it. A woman once microwaved her lotto ticket after getting water on it, thinking that would dry it out. It worked – but also turned the heat-sensitive paper solid black.

In each of those examples, there was no way for anyone to read the results of the tickets involved.

We’ll always do our best to help, but as is the case with any paper product, lottery tickets can be damaged. It’s important to keep your tickets in as good of shape as possible so you can claim any prize you’ve won!

As He’s Planning To Open A New Business, Storm Lake Man Wins Nearly $300K

A Storm Lake man says his big lottery win has come at the perfect time, just as he’s planning to open a new business.

Alexander Perez won an InstaPlay prize of nearly $300,000! He says the moment got him thinking about the dreams he has together with his wife and family.

Alexander, who is 50, currently own his own garage in Storm Lake to service and repair vehicles, but is in the process of switching fields, planning to open a new business in heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

The story of Alexander’s lottery win began on Monday with a need for coffee. They were out of coffee at home, so he stopped that morning at Midtown, 1100 E. Fifth St. in Storm Lake, for some java. While he was there, he bought a ticket in the Extreme Green Progressive InstaPlay game, then went on to work.

He checked his ticket after he arrived and kept looking at the results to try to believe what he was seeing. Then he thinks he may have had a brief panic attack because he was having trouble breathing. Alexander says he called his wife, who got him to calm down.

Alexander won the Extreme Green Progressive jackpot, which at the time had climbed to $295,300. The game’s big prize had been growing for more than three months to reach that level. Prior to his win, it was last hit Feb. 2 with a ticket purchased in Norwalk.

Alexander says he was so shaky and distracted after realizing he’d won that he decided to shut his garage for the day. He went home and walked around, trying to absorb what a different kind of day it was!

As he claimed his prize yesterday at lottery headquarters in Clive, Alexander said his lottery win was sinking in. He said the idea of winning the lottery is something that’s always in your mind – that maybe someday it could be you. And this time, it IS him!

Player Question: The Megaplier seems to come up a lot as 3. Is something wrong?

A player who called us this week thought something had gone wrong with the Megaplier® option in the Mega Millions® game. The short answer is: Nothing is wrong. But here’s the background involved, in case you’ve ever wondered about the same thing.

The man said he noticed that the Megaplier number has come up as 3 a lot in recent drawings, and he wondered if that meant something is wrong. In reality, the Megaplier number is being randomly selected as usual in each Mega Millions drawing. But it is likely that the Megaplier will come up as 2 or 3 more often.

How The Megaplier Works

You may already know that you can add the Megaplier option to your play in the Mega Millions game for an extra $1, and it will multiply any prize you win, except the jackpot.

So, for example, if your ticket matches the five white balls but misses the yellow Mega Ball, you’d win a $1 million prize. But if you’ve added the Megaplier option to your ticket and the multiplier number that night is 3, your prize will be tripled to $3 million.

That’s similar to the Power Play® option in Powerball® and the All Star Bonus® option in Lotto America®. The details for each multiplier option are in the game rules available on our website.

But when it comes to Mega Millions specifically, why can 2 or 3 be chosen more often as the multiplier? It’s due to the universe of numbers available to be selected as the Megaplier option.

There are 15 numbers in the Megaplier pool. Of them, 5 are 2s, 6 are 3s, 3 are 4s and 1 is a 5. Here’s what that looks like in table form:

15 Total Numbers In Megaplier Pool
2X = 5
3X = 6
4X = 3
5X = 1

So, does it stand to reason that the Megaplier number will come up more often as 2 or 3? Yes. But the other numbers also have a shot.

The Power Play option in Powerball and the All Star Bonus option in Lotto America work in a similar way.

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

32 Total Numbers In All Star Bonus Pool
2X = 15
3X = 10
4X = 4
5X = 3

Whether you play the lottery or not, we want everyone to have an accurate understanding of how the lottery works. Details like the ones we've provided here can help make that happen.

Check Your Tickets! Only 1 Month Left for $50,000 Powerball Prize

A $50,000 Powerball® prize won in Des Moines will expire in a month if it isn’t claimed in time, and at the Iowa Lottery, we’re reminding players to double-check their tickets!

