ialottery blog

EARLY DETAILS OF TONIGHT’S MEGA MILLIONS RESULTS IN IOWA

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.

Jackpot News Galore/Dueling Jackpots!

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.

A Look Back At Powerball Mania 2016

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.

Yep! We’re Powerball Warriors Here In Iowa!

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!