Iowa Lottery players might want to double-check their scratch games because time is running out to cash in. Lottery officials said that 22 instant-scratch games ended on June 28.
If you have one these scratch games and it’s a winner, you have until the close of the business day of Monday, Sept. 27, to claim any lottery prizes.
RELATED: Read our guide on how to claim your lottery winnings.
Customers can claim larger prize amounts at Iowa Lottery offices in Clive, Cedar Rapids, Mason City or Storm Lake, but be sure to schedule an appointment.
Iowa Lottery retailers can handle smaller amounts.
Which Iowa scratch games are expiring?
Iowa Lottery officials replace the ending games with new scratch games throughout the year as part of its standard procedures.
The Iowa scratch games set to expire are:
- 4X4
- Blackjack
- Cash on the Cob
- E-I-E-I Dough
- Fast 5s
- Hedgie Hundreds
- Holiday Dazzle
- Joker’s Wild
- Loose Change
- Luau Loot
- Lucky 7s
- Lucky Ewe
- Money Multiplier
- Naughty/Nice
- Neon Letters
- Silverado
- Star
- Stinking Rich
- Tic Tac Toad
- Pay Me!
- Power Shot
- Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
Unclaimed scratch game wins go into future games
Mary Neubauer, the Iowa Lottery vice president for external relations, estimates about $1.5 million in lottery winnings go unclaimed in an average year.
Last month she told PlayIA:
“Many of those prizes are small — $3, $5 — but obviously they add up over time. For those really small prizes, I think maybe folks set them aside and mean to come in to claim them. Then — for whatever reason — they don’t get around to it. But it’s always interesting to me to see that number at the end of the year.”
The Iowa Lottery maintains an unclaimed prize page. The Clive staff will often put out reminders when they know the deadline to claim a larger prize is approaching.
Neubauer said:
“Every year here in Iowa we’ll see prizes at the $10,000 level, $50,000 level — maybe even something as high as $200,000 will expire without being claimed.”
That usually happens in the lotto games offered by the Iowa Lottery, but plenty of scratch-ticket wins go unclaimed as well:
“Perhaps they only check the ticket to see if they won the jackpot and they don’t check further — not knowing that there are really significant prizes in those games that aren’t the jackpot — but you also can win. In a scratch ticket, maybe they play the ticket, didn’t check it closely enough and didn’t realize they had won. Maybe the ticket gets lost. I think there could be as many reasons as there are people in this world.”
Large Iowa Lottery prizes will expire soon
The Iowa Lottery puts any unclaimed prize amounts into future games, and a couple of significant lottery prizes need to be cashed in soon:
- Someone bought a $20 Extreme Green Progressive InstaPlay ticket on April 8 at the Car-Go Express convenience store in Spencer. The winner has a July 7 deadline to claim $10,000.
- The Cash Saver grocery store at 4121 Fleur Drive in Des Moines sold a midday Pick 4 ticket worth $15,000. The customer won the prize on April 21, but the cash-in chance expires on July 20.
- The customer who bought a $2 Cherry Twist Progressive InstaPlay ticket on June 22 at the Schottsy’s Liquor Store in Sibley has a little more time. That winner has a Sept. 20 deadline to claim an $11,763.95 win.
According to the Iowa Lottery, other customers have yet to claim:
- Five $3,000 wins
- A $2,500 win
- Three $2,000 wins
- Seven $1,500 wins
- A $1,200 win
- Thirty-two $1,000 wins (one is $1,005.68)
- Two $900 wins
- Twelve $800 wins
- Five $750 wins
- Four $650 wins
Mount Pleasant woman claims $25K Lucky For Life win
Deb Perrott, of Mount Pleasant, didn’t waste any time cashing in her Lucky for Life win and for good reason. She’ll now receive $25,000 per year for life, so there’s no sense letting time go by.
The 58-year-old southeast Iowa convenience store customer bought the lotto ticket at the Gas Land Express in her community.
The Mount Pleasant ticket matched the first five numbers in Monday’s drawing but missed the Lucky Ball, according to the Iowa Lottery.
The game debuted in January 2016 and this is Iowa’s 11th big win. The winning numbers in Monday’s drawing were: 5-7-23-25-48 and Lucky Ball 8.
Parrott would have won $1,000 per day by matching all six numbers. Other prize levels in the game range from $4 up to $5,000. The mail-management company employee told her boss she won on Tuesday, but kept the news to herself otherwise. A day later at Lottery headquarters in Clive she said:
“It was a very, very long day. I don’t think I fully believed it yet. It just hadn’t really sunk in that this is really happening. I wanted somebody to pinch me to see if I was dreaming.”
The lotto game holds drawings twice a week — at 9:38 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays. The game’s top two prize levels last “as long as you do.” The minimum guaranteed payout for those two prize levels is 20 years, and there is a lump-sum option for players who would prefer that rather than lifetime annuity payments.
Some traveling is in Parrott’s plans but she told the lottery “this will definitely help with retirement.”
Gas Land Express also wins. The convenience store receives a $500 bonus from the lottery for selling the winning ticket.
