A spokesperson for the Iowa Lottery says the Mega Millions run up to Tuesday’s huge jackpot will bring millions of dollars into the state. Mary Neubauer says the drawing covers sales from October first up to Tuesday. “During that time, the Iowa Lottery sold more than eight-and-a-half million dollars in Mega Millions tickets,” according to Neubauer,”and about 35-percent of the proceeds from Mega Millions sales here in Iowa are returned to the state.”
Neubauer says some of the money would have been generated anyway from Mega Millions sales during the period, but it did push the number higher. “The state will receive a little more than three-million dollars from the Mega Millions sales that we just saw,” Neubauer says. She says the day of the drawing always sees the heaviest sales and that held true Tuesday with $1.9-million in tickets sold in Iowa.
Two of those tickets came very close to the jackpot.”There were two of those tickets here in Iowa that were one number away,” Neubauer says. The holders of the tickets sold in Burlington and Ankeny matched four numbers and the mega ball for a $5,000 dollar prize. The Mega Millions jackpot was estimated at $636,000 before the drawing, and was expected to end up slightly higher. Jackpot winning tickets were purchased in California and Georgia.