The world-record jackpot drawing has been held, things have quieted down a little, and we’re stopping to simply say: Thank you.
Thank you for buying tickets, thank you for being part of this Powerball® moment, thank you for playing responsibly, thank you for having fun.
Some numbers really jumped out when I looked back at the drawings in the world-record jackpot run that just ended. Remember that the jackpot started growing in early August and kept rolling through dozens of drawings until it was finally won in the drawing for Nov. 7.
During the world-record Powerball run, Iowa Lottery players won millions of prizes, including:
1 prize of $2 million
1 prize of $1 million
1 prize of $250,000
1 prize of $200,000
2 prizes of $150,000
2 prizes of $100,000
12 prizes of $50,000.
Some of those prizes are still waiting to be claimed, so if you have a ticket, please go check it! You could be the winner of a significant prize. But no matter what, your Powerball purchases have made a difference for Iowa causes.
Update at 8:40 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8:The Powerball jackpot drawing has now been held! Click on the video above to see the drawing for Nov. 7, which was delayed.
The winning numbers for Nov. 7 are: 10-33-41-47-56 and Powerball 10. The Power Play number was 2.
The huge jackpot ended up at a world-record $2.04 billion annuity. We'll see later today how Iowa did and if anyone nationwide matched all six numbers to win the jackpot!
Thank you for playing Powerball and being part of this unprecedented moment. We also appreciate you bearing with the drawing delay.
One of the 48 lotteries that sell Powerball tickets needed extra time to complete the required security protocols for the drawing. The delay ultimately lasted for several hours, and the drawing was held this morning.
We know you were eager for that work to be finished, and we were, too!
We're proud that our team here at the Iowa Lottery had cleared all the security protocols for the drawing.
We expected that the drawing would be held on schedule, but the rigorous security procedures in Powerball and all our games exist to protect the integrity and fairness of the lottery. It's imperative that the security steps be followed in every jurisdiction, even if that means a delay.
(The remainder of this blog entry contains details originally posted on Sunday, Nov. 6.)
Three Iowa Tickets Came SO CLOSE
Iowa Lottery players won a total of 101,223 prizes in last night’s Powerball drawing, including three tickets that were just one number away from having at least a share of the giant jackpot.
Two of those tickets each won a $50,000 prize while the other won $150,000.
The three tickets each matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball to win a $50,000 prize. But the person who bought one of the tickets also added the Power Play option to their play, which multiplied their winnings to $150,000.
The $50,000-winning tickets were purchased at: Kwik Star, 911 S. 14th St. in Clinton; and K&J Hop-N-Shop, 416 Broad St. in Sabula.
The $150,000-winning ticket was purchased at: Hy-Vee C-Store, 1999 Park St. in Sheldon.
The three prizes can be claimed at any Iowa Lottery office. If the winners have questions before claiming their prize, they are welcome to call us at the Iowa Lottery at 515-725-7900 or email us at wmaster@ialottery.com.
Last night’s winning numbers were: 28-45-53-56-69 and Powerball 20. The Power Play® number was 3.
Retail Locations Setting Up Powerball-Specific Lines
With Powerball sales remaining strong in Iowa and across the country, some retail locations are setting up customer-service lines specifically for lottery sales. That keeps Powerball transactions moving quickly and allows customers with other needs to be helped in a different line.
Sales in the past week demonstrate what has always been the case: Iowa Lottery players buy tickets where they’re already running other errands. And, stores with high customer traffic counts sell a lot of lottery tickets and all sorts of other products.
Here are the Top 10 retailers for Iowa Lottery sales in the past week (Oct. 30-Nov. 5). 1. Hy-Vee, 1843 Johnson Ave. NW in Cedar Rapids 2. Hy-Vee, 5050 Edgewood Road NE in Cedar Rapids 3. Hy-Vee, 1823 E. Kimberly Road in Davenport 4. Hy-Vee, 20 Wilson Ave. SW in Cedar Rapids 5. Hy-Vee, 2323 W. Broadway in Council Bluffs 6. Hy-Vee, 1725 Jordan Creek Pkwy. in West Des Moines 7. Hy-Vee, 3600 U.S. Highway 151 in Marion 8. Kwik Star, 1001 Blairs Ferry Road NE in Cedar Rapids 9. Hy-Vee, 2510 SW State St. in Ankeny 10. Hy-Vee, 3221 SE 14th St. in Des Moines.
