ialottery blog

This Time, You Can Enter InstaPlay Tickets For A Chance To Win More Prizes

This time, InstaPlay games are in the spotlight in a promotion that gives you the chance to enter tickets for a chance to win more prizes -- A LOT more in prizes. To be specific, the InstaPlay promotion that began this morning has a total of $228,000 in prizes on the line!

We’re applying the “max bet” concept in this Play It Again® promotion, meaning that the size of the prize you could win increases with the purchase price of the ticket you enter.

There are five categories in the promotion based on the ticket price point involved:

• $20 tickets are eligible for a $20,000 prize.
• $10 tickets are eligible for a $10,000 prize.
• $5 tickets are eligible for a $5,000 prize.
• $2 tickets are eligible for a $2,000 prize.
• $1 tickets are eligible for a $1,000 prize.

The promotion will have two drawings. They’ll be held on Feb. 3 and Feb. 24, with 15 cash prizes awarded in each. That works out to 3 prizes per category in both drawings.

So, in the Feb. 3 drawing, there will be 3 winners of a $20,000 prize, 3 winners of a $10,000 prize, 3 winners of a $5,000 prize, 3 winners of a $2,000 prize and 3 winners of a $1,000 prize. That same thing will happen in the Feb. 24 drawing.

Only recent InstaPlay tickets can be entered. Any nonwinning InstaPlay ticket purchased on or after Jan. 3 of this year is eligible for entry into the promotion. And remember that you’ll need to be a member of the lottery’s free VIP Club to enter.

You can enter tickets for the first drawing until the morning of Feb. 1, and then entries will start over for the second drawing, with its entry period open until the morning of Feb. 22. Entries will not carry over from one drawing to the next.

You can win a prize in each category you enter. (Yes, the odds of that happening are long, but we’ve seen players win multiple prizes before in our drawings.)

Good luck, thank you for playing, and we hope you have fun with this moment in the sun for our InstaPlay games!

$1 Million Winner Moves Up Life Plans

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.

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good luck with your promo entries!  

Is This YOUR Million Dollar $ummer?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do You Have To Live In Iowa To Win?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Winner Wonderland’ Promotion Has Started Today, With $640,000 In Prizes

The biggest prize pool ever offered in one of our holiday promotions is up for grabs in our “Winner Wonderland®” promotion that just opened for entries today.

The promotion features 181 cash prizes totaling $640,000, including a grand prize of $250,000. We’re applying the “max bet” concept in the promotion, meaning that the size of the prize players can win increases along with the purchase price of the scratch ticket they’ve entered.

Players could start making entries in Winner Wonderland at 9 a.m. today, and the promotion runs through early January, with its final drawing date on Jan. 7.

Players can enter the promotion using non-winning tickets in the 13 holiday-themed scratch tickets we’ll have available this year. Tickets in six of those games started sales last week, and they’ll be followed by five more on Oct. 5 and the final two on Nov. 2.

In each of the promotion’s three initial drawings, 60 prizes will be awarded: 20 prizes of $500 from among the $1 and $2 entries; 20 prizes of $1,000 from among the $3 and $5 entries; and 20 prizes of $5,000 from among the $10 and $20 entries.

The initial drawings will be on Nov. 5, Dec. 3 and Jan. 7, with the $250,000 grand-prize drawing also on Jan. 7.

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.

It’s Started Today: Our Summer Promotion Will Give Away $250,000 In Prizes

We’re making the move into summer here at the Iowa Lottery with today’s start of the “Summer Cash Bash” Prize Zone promotion that will give away a total of $250,000 in cash prizes by mid-September.

The promotion will award 90 cash prizes totaling $250,000 during the next two months. To keep things interesting, every two weeks, we’ll change up the prizes on the line and the scratch games that can be entered inti the promotion.

The Summer Cash Bash officially started this morning, and the first entry period runs through the morning of July 28. The first drawing takes place on July 30, and we'll give away 22 prizes that day totaling $60,000. Nonwinning tickets from five scratch games can be entered into this first round of the promotion: Quick 5s, Money Ball, Amazing Money, $50,000 Classic Black, and $100,000 Mega Crossword.

