(Des Moines, IA) -- The Iowa Lottery Board has voted to shorten the time Iowans have to claim a prize in multi-state games. Currently, winners in Iowa have one year to claim their prize, but the Lottery Board has voted to shorten that to 180-days. The change applies to Powerball, Mega Millions, Lucky for Life, and Lotto America. The change is expected to take effect early next year, after staffers complete testing on the statewide gaming system.
Iowa is one of 14 U.S. lotteries with the 365-day deadline to claim a prize in a multi-state lotto game. Thirty-three lotteries have the180-day deadline.
The lottery’s review of prize claims from a sampling of recent drawings in the four games found that the vast majority of claims occurred within six months of the drawing date, and fewer than 3 percent of prizes from those drawings were claimed after 180 days.
The Lottery Board says time also is an important consideration from a security perspective. As time passes, it becomes more difficult for those involved to accurately recall the details of a ticket purchase and provide that information to the Iowa Lottery for verification purposes.
Under state law, money from prizes that expire in Iowa without being claimed will continue to go back to players through the lottery’s prize pools for future games and promotions. In the past three fiscal years, the annual total in Iowa Lottery prizes that expired without being claimed ranged from about $1.3 million to more than $1.7 million.
Prize-claim periods for other Iowa Lottery products will not be changing.
- Tickets in Iowa-specific lotto games (Pick 3 and Pick 4) are valid for 90 days from the date of the drawing.
- Tickets in scratch games are valid for 90 days after the announced end of the game.
- Tickets in pull-tab games are valid for 90 days after the announced end of the game.
- Tickets in InstaPlay games are valid for 90 days from the date of purchase.