(Des Moines) -- Iowa Lottery players will have a chance to win a $1 million unclaimed prize with a new promotion this spring.
Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn announced Monday morning that his agency will rollout the "Woo Hoo A Million For You Giveaway" from May 29th-June 18th. The $1 million unclaimed prize is the result of a winning Powerball ticket sold at a Casey's in central Iowa's Nevada last April. Strawn says the winner had one year to claim the prize, but nobody stepped forward.
"As April 11, 2019 approached, the Iowa Lottery repeatedly issued reminders and updates trying to find the winner," said Strawn. "In fact, just a little bit over a month ago on March 11, 2019, the Iowa Lottery held a news conference at the very Casey's store in Nevada where the Powerball ticket was won -- something that attracted tremendous statewide news coverage, yet still no winner came forward."
Strawn says all Powerball tickets purchased during the three-week promotion will get you one entry into the contest for the $1 million unclaimed prize.
"Any Powerball ticket purchased in Iowa from May 29th to June 11th will be eligible for entry into the promotion," said Strawn. "Each Powerball ticket entered will count as one entry into the promotion, no matter the purchase price of the ticket."
Strawn says the unclaimed prize must be used as part of the Lottery's prize and promotion pool.
"State code actually requires unclaimed prizes to go into prize promotions and prize pools, so we're operating consistent with state code," said Strawn. "With the proceeds generated by the state lottery, policymakers make those decisions on how best to allocate those resources for state needs."
As the time to claim the original prize was running out, Strawn says his office was already cooking up ideas for how to give it away.
"We plan for every eventuality, so we have been spending a little bit of time over the last few weeks while we were aggressively out there trying to help identify the winner trying to put together a promotion that we think is consistent, is fun and can get everybody's attention," said Strawn. "It's something that everyone, quite frankly, has a chance to win. You don't get any simpler than one ticket, one entry and one shot at a million bucks."
In the last fiscal year, the Iowa Lottery reported more than $1.4 million in unclaimed winnings.
You can view the full announcement from the Iowa Lottery below.
http://www.kmaland.com/news/iowa-lottery-announces-giveaway-promotion-for-unclaimed-million-prize/article_ebf72b12-5fa8-11e9-8067-aff34b90ed8a.html