CLIVE, IOWA – A human reporting error caused the winning numbers for Monday’s Powerball® drawing to initially be reported incorrectly in Iowa and then led to a delay in the drawing results in the state for several hours. The Iowa Lottery was able to correctly enter the official drawing results Tuesday afternoon and then resume paying prizes from the drawing.
The Powerball drawing was conducted correctly as scheduled Monday night with official results produced, but the Iowa Lottery’s redundant reporting procedures failed after the drawing. It takes time to correct such an error on the lottery’s statewide gaming system, which links all lottery terminals and self-service kiosks in the state. Lottery staff were able to complete the process by Tuesday afternoon.
The Iowa Lottery sincerely apologizes for the interruption.
The mistake impacted only the Iowa Lottery’s reporting of the official results for Monday’s Powerball drawing. All other lottery tickets could be purchased, checked and cashed as usual at lottery terminals across the state and the results for all other lottery drawings were recorded correctly.
The CORRECT winning numbers in Monday’s Powerball drawing were: 2-21-38-61-66 and and Powerball 12. The Power Play® number was 2.
The Powerball Double Play® winning numbers were: 9-29-51-53-61 and Double Play Powerball 20.
Those are the winning numbers for which the lottery will pay prizes.
As part of the Iowa Lottery’s procedures, two different people in two different locations both enter the results from lotto drawings before they are officially recorded on the lottery’s statewide gaming system. But when the winning numbers from Monday’s Powerball drawing were being inputted, some of the numbers were mistakenly entered incorrectly.
The mistake initially caused the lottery to report incorrect results from Monday’s Powerball drawing on its statewide gaming system and the lottery website. The incorrect results were posted about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday and remained available until about 7:15 a.m. that day.
Lottery staffers noticed the error shortly after 7 a.m. Tuesday and suspended the results for the Powerball drawing on lottery terminals, knowing that correcting the information on the statewide gaming system would take longer.
The lottery continued to work through the situation that day, then was able to go live with corrected official results about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and resumed cashing Powerball tickets.
Lottery records show that a total of 3,998 in Powerball plays purchased in Iowa won prizes ranging from $4 up to $200 for a total of $24,382 in winnings from Monday’s drawing.
Under the incorrect results initially reported, Powerball prizes won likewise would have ranged from $4 up to $200. Prizes were paid for any of those tickets presented during the time period that the incorrect results were posted.
While the number of people potentially impacted by the situation is small, the Iowa Lottery wants to hear from any players who have questions or concerns. They are welcome to contact an Iowa Lottery Security staffer by calling 515-725-7900 or emailing to wmaster@ialottery.com.
Lottery staffers will continue to review drawing procedures with an eye toward improvements in the future.
