Powerball players in the Hawkeye State had to wait a little longer than usual for their Powerball results on Monday, November 27. The winning numbers were initially reported incorrectly due to a human error. This resulted in the announcement of the correct winning numbers being delayed by several hours.
The Monday Powerball drawing
The Monday night Powerball drawing was conducted correctly, and the official results were produced. The problem lay within the reporting procedures, which failed to function correctly after the drawing. The Iowa gaming system links to all lottery terminals and self-service kiosks throughout the state. This means that correcting this type of error is time-consuming. However, lottery staff rose to the challenge and were able to complete the process by Tuesday afternoon. The Iowa Lottery apologized for any inconvenience caused.
What went wrong
The Iowa Lottery drawing procedure is designed to be fair and secure. Typically, when a drawing takes place, two people in separate locations enter the results from the drawing before they are officially recorded into the lottery’s statewide gaming system. However, on Monday, as the numbers were being entered, some of them were accidentally inputted incorrectly.
The resulting error caused the lottery to report incorrect results from the Powerball drawing onto Iowa’s gaming system and lottery website. The erroneous results were posted at around 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday. They remained visible until around 7:15 a.m. the same day.
Lottery employees first noticed the mistake after 7 a.m. on Tuesday. Their initial reaction was to suspend the results for the Powerball drawing on all the lottery terminals. Giving them time to correct the information on the statewide gaming system. The Iowa Lottery worked diligently to correct the situation on Tuesday and was finally able to go live with the official Powerball results at around 3:30 p.m. that afternoon.
Lottery staffers are continuing to review drawing protocols with a view to improving the system to prevent such errors in the future.
The impact of the error
Fortunately, the error only affected the Iowa Lottery’s reporting of the official result for Monday’s Powerball game. Iowa players were still able to purchase tickets, check their results, and claim their winnings in all other lottery drawings as normal. The results for the other lottery drawings were recorded correctly. Only Powerball was affected. The correct winning numbers for Monday’s Powerball drawing were 2, 21, 38, 61, 66, and Powerball number 12. The Power Play number was 2.
About the Iowa Lottery
The Hawkeye State Lottery was launched in 1985. Since then, Iowa lottery players have won more than $5.6 billion in prizes. Not only that, the lottery has raised over $2.4 billion for state programs that support veterans and their families, the families of peace officers, firefighters, and corrections employees who lose their lives in the line of duty. The Iowa lottery also supports the Vision Iowa program, the purpose of which is to create community attractions and tourism destinations throughout the state as well as build and maintain schools.
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