We’ve got details about the next couple upcoming rounds of the Summer Cash Bash on our promotions page, so feel free to check out the current games that can be entered as well as the details that are on deck.

Player Question: Why Do You Still Sell That Game After The Promotion Has Ended?

With the Prize Zone now an ongoing part of our VIP Club and the big Summer Cash Bash starting in a couple weeks, I’ll answer a question here on the blog that we’ve received from a few players in the past about the games that can be entered into our promotions.

Those folks have wondered why we continue to sell the games involved in our promotions after the promotions end. What they may not have realized is that the scratch games involved are often already available before a promotion starts and sometimes stay on the market after it has ended. That’s because the promotion isn’t the primary function of the game – it’s an extra, or an add-on, but the game itself is its own vehicle.

The prizes in our games themselves aren’t tied to a promotion – they’re separate and only a part of that game. That's why the game involved will often be on sale for far longer than a particular promotion is offered – players want the chance to win the prizes in the game itself and realize that the promotion is a temporary (and fun) addition with prizes of its own.

We refer to our promotions as “Play It Again” or second-chance opportunities because if you don’t initially win a prize on the ticket involved, you can play it again by entering the promotion for a chance to win the prizes offered there.   

The upcoming Summer Cash Bash is a perfect example of the timing issue I've discussed in this blog entry. The promotion doesn’t start until July 13, but some of the games involved are already on sale, and we’re letting players know that they can save their tickets to enter the Cash Bash when it starts. Those same games may end up being on the market after the promotion ends, it all depends on how long the supply of tickets lasts.

We do our best to come up with fun games and promotions and tie them together when we can for even more chances to win. But the games involved stand on their own and have their own timeline outside of the promotion.

Player Mail: Can You Give Me More Details About The New Prize Zone?

Since our new Prize Zone launched yesterday, we’ve already heard from players entering their tickets for a chance to win the prizes up for grabs. But others have had questions about the Prize Zone, wanting to be sure they understand how it works.

So here are the details to give you the inside scoop on the new Prize Zone feature in the lottery’s VIP Club.

The Prize Zone is a new, ongoing part of our VIP Club that offers Iowa Lottery players more ways to win when they buy scratch tickets. Each month, if you’re a member of the VIP Club, you’ll be able to enter nonwinning tickets in certain scratch games into the Prize Zone for a chance to win select prizes tied only to those games.

Sometimes the prizes in the Prize Zone will be merchandise prizes, like they are now. Other times, they might be for tickets to exclusive events like concerts and sporting events. We’ll also offer cash prizes through the Prize Zone, so you’ll want to check back each month to see all the latest!

To kick off the Prize Zone, we’re giving away more than $36,000 in Apple iPads, and the tickets you’ll need to enter for a chance to win are in our “9s In A Line” family of games. The size of the iPad you could win goes up along with the “size” of the 9s In A Line game that you enter!

Tickets in the $1 9s In A Line Small game can be entered for a chance to win an iPad mini. The $2 “Medium” game is tied to the iPad Air, the $5 "Large" game is tied to the iPad Pro; and the $10 "XL" game is tied to the iPad Pro.

You can enter nonwinning 9s In A Line tickets into the Prize Zone through the morning of March 17, and we’ll hold the drawing for the winners of the iPads on March 19.

We’ll always keep the details about the current prizes available in the Prize Zone as well as the next two upcoming rounds so you can see those details and plan ahead if you’d like. (Hint: You’ll want to pay attention to the “Lucky Dog” scratch game starting next month.)

Thanks again for playing the Iowa Lottery, and for asking questions about the Prize Zone. Entries started coming in as soon as it debuted yesterday, so we know the word is spreading. We wish you the very best of luck with your Prize Zone entries!

What You’ve Asked For: Join the VIP Club & Change Your Password From The App

You’ve been asking about it, and we’re excited to share this update today: Now you can join the lottery’s VIP Club and change the password for your VIP account password from our mobile app.

We all live a lot of our lives on mobile devices these days, and these changes will make it easier for you to access the lottery info. you need while you’re on the go.   

We debuted our app for both Apple AND Android devices back in 2017, and like any technology, we’ve updated it over time. If you already have our app (it’s called the Iowa Lottery’s LotteryPlus) on your device, there’s nothing you need to do to receive this update. It happens automatically, so you already have the new feature available. If you don’t yet have the app, feel free to install it from the Google Play Store® or Apple iTunes Store® as applicable for your particular device.

