The spokesperson for the Iowa Lottery says a human error caused them to incorrectly report the winning numbers for Monday’s Powerball drawing. The Lottery’s Mary Neubauer says it was a problem only in Iowa as the drawing results were entered into the computer system.
“We have folks in two different locations entering the numbers. That’s obviously a check and balance that we have in the process. And, and they both entered the incorrect winning numbers,” Neubauer explains. The winning number from the Double Play drawing were apparently incorrectly enter for Powerball. Once the problem was discovered they had to put in the proper numbers to send them out to all the lottery terminals and self service kiosks in the state.
“It takes several hours for that to occur. So throughout most of the of the workday on Tuesday, checking and cashing a Powerball tickets was shut down,” Neubauer says. “That resumed at about 3:30 p-m On Tuesday, with the correct Powerball winning numbers available.”
Neubauer says the good news is the incorrect results were only available on the Lottery system from about 12:30 a.m. until 7:15 a.m.. She says that kept the number of tickets cashed with the incorrect numbers low. “During that time, you know, a lot of retail locations are closed, or even if they’re open, you know, lottery tickets may be sold at the customer service counter and the customer service counter is closed. So there weren’t a lot of locations where you even could have checked a ticket that early in the morning. But we know that there are some,” she says.
Neubauer says they are still trying to figure out that number. She says they want to hear from people who have a concern. “If you have a ticket that you had a question about from Monday night’s Powerball drawing, please reach out to us at the Iowa Lottery. We will put you in contact with a member of our security team, they’ll be glad to review the details associated with your ticket to try to determine what occurred there,” Neubauer says. “The best way to contact us would be by phone at 515-725-7900 or by email to [email protected].”
Neubauer says they do their best to ensure there are not issues, but as long as there are human beings involved in any process, there can occasionally be mistakes made. “We are going back and reevaluating our drawing procedures to see what changes we can make or improvements we can make there, because there is a learning opportunity for any situation like this,” she says. Neubauer says the last time there was an incorrect inputting of numbers was in 2016.
She says the prizes won under the correct numbers ranged from $44 up to $200, while the prize range for the incorrect numbers ranged from $4 up to $200.