Lottery Scrambles After Publishing Wrong Winning Numbers, Blames 'Human Error'
If you bought a ticket for the Iowa Powerball lottery earlier this week, you might have experienced some drama.
A “human reporting error” caused incorrect winning numbers to be posted on the statewide gaming system and lottery website for about seven hours, according to a statement on the Iowa Lottery Blog.
“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,” the blog explained.
“But when the winning numbers from Monday’s Powerball drawing were being inputted, some of the numbers were mistakenly entered incorrectly.”
The wrong numbers were posted at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, and the error went unnoticed until about 7:15 a.m., when lottery staffers “noticed the error … 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 statement explained.
It took until about 3:30 p.m. to make all the necessary corrections.
The mistake only impacted Monday’s Powerball drawing, lottery officials said.
“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,” they said.
Monday’s Powerball jackpot was approximately $355 million, The Associated Press reported, but the corrected numbers resulted in 3,998 customers winning prizes ranging from $4 to $200.
The early birds who cashed in their tickets before the error was caught also collected between $4 and $200.
“Prizes were paid for any of those tickets presented during the time period that the incorrect results were posted,” the statement on the lottery blog said.
The organization did not reveal how many people collected from the incorrect numbers.
The statement promised that “lottery staffers will continue to review drawing procedures with an eye toward improvements in the future.”
Iowa Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer told KCAU-TV that “we do our best to make sure that everything is done flawlessly, but … as long as human beings are involved, there will occasionally be mistakes made.”
The correct winning numbers for Monday’s Powerball drawing were 2-21-38-61-66 and Powerball 12.
The state lottery office invited players to share questions or concerns by calling 515-725-7900 or emailing wmaster@ialottery.com.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