The most popular way that people use our app is to check the results of their lottery tickets. You can check lotto, scratch and InstaPlay tickets on the app, so you don’t have to visit a store or a lottery office to see if you’ve won. Two other popular ways that people use the app is to enter their tickets into our VIP Club drawings and to check the winning numbers in recent lotto drawings.

Thank you for playing the lottery, and we hope this update makes it even easier for you to reach us!

Player Mail: Do I Need To Keep The Tickets I Enter In The Holiday Promotion?

As the entries continue to climb in the “Ho Ho Dough” promotion, we’ve gotten the same question from numerous players: Do I need to keep the tickets after I enter them in this promotion? The short answer is no, you don’t need to keep them.

When you successfully enter an eligible ticket in the holiday promotion, the entry itself provides the information we’ll need in the Ho Ho Dough drawings. And if one of your entries is selected as a winner in a Ho Ho Dough drawing, you won’t need to present the ticket you entered in the promotion to claim your prize. The entry itself will serve as the record involved.

Years ago, people did have to keep the actual tickets they entered into our promotions, but with advances in technology, we’ve been able to update our process to make it easier.

Good luck in the promotion to everyone who has entered!

17 Football Ticket Packages On the Line In ‘Kinnick Gridiron Giveaway’

Seventeen football-ticket prize packages to next month’s Illinois-Iowa game are on the line in a new promotion from the Iowa Lottery that just started.

From today through the morning of Nov. 12, lottery players who buy Powerball® tickets in Iowa can enter the “Kinnick Gridiron Giveaway” for a chance to win one of 17 prize packages to the Illinois-Iowa football game Nov. 23 in Iowa City.

Each prize package includes two tickets for seats in a VIP area in the North End Zone at Kinnick Stadium, food and nonalcoholic drinks during the game, $100 spending cash, and two bags with University of Iowa and Iowa Lottery swag.

Please note that simply buying a Powerball ticket during the promotion period won’t automatically enter you into the promotion. You’ll need to buy a Powerball ticket in Iowa anytime from today through 8:59 a.m. Nov. 12. Then, you’ll enter that ticket into the promotion through your VIP Club account. (Click here to join if you’re not already a member.) And remember, you can enter both winning AND nonwinning Powerball tickets!    

Each eligible Powerball ticket entered will count as one entry into the promotion, regardless of the number of plays on it or the drawings that those plays may span.

We’ll hold the drawing Nov. 13 to determine the Iowa Lottery winners who will be going to the Hawkeyes’ final home game of the year. Each trip prize package is valued at more than $1,000.

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

Congrats To Our 3rd Silverado Winner

Brittany Dana of Webster City said she never thought she’d win but she went ahead and entered the Summer of Silverado promotion anyway and hoped for the best. On August 15 she received a phone call from the Iowa Lottery letting her know she’d won the third Silverado truck!

Click on the video above to see Brittany’s reaction as she got to see her new truck for the first time! 

And don’t forget: The final drawing for the fourth 2019 All-new Chevy Silverado LT Trail Boss and five prizes of $5,000 will be Sept. 12!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Only In Iowa: Powerball Players Have Chance At $1 Million Prize

Now is your chance: For the next three weeks, Powerball® players in Iowa can enter a promotion for a shot at a $1 million prize.

Any Powerball ticket purchased in Iowa from today through 8:59 a.m. on June 18 can be entered into the “Woo Hoo A Million For You Giveaway.” After the three-week entry period, we’ll hold a drawing on June 19 to determine the winner of the promotion’s $1 million prize.

Call it our version of recycling! Back in April, a $1 million Powerball prize expired in central Iowa without being claimed. Someone bought that ticket at a Casey’s store in Nevada for the Powerball drawing on April 11, 2018. But the prize was never claimed, so it expired on April 11 of this year.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a $1 million prize has ever gone unclaimed in Iowa. We repeatedly called attention to the prize to try to find the winner, and now we’re dedicating our efforts to ensuring that this prize money finds its way to a new Iowa Lottery winner.

