As we worked on our latest map of the biggest lottery prize claims in Iowa, we decided to look at the details two different ways to dig deeper into a question we often consider: Should lottery winnings be tracked by the retail location where the ticket was purchased, or by the place where the winner lives?
We know a lot of people buy lottery tickets while they’re out running errands or on their lunch hour, so the place where they make their purchases likely isn’t where they live. It’s a real-life factor when it comes to lottery tickets, so we made two different versions of our winner map for December.
One shows prizes by the spot where the winning ticket was purchased, the other shows the same list by the city where the winner lives. As you can see, that difference comes through in the dots on the map!
Our December images wrap up our mapping project for calendar year 2019. Iowa Lottery players claimed 444 prizes of $600 or more in December, making that the highest monthly prize total for the year.
And our players claimed a grand total of 4,478 prizes of $600 or more in 2019!
As you can see from the patterns involved, something that we’ve often said about prize wins holds true: In bigger cities, more people are buying tickets and winning prizes. That’s not a matter of luck, it’s a matter of population.
Another way of putting it is that if 5 percent of lottery tickets are sold in a particular area, you'll expect to find about 5 percent of the overall winners there. Everyone has the same chance of winning, but there will be more winners in places where more tickets are sold.
There are links for both versions of the December map. Click here for the map by retailer in an interactive format, and click here for the map by winner location.
And as always, remember that our maps only show those big prizes that have been claimed. They don’t include those prizes that have been won but aren’t claimed yet.
