HOLIDAY LOTTERY SCRATCH GAME FEATURES
TOP INSTANT PRIZE OF $50,000,
DRAWING WITH $100,000 TOP PRIZE

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"Holiday Riches" Tickets Begin Sales This Week

DES MOINES, Iowa - The Iowa Lottery is celebrating the season with a set of instant-scratch games featuring holiday themes, including the "Holiday Riches" game that offers a top instant prize of $50,000 and a second-chance promotion with a $100,000 top prize and 20 prizes of $1,000.

The "Holiday Riches" game began sales Monday. Tickets in the $10 game feature colorful images of holiday lights. Players try to win a prize by matching any of "your numbers" to the "winning numbers" in the play area on each ticket. Players who find a "gift symbol" win the prize shown instantly. Instant prizes in the game range from $10 to $50,000.

Players who don't win instant prizes on their tickets can enter them in the second-chance promotion via the lottery Web site. On an entry form on the site, enter your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address along with the game and serial number from your nonwinning Holiday Riches ticket. The second-chance promotion runs from noon on Monday through noon on Jan. 20. The drawing will be held on Jan. 22.

Players must keep each ticket they enter in the second-chance promotion, as winning tickets in the drawing must be presented to the lottery to claim a prize.

Ken Brickman, the lottery's acting CEO, said holiday games are an annual tradition for the lottery, and the Holiday Riches game adds a new feature to the mix this year.

"We've offered a lot of games through the years that feature second-chance drawings, but this is the first time we've issued such a game just for the holidays," Brickman said. "We thought it would be another way to add to the fun of the season this year."

The Iowa Lottery also will offer five other holiday-themed scratch games this year, ranging in price from $1 to $5.

Since the Iowa Lottery's start in 1985, its players have won more than $2.2 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $1.1 billion for state programs.