This is a truly Iowa-made effort: Our leadership team at the Iowa Lottery thought through how we could give away this $1 million, one of the district sales representatives in our Cedar Rapids office came up with the promotion name, and only Powerball tickets purchased in Iowa can be entered into the promotion for a shot at the prize.

Please note this important detail: Simply buying a Powerball ticket during the next three weeks won’t automatically enter you into the promotion. You have to be a member of the lottery’s free VIP Club and enter your ticket in your VIP Club account to be entered. Click here for a direct link to the VIP Club homepage where you can find details about joining if you’re not already a member. 

You’ve heard us say many times that the money from lottery prizes that expire without being claimed in Iowa goes into our prize pools for future games and promotions. Well, this big unclaimed prize gives us the chance to demonstrate that!

Each eligible Powerball ticket entered will count as one entry into the promotion, regardless of the number of plays on it or how many drawings the plays may span.

The lottery retailer that sells the promotion’s $1 million-winning ticket will receive a $1,000 bonus from the lottery. That also was the case with the $1 million ticket in Nevada: Even though it was never claimed, Casey’s still got a $1,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling that ticket at one of its stores. Our retailers work hard every day to sell our tickets, and this is one more way we can thank them.

We know that Iowa has faced some really challenging weather-related events this year, and folks in a large swath of our state are still finding their way through those difficulties. Maybe the buzz surrounding this unclaimed prize mystery and new promotion can give us all a short break to think about something else – and then as Iowans, we’ll get back to work to ensure our state recovers. And the Iowa Lottery will keep doing its best to raise proceeds to help with vital state causes right here at home.

48 Winners Headed To Bball Tourney In Des Moines!

Our Suite Seats promotion ended yesterday, and 48 lucky winners scored tickets to next month’s men’s basketball tournament at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. Click here to see the list of winners!

 

We had winners from all around Iowa, and even one from Burnsville, Minn.! Each prize package includes a pair of tickets in an exclusive Lottery suite on either Thursday, March 21 or Saturday, March 23, along with food, beverages and a parking pass – everything they’ll need for a fun time at the tournament!

 

If you’re one of the winners, please check your inbox for an email on how to claim your prize.

Holiday Promo Starts Today! 61 Cash Prizes Totaling $125,000 On The Line

Psssst! This blog entry will get you thinking about winning cash for the holidays. :)

A total of 61 cash prizes, including a grand prize of $20,000, will be up for grabs over the next few months in our “Fa la la Loot” holiday promotion that started at 9 a.m. today.

The promotion will have seven drawings and the value of the prizes involved will increase each time. We’ll kick things off with 10 prizes of $500 on the line in the promotion’s drawing on Oct. 24, and that will ratchet up to 10 prizes of $3,000 in the drawing on Jan. 9. A $20,000 grand prize also will be awarded Jan. 9 from any entries not selected in an earlier drawing.

Our players have always told us that cash is king, so we’re giving you lots of chances to win just that during this holiday season!

You can enter the promotion using nonwinning tickets from the 11 holiday-themed scratch games we’ll have available this year. Nine of the games hit the market today and two more will debut Nov. 5.

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

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

Iowa City Man Says He Now Knows That People DO Win Lottery Prizes

Jim Rogers admits he used to wonder if anyone really won the prizes offered in lottery promotions, but now he knows they do. Rogers, of Iowa City, claimed the grand prize today in the Iowa Lottery’s “Tiny Home, Big Wins!” promotion. Click on the video above to see the highlights of his fun day.

Didn’t Get Your Free-Play Coupon By Email? Now It’s On Our Website

We’ve come up with a new solution to make it easier for members of our players club to receive their monthly free-play coupons.
 
Now when you log into your VIP Club account, you’ll have access to several months of the VIP Connection, our players club newsletter. The most recent month’s edition will contain your monthly coupon and you can print it from there. We’ll still send out the newsletter by email as well, but this new process gives you another option to easily find it. 

As you likely already know, one of the perks of being a VIP Club member is that you get a coupon every month from us here at the lottery. The coupon is good for a free play in one of our InstaPlay or lotto games – Powerball, Mega Millions, Lotto America or Lucky for Life. The VIP Club newsletter that contains the coupon is emailed out on the first business day of each month to VIP Club members who have opted-in to receive electronic communications from the Iowa Lottery.