The Des Moines prize is among five lottery prizes of at least $20,000 that are currently unclaimed in Iowa. They’ll all expire by early October if they aren’t claimed in time.

The $50,000 Powerball prize has the earliest expiration date on that list. It was won in the Powerball drawing on Dec. 16 and is set to expire on June 13. The winning ticket was purchased at Casey’s, 3725 Beaver Ave. in Des Moines, for the Powerball drawing on Dec. 16. It matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball to win a $50,000 prize.

The winning Powerball numbers in that night’s drawing were 3-9-10-20-62 and Powerball 25. The Power Play® number was 3.

What’s the largest current unclaimed prize in Iowa?

The largest prize currently unclaimed in Iowa is a $500,000 Powerball Double Play® prize won in March in Mason City. That particular prize is a little more unusual because Double Play is a new option in the Powerball game.

The Powerball Double Play option made its Iowa debut in November. For an extra $1 per play, players can add the Double Play option to their Powerball tickets. (A Powerball play costs $2, and with Double Play added, a ticket costs $3.) The numbers on that ticket are then eligible to win twice – once in the regular Powerball drawing, and once in a separate Double Play drawing that same night.

It’s possible for a player to win a prize in the regular Powerball drawing and the Double Play drawing on the same night.

In the case of the Mason City ticket, it matched the first five numbers but missed the Double Play Powerball in the Double Play drawing on March 16 to win a $500,000 prize. It was the only ticket in the country to win a $500,000 prize that night.

The lucky ticket was purchased at Kwik Star, 1502 Federal Ave. in Mason City. It will expire on Sept. 12 if the prize is not claimed in time.

Here are details about the other two sizeable lottery prizes in Iowa that remain unclaimed (listed by prize amount):

Game	Drawing Date	Amount Won	Retailer	Expiration
Powerball	April 10, 2024	$50,000	Hy-Vee, Des Moines	Oct. 7, 2024
InstaPlay	May 10, 2024	$38,851.35	Kwik Star, Davenport	Aug. 8, 2024
Mega Millions	March 26, 2024	$20,000	Kum & Go, Ankeny	Sept. 23, 2024

While all of the prizes need to be claimed at an Iowa Lottery office, the $500,000 prize in particular has to be claimed at lottery headquarters in Clive. Prize-claim hours at lottery offices are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday, with offices closed on state holidays.

What happens to unclaimed prize money in Iowa?

In the last fiscal year (FY 2023), more than $1.7 million in lotto and InstaPlay prizes expired in Iowa without being claimed.

The money from lottery 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.

Player Question: Am I supposed to get a receipt when I buy tickets?

Here’s a question we haven’t seen before, and the answer to it involves an interesting twist. A player reached out to ask if he is supposed to get a receipt when he buys lottery tickets.

The answer to that part is no. The purchase price is clearly marked on the front of each ticket you buy, so you can easily determine if the tickets you’re buying add up to the total you’re asked to pay.

But receipts are involved when you check a ticket on a lottery terminal or self-service kiosk. The receipts are a security feature to help verify that you’ve been
paid the correct prize amount. If you ever have a question about the outcome of a ticket you've checked, remember to ask for your receipt.

In the case of a winning ticket, two receipts are automatically generated – one for the player and the other for the retailer. Both show the amount of the prize won on that ticket. In the case of a nonwinning ticket, only a player receipt is available.

How You Know The Receipt Matches Up With The Ticket

There are identifying numbers on the receipt and ticket that match up so you can check that the receipt you receive really is for the ticket you checked.

If the receipt is for a scratch or InstaPlay ticket, information on the receipt shows the game, pack and ticket number for the ticket involved. Those same numbers are printed on the back of each scratch ticket and at the top of each InstaPlay ticket, so you can check the receipt against the ticket to be sure they match.

If the receipt is for a lotto ticket in a game like Powerball® or Mega Millions®, the identifying serial number for your ticket is printed in the upper left of the receipt. That same serial number is printed in the middle of your ticket itself. So again, you can check the receipt against the ticket to be sure they match.

Receipts are not involved for the Iowa Lottery’s pull-tab tickets because they already include “built-in receipts.” Any prize won on a pull-tab is already printed under the tabs on the ticket so the amount involved is very clear.