(Iowa Lottery photo)
The Iowa State Fair and the Iowa Lottery have teamed up for a State Fair themed scratch ticket.
Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn says it’s the first ticket specifically targeting the annual event. “A $5 ticket where you can win a $50,000 top prize up to $50,000 on the ticket alone,” he says. “I suspect that’ll buy a corndog or two out here come August.” There’s a second chance as those with losing scratch tickets will be able to enter them to be part of a “Fair Fever” promotion on August 8th.
“Twenty people will be out there on a live game show on the Grand Concourse on opening day of the fair and those 20 Iowans, those 20 Iowa Lottery players, are going to have the opportunity to compete for a guaranteed one million dollars in prizes,” Strawn says. The final contestant in the game show will have a chance to the grand prize. “We’ll also — right out there in a live lottery game show (the contestant) will have the opportunity to compete for a five million dollar prize,” he says. And that last contestant will go away with a minimum prize of $500,000.
Iowa State Fair CEO Jeremy Parsons says the pairing with the Lottery’s statewide reach may bring more people to the fairgrounds. “That’s our hope. You know one of the great things that the Iowa Lottery does really is they blanket the entire state in terms of their media coverage they get to all corners of the state,” he says. “We really think we’ll probably get the Iowa State Fair top of mind maybe more than ever this summer.”
The Iowa Lottery and the Iowa State Fair do have a vast history, as the first every scratch tickets began selling on August 22nd, 1985 on the fairgrounds. Proceeds from the Iowa Lottery have been used through the years to fund upgrades to the various facilities at the Fair, including the 1997 granstand renovation.