Iowa Sales For Last Night’s Drawing
Iowa Lottery players bought more than $5.9 million in Powerball tickets for last night’s drawing, including more than $3.1 million in tickets yesterday alone.
But the average Powerball purchase in Iowa for last night’s drawing remained about $7, or about four plays per ticket. It’s good to see that a lot of people are having fun playing and they haven’t gone overboard.
Yes, The Next Drawing Is Tomorrow
Powerball’s next drawing is tomorrow. That is not a typo. Some people in recent days have questioned it when they heard that Powerball has drawings on Mondays.
Monday drawings have been part of the game for more than a year.
In August 2021, Powerball moved from having two drawings a week to drawings on three days each week. The game now has drawings on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The change was designed to produce more winners and generate larger, faster-growing jackpots, and that has occurred.
The Difference These Powerball Sales Will Make For State Causes
The final details won’t be available until later, but the impact of this month’s strong Powerball sales will mean more help for meaningful state causes in Iowa. Powerball players will have played a big part in helping our state.
Each year, 100 percent of Iowa Lottery proceeds go to support state causes. In its latest financial year, the Iowa Lottery raised more than $101.7 million for state programs that help everything from veterans and law enforcement to education, parks and conservation, agriculture, and human services.
Since its start in 1985, the Iowa Lottery has raised more than $2.2 billion for state programs. More details are here.
Where Can I Watch The Drawing?
The Powerball drawing is livestreamed on the Iowa Lottery website as it occurs at 9:59 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Video of the latest drawing then remains on the site until the next drawing occurs.
The livestream is on the Powerball page of the lottery’s website here.
Please Play Responsibly
And as always, the Iowa Lottery reminds everyone that it only takes one ticket to win. Please play responsibly. The Iowa Lottery keeps “Play Smart, Be Informed” details here.
Update at 10:15 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5: The winning numbers in tonight's huge Powerball drawing are: 28-45-53-56-69 and Powerball 20. The Power Play number is 3.
Tonight's jackpot ended up at a world-record $1.657 billion annuity. We'll see in the morning how Iowa did and if anybody nationwide won the truly GRAND prize! Thank you to everyone who played and was part of this moment. Good luck on your tickets!
Easy Pick vs. Your Own Numbers
The vast majority of tickets purchased in games like Powerball and Mega Millions® are easy-pick plays, meaning that the lottery terminal assigns the numbers printed on the ticket. About 93 percent of the plays purchased in Iowa for tonight’s drawing were easy picks.
But players also can choose their own numbers. They choose five numbers from a pool of 1 to 69 for the white balls and one number from a separate pool of 26 for the red Powerball.
Neither option is luckier. The odds of winning are the same for every ticket purchased in the game. There are more winners from easy-pick tickets simply because the majority of tickets purchased are easy picks.
A player wins the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a Powerball drawing. However, there are a total of nine prize levels in Powerball ranging from $4 up to the jackpot, so the Iowa Lottery reminds its players to be sure to check your tickets for all the prizes you may have won.
What Does ‘Coverage’ Mean & Why Does It Matter?
By tracking sales, lottery officials can estimate how many of all the possible combinations in the game have been purchased for a particular drawing. It’s called coverage – how many of the combinations have been “covered.”
The coverage estimate heading into tonight’s Powerball drawing was about 60 percent.
A higher coverage percentage can mean it’s more likely there will be a jackpot winner, but it’s not a definite.
Two Iowa Tickets Came SO CLOSE
Iowa Lottery players won a total of 68,008 prizes in Wednesday’s Powerball drawing, including two tickets that were just one number away from having at least a share of the big jackpot.
The two tickets each matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball to win a $50,000 prize. In an interesting twist, they were purchased at the same store: the Kwik Star at 1800 Blairs Ferry Road NE in Hiawatha.
A group of 21 co-workers at a Hiawatha engineering firm claimed one of the $50,000 prizes on Thursday. And a group of 10 co-workers at a Hiawatha manufacturer claimed the other $50,000 prize yesterday.
The members of both groups pitched in money at work for office-pool tickets, agreeing to split any winnings.