Some of our VIP Club members have had trouble receiving their newsletter and coupon by email. In some instances, our emails were getting caught in spam filters or being blocked entirely by particular email service providers. (The providers weren’t doing anything wrong – they took the security steps necessary to best protect their members’ accounts from spam or other malicious content. But in some cases, those safeguards also prevented email from getting through that people wanted, including our monthly newsletter with coupon.)

Please note that you must be logged into your VIP Club account to access the newsletter. If you visit the VIP Club site without logging in, you won’t see the member-exclusive areas, including the link to the VIP Connection newsletter.

And remember that each VIP Club coupon has a unique, single-use code, so even if you have multiple images of your coupon, it can only be redeemed once.

Barcode Not Showing On Your Monthly Coupon? There’s A Way Around That.

In the past month, we’ve heard from some members of our VIP Club who had trouble getting the barcode to display on their monthly free-play coupon, and they thought that meant the coupon couldn’t be redeemed. But there’s a work-around for that so you can still get your free play. I’m sharing the inside scoop with you here on the blog so you’ll have the details, too!

If for some reason the personalized barcode doesn’t print on your monthly VIP Club coupon or it doesn’t display when you call up the coupon on your mobile device, ask the retailer to manually enter the coupon. They’ll need to press the “Special Functions” tab on the lottery terminal’s main screen, then press the “Coupon” button on the left side the screen. That will bring up a box where they can key in the 16-digit code printed on your coupon so it can be redeemed.

Also remember that you need to present your coupon to the retailer BEFORE the ticket is printed. This month’s VIP Club coupon is for a free $1 play in Lotto America, so look for it in your VIP Club newsletter! 

Hey, VIP Club Members: Don’t Forget To Update Your Profile!

Since this time of year brings with it spring cleaning, here’s a reminder to tidy up the details in your VIP Club profile if you’re a member of our player’s club. If anything has changed since the last time you visited it, please update your profile! Here’s an example from this month about why that’s important: One of our VIP Club members almost missed out on a prize in our social-media contest because her information was out of date.

When we initially reached out to our contest winners, our email ended up in the women’s spam folder, so she didn’t see it. So next we tried to call her. The phone number was no longer in service. Luckily, we were able to finally make contact with her so she didn’t miss out on the prize before the claim period expired. But if your information is out of date, you could end up in the same situation!

To review/update your VIP Club profile, just log into your account and click on the “Manage Profile” option on the left side of the screen. You can then verify your mailing address, phone number, email preferences and more. If you have any questions about updating your profile, feel free to email us at wmaster@ialottery.com and we can help you through the process.

 

 

Player Mail: Questions About Power Cruise

Now that folks have been entering tickets in the “Power Cruise™” promotion for about a week, we’re seeing some repeat questions about the process and have done our best to answer them on the Frequently Asked Questions page we put together for the promotion.

We try in advance to think of the questions people may have about a particular game or promotion, and in this case, we listed a lot of those Q-and-As on our website when the promotion started last week. But just when we think we’ve thought of all the possible details, our players surprise us and ask about something that wasn’t yet on the list!

So, if you have a question about the promotion, please check out the FAQs for it. And if we haven’t provided the answer there that you’re seeking, let us know. We’ll get the answer for you and then we’ll add it to the website, too!

POWER CRUISE™ is a trademark of Alchemy 3, LLC. Used under license. │Royal Caribbean International logo is a registered trademark of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and is used with permission. ©2018 Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.® │ Powerball® and Power Play® are federally registered trademarks and are used with permission of the Multi-State Lottery Association. All rights reserved.

‘Tiny Home, Big Wins!’ Promotion: Your Chance To Join The Trend!

We’ve got a chance for you to be part of the tiny-home movement.

Whatever you call it – a tiny home, a small house or a not-so-big house – there’s no doubt that this trend has taken root all across the country. We’ve had fun brainstorming ways to give our players a chance to join in, and that led to today’s debut of a promotion that offers a custom-built tiny home as the grand prize.

