The Iowa Lottery is set to release two new games to benefit the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. Lottery Vice President Mary Neubauer says a pull tab game will launch January 12th and a scratch ticket will be released January 26th.
Neubauer says the pull tab game, called “Land of Liberty,” and the scratch game, “Freedom Rings,” will both feature patriotic symbols and colors. “We were able to work the new logo of the Iowa Veteran’s Trust Fund onto the face of each of the tickets, so that anybody buying the game will know those are the tickets helping veterans,” Neubauer said.
The original Iowa Veteran’s Trust Fund games were released in July. By October, sales from the tickets raised one-million dollars for the fund that helps qualified veterans with a variety of services, from unemployment assistance to vision and dental benefits.
“I think the reason why the games have been so successful is that Iowans understand exactly where the money is going,” Neubauer said. “When you buy those tickets, you know that the money is going straight into the Veteran’s Trust Fund to help veterans. That’s just a message that everybody has really embraced.”
The Iowa Lottery will make another deposit into the fund at the end of January. Neubauer doubts the transfer will be as large as the one made in October. “That’s just kind of the cyclical nature of a lottery game,” Neubauer explained. “When a lottery game comes out, it sells really quickly. Then, after it’s been on the market a while, sales go down.”
When state lawmakers approved the special tickets, the Lottery projected annual proceeds from the games would be two to three million dollars. Neubauer says they are “definitely on schedule” to meet that projection.