The co-workers who claimed their prize Thursday call themselves Hallin’ Cash. They’re all employees at Hall & Hall Engineers Inc. in Hiawatha.
The group that claimed its prize yesterday calls itself “One Link Short.” All of its members work at RUD Chain in Hiawatha, a company that produces chains for tires.
Wednesday’s winning numbers were: 2-11-22-35-60 and Powerball 23. The Power Play® number was 2.
While each group’s winning easy-pick tickets matched four of the five white balls and the Powerball, the numbers on their tickets were slightly different. The Hallin’ Cash ticket missed white ball 22, while One Link Short’s ticket missed white ball 35.
Where Can You See The Drawing?
The Powerball drawing is livestreamed on the Iowa Lottery website as it occurs at 9:59 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Video of the latest drawing then remains on the site until the next drawing occurs. The livestream is on the Powerball page of the lottery’s website here.
As the drawing time approaches, a countdown clock will show in the video box on the page.
How Has The Jackpot Grown By So Much?
As the Powerball jackpot has continued to climb, the amounts by which it has increased between drawings have grown larger. The Iowa Lottery has gotten questions from players wondering how it can jump up by so much.
Sales are a driving factor behind the jackpot amount. And sales follow the jackpot up. As the jackpot climbs, sales increase. And that in turn causes the jackpot to climb even higher.
When the jackpot is in the stratosphere like it is now, it can increase by millions of dollars between drawings. That huge increases show just how many people are playing the game across the country in the 48 jurisdictions that sell Powerball tickets.
Please Play Responsibly
And as always, the Iowa Lottery reminds everyone that it only takes one ticket to win. Please play responsibly. The mantra that applies: Playing smart is a lot more fun.
The early details show that Iowa Lottery players won more than 106,000 prizes in tonight’s world-record Mega Millions jackpot drawing and ticket sales in the game set a daily record in the lead-up to the drawing.
The winning numbers in tonight’s drawing were: 5-28-62-65-70 and Mega Ball 5. The Megaplier number was 3. Tonight’s jackpot was a world-record $1.6 billion annuity, or $913.7 million lump-sum option. Full details about the drawing results, including the locations where big-winning tickets were purchased in Iowa and whether there was a jackpot winner or winners nationwide, will be available tomorrow.
A total of 106,564 plays purchased by Iowa Lottery players won prizes tonight ranging from $2 up to $1 million. Four tickets purchased in Iowa came within one number of having at least a share of the jackpot. One of those tickets won a $1 million prize by matching the first five numbers but missing the Mega Ball. The other three tickets matched four of the first five numbers and the Mega Ball to win prizes of $10,000 each.
Iowa Lottery players bought more than $5.6 million in Mega Millions tickets for tonight’s drawing, including nearly $3.3 million in tickets today alone. That’s a single-day sales record for the game. Today’s sales total surpassed the previous daily sales record for Mega Millions of nearly $3.2 million, which was set on March 30, 2012.
During today’s busiest stretch from about 5-6 p.m., Mega Millions tickets sold at more than $7,000 per minute in Iowa. But the average Iowa Mega Millions purchase today remained about $6, or three plays per ticket. We’re glad to see that our players had fun and didn’t go overboard.
So, how do today’s sales figures compare to those four days ago for Friday’s drawing, when the game’s jackpot was an estimated $1 billion? Iowa Lottery players bought more than $4 million in Mega Millions tickets for Friday’s drawing, including more than $2.8 million in tickets that day alone. So, the Iowa sales total for tonight’s world-record Mega Millions drawing was nearly 40 percent higher than that for Friday’s drawing.
The odds of winning the jackpot in Mega Millions are about 1 in 302.6 million because there are about 302.6 million ways you can combine the numbers in the game to make a play. By tracking nationwide sales, lottery officials can estimate how many of all the possible combinations have been purchased for a particular drawing. About 75 percent of all the possible combinations were purchased for tonight’s drawing.
More than 93 percent of all the plays purchased in Iowa for tonight’s drawing were easy picks, meaning that the players let the lottery terminal randomly pick the numbers on their tickets.
Aug. 9 update: Nobody hit the jackpot in last night's Mega Millions drawing, so the dueling jackpots are still ON! The Mega Millions jackpot now stands an estimated $382 million annuity ($238.3 million lump-sum option) for Friday's drawing. So now we'll wait to see what happens in tonight's Powerball drawing ...