A $5 instant-scratch game called “Tiny Home, Big Wins!” it hitting stores today. And we’re also opening the entry period for a promotion with the same name. Tickets in the scratch game feature an image of a tiny home in the woods and offer players the chance to win prizes from $5 up to $50,000.

Players who don’t win an instant prize can use nonwinning tickets in the game to enter the promotion from today through Aug. 29. The promotion will feature seven prize drawings, or about one a month. The first six drawings will each offer 20 prizes of $500 Home Depot® gift cards.

The promotion’s grand-prize drawing on Aug. 31 will be for a $60,000 gift certificate from Wind River Tiny Homes of Chattanooga, Tenn., for a custom-built tiny home, along with two Home Depot gift cards of $500 for the winner. (State and federal withholding taxes for the grand-prize package also will be paid.)

To enter the promotion, you’ll need to join or already be a member of our free VIP Club. You can enter tickets into the promotion through the lottery’s website or the Iowa Lottery’s LotteryPlus app available through iTunes® and Google Play®.

*Entries not selected as a winner in a previous Tiny Home, Big Wins! promotion drawing are automatically entered into the Tiny Home, Big Wins! grand prize drawing.

Iowa Lottery is not affiliated with The Home Depot®. The Home Depot is not a sponsor of this promotion. The Home Depot is a registered trademark of Home Depot Product Authority, LLC.

© 2018 Wind River Tiny Homes.

Where Did My Favorite Scratch Game Go?

We’ve heard from some players recently asking where they can find their favorite scratch game.

You may have noticed that nine new holiday scratch games went on sale Oct. 2 and two more will go on sale Nov. 6. Nonwinning tickets in all 11 holiday scratch games are eligible to win cash prizes in our Secret Santa Play It Again^® promotion.

Because of this, we ask that all of our retailers across the state sell at least some of our holiday scratch games. And since many retailers have limited space to display lottery games, some scratch games must be removed to make room for the new ones. Therefore, we’ve pulled some of our other games for the time being.

Don’t worry, though, we haven’t gotten rid of those other games for good. As you can imagine, the holiday games only run for a short time, so our other games, and their remaining prizes, will be coming back in early January!

Player Mail: FAQs About Secret Santa Promotion

We’ve gotten several great questions over the last few days from players about our Secret Santa holiday promotion, so we’ve compiled them here in an overall Q-and-A list so you’ll have the details, too.

My phone/tablet won’t scan my ticket – how do I enter this ticket?

Here’s several tips for scanning your ticket on our app: 

• Make sure all of the security coating is removed from the “Scratch 2 Cash” box on the front of your ticket;
• Use the “light” feature within the app to illuminate the area while scanning;
• Move the ticket around so that your phone’s camera can detect the square barcode;
• Hold the ticket farther away from your phone’s camera so it can focus better on the barcode.

If your eligible ticket won’t scan – for whatever reason – you can enter it manually on the app. Just type the ticket’s numbers in the boxes using your phone’s keyboard.

Can I enter tickets in both the Secret Santa cash drawing and the Not So Secret Santa cash drawing?

Yes, of course! You can only enter each ticket once into either, the Secret Santa drawing or the Not So Secret Santa drawing. However, if you are entering multiple tickets you can mix it up and enter some of your tickets into the Secret Santa drawing and some of them into the Not So Secret Santa drawing. Remember, the Not So Secret Santa cash prize amount is always listed, while the Secret Santa cash prize amount is not. The Secret Santa cash prize may be greater than, less than or the same as the Not So Secret Santa prize – you’ll find out when we draw the winners for that drawing period. 

How do I reset my VIP Club account password on the app?
Unfortunately, you aren’t able to reset your VIP Club account password on the app at this time. This is something we’re working on for future Play It Again® promotions, but for now, you’ll have to reset your password via our website on your laptop or desktop computer or your tablet.

Can I register for a VIP Club account on the app?
Unfortunately, no. You’ll need to register for a VIP Club account on a laptop or desktop computer. Then once you’re fully registered, you’ll be able to login to your VIP Club account on the app.

Do you have a question that wasn’t answered here? Check the frequently asked questions page on our website, or email us at: Wmaster@ialottery.com.

New This Year: Enter Our Holiday Promotion Via Our Mobile App!

