The woman who has been the main spokesperson for the Iowa Lottery is retired as of today.
Mary Neubauer started at the Lottery in October of 1999 as everyone was preparing for the potential computer shutdowns brought on by Y2K. “Obviously so much of the lottery is run by a central gaming system and we feared that come January 1st of 2000, were we going to be able to have lottery drawings, were we going to be able to pay prizes,” she says. “It all went completely smoothly. But oh my gosh, the amount of planning that went into something that basically didn’t happen.”
Neubauer eventually moved into the position of talking to and introducing those who won the big prizes. She says the size of those prizes and the advancement of social media are two of the big changes in her 25 years. “Who would have predicted back when I started and the speed with which information gets out there and that with which we have to be ready to respond. That’s that’s been probably the biggest change within my job,” Neubauer says.
Neubauer says they used to sometimes wait to release information on a big Saturday jackpot drawing until Monday. Now everyone is talking about it and speculation on social median and the Lottery responds much quicker. “When when a jackpot hits, you have to be ready to go within just an hour or less because information is just going to travel so quickly these days,” she says.
Neubauer is retiring early from the Lottery and says the death of her son by suicide eight years ago is one of the reasons. She and her husband spoke out publicly about what happened as they sought to help others facing a similar situation. “We started a conversation here in Iowa about how we as a state are or are not caring for those who are struggling and the stress and strain of that, I don’t think even I realized until recently just how. exhausted, I am and I think I just need to step away and just be me. And so I’m looking forward to that,” she says.
Neubauer says she will miss the Iowa Lottery and meeting and hearing from the people who win prizes.