This week is the first time that the jackpots in Powerball® and Mega Millions® have both topped the $300 million mark at the same time since the games began to be sold by all U.S. lotteries seven years ago.
Prior to January 2010, the two games were sold by separate groups of lotteries. U.S. lottery directors reached an agreement back then that allowed both games to be sold by all states.
The jackpot for tonight’s Mega Millions drawing is an estimated $350 million annuity ($218.3 million cash option), while the Powerball jackpot for tomorrow night is an estimated $307 million annuity ($193.2 million cash option). That puts both jackpots in the Top 25 for each game.
The fact that both games are seeing big jackpots at the same time is unusual, and it speaks to the unpredictable nature of lottery jackpots: You just never know when the next big winner will hit!
Both jackpots have been growing for some time now. The Mega Millions jackpot was last won in the drawing on April 28 with a ticket purchased in California. It’s been growing since then to hit its current level. Remember that you can buy tickets here in Iowa for tonight’s Mega Millions drawing up until 8:59 p.m.
And the Powerball jackpot was last won on June 10 with a ticket purchased in California. You can buy tickets here in Iowa for tomorrow night’s Powerball jackpot up until 8:59 p.m. tomorrow.
If you buy tickets after those deadlines, they’ll be for a later, upcoming drawing.
Mega Millions and Powerball have both seen jackpots much larger than their current amounts, but not at the same time. Powerball currently has the world record for a lottery jackpot: a prize of nearly $1.6 billion that was split in January 2016 by three tickets in California, Florida and Tennessee. The largest Mega Millions jackpot to date is a $656 million prize won in March 212 by three tickets in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland.
Iowa Lottery players have won eight Powerball jackpots so far. The biggest Powerball prize won to date in Iowa was a $241 million jackpot claimed in June 2012 by The Shipping 20, a group of co-workers from the Quaker Oats plant in Cedar Rapids. And while Iowa has seen several winners at the $1 million level in Mega Millions, we are still waiting for our first jackpot winner in that game here in Iowa.
One year ago, everyone was talking about Powerball®, and many of you were waiting in lines at lottery retailers all across Iowa to try your luck at the world-record jackpot.
Who could forget the frenzy over the jackpot of nearly $1.6 billion in January 2016? That historic jackpot run began on Nov. 7, 2015, and continued for 19 drawings without a jackpot winner. The run ended on Jan. 13, 2016, with three jackpot-winning tickets sold in California, Florida and Tennessee.
Iowa Lottery players won nearly 225,000 prizes in that night’s world-record drawing, including a $2 million prize, which was claimed by Bryon Stewart of Onawa in western Iowa.
We sold more than $12 million in Powerball tickets for that drawing, which helped set numerous sales records across the country and led us to a record year of proceeds to the state causes that benefit all Iowans.
It was a busy time here at the lottery and for our nearly 2,400 retailers across the state, but in the end, it was a lot of fun to be part of such a memorable moment.
It’s been a few weeks now since we all were buzzing about the world-record Powerball® jackpot that reached nearly $1.6 billion! Whew! It was an intense and exciting time for us here at the lottery, our players, and of course, our retailers, who saw long lines of folks buying tickets all across the state.
At their peak, Powerball tickets in Iowa selling were at $13,800 per minute the night of the epic drawing on Jan. 13. And our 2,400 lottery retailers around the state were doing their best to keep pace with the demand.
As a way to celebrate and commemorate the momentous event, we designed a Powerball T-shirt as a way to say, “Thank you!” to our retailers for their hard work. Shown here is a cashier at a convenience store in the Des Moines area proudly wearing her new “World-Record Powerball Warrior” T-shirt. Looks like they’re a hit!
And even though things have calmed down, Saturday’s Powerball jackpot is an estimated $136 million. As we like to say, the jackpot’s always big! Got your ticket?
We’re off to a very fun start in 2016. Thank you for being part of this ride with us!
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As the lottery’s vice president of external relations, I’m a member of the senior management team at the Iowa Lottery, where I’ve worked since 1999. I’ve spent my years at the lottery learning as much as I can about all the ins and outs of the lottery industry. I’ll put that knowledge to work here so I can share the behind-the-scenes details with you!