 

For the very first time, VIP Club members will be able to enter our new Play It Again promotion - - Secret Santa - from a smartphone or tablet. This promotion started today and runs through Dec. 29. Click on the video above to find out all the details!

Player Mail: I Haven’t Gotten My VIP Club Coupon This Month!

We’ve heard from several members of our VIP Club in the past week who say they haven’t received their monthly coupon for a free play and they’re wondering why.

Our monthly newsletter with the coupon in it was delivered as usual on July 3, the first business day of the month. But this is the second month into a new distribution system we’re using to send our emails. With the messages coming from a slightly different sending address, our emails containing the newsletter and coupon may be getting caught in spam filters or security settings. 

The content of our emails remains the same – it’s just the sending email address that has changed. You may want to add “ialottery.wmaster@public.govdelivery.com” to your address book or the “safe senders” list within your email account to help ensure you’ll continue receiving email messages from us.

 

 

Player Mail: Did The Lottery Get A New Email Address?

Members of our VIP Club and players who subscribe to our daily Winning Numbers emails may have noticed that our communications have been coming from a different address for the last few weeks.

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you, we are using a different email address to send these messages.

The new email address is ialottery.wmaster@public.govdelivery.com and it’s part of a new distribution system we’re using to send batches of emails at one time.

The content of our emails remains the same – it’s just the sending email address that has changed. One thing you may want to consider is adding “ialottery.wmaster@public.govdelivery.com” to your address book or your “safe senders” list within your email account to help ensure you can continue receiving email messages from us.

Also note: We’re still accepting emails at our Wmaster@ialottery.com address and if you respond to one of our messages from the new email address, we’ll still get it.

Player Mail: FAQs About Power Cruise

We’ve gotten several great questions this week from players about our “Power Cruise™” promotion, so we’ve compiled them here in an overall Q-and-A list so you’ll have the details, too. 

Are all Powerball^® tickets eligible? Yes, both winning and nonwinning Powerball tickets purchased in Iowa between Feb. 5 and March 29 are eligible for this promotion.

Do I need to keep my Powerball ticket after I’ve entered it in the promotion? You should hold on to your Powerball ticket until the drawing for which it’s eligible occurs because you’ll need your ticket to claim any cash prize you may win in that drawing. But once the drawing has passed and you’ve successfully entered your ticket into the Power Cruise promotion, then you no longer need to keep your ticket. Should one of your entries be selected as the winner of a cruise package, you won’t need to present the tickets you entered in the promotion to claim your prize.

If my entry isn’t selected as a winner in the first drawing, do my entries carry over to the other drawings? Yes. Entries not selected in drawings 1-5 will roll to the next eligible drawing. Entries not selected in the sixth and final drawing will not be eligible for any prize. You can see the drawing schedule on our website.

Do you have to be a VIP Club member to participate? Yes, you must be a member of our free VIP Club to enter the promotion using Powerball tickets that you’ve purchased in Iowa. If you’re not already a member, we recommend that you register for an account first.

I’m a VIP Club member, but every time I try to enter my Powerball ticket into the Power Cruise promotion, I receive this error message: “Application has encountered an error. Please contact support.” Why is that occurring and how can I fix it?  Please double-check your VIP Club account to make sure that you have a phone number listed in your profile. We need a phone number to be able to contact you should you win a cruise package. To check for your phone listing, log in to your VIP Club account on our website and then click on the “Manage Profile” link on the left-hand side of the screen. Once there you can add a phone number and update any other contact information as needed.

Is the Collect ‘N Win mobile app available for both Apple and Android devices? Of course! You can find the Collect ‘N Win app in both iTunes® and Google PlayTM. And you can download it here. Don’t have a smartphone? You also can enter eligible Powerball tickets through our VIP Club website, so you don’t have to download the app or have a smartsphone to scan them.

Is there a minimum purchase required? No. Any Powerball ticket (winning or nonwinning) purchased between Feb. 5 and March 29 is eligible. And remember that each ticket can only be entered once – you will not receive more Collect ‘N Win symbols if your ticket has plays for more than one Powerball drawing.

We hope this helps answer your questions! But if you didn’t find the details you were looking for here, let us know by commenting on this post or by sending an email to Wmaster@ialottery.com.