Iowa Lottery Marks 40 Years with Guinness World Records™ Title Attempt at Iowa State Fair
Iowans Encouraged to Participate in Historic Scratch Ticket Event Aug. 14
Click links for JPEG images of tickets in the Iowa Lottery's original Scratch, Match & Win game
and the 40th anniversary version of the game.
Three JPEG images from the Iowa State Fair kickoff celebration in 1985 for the first day of Iowa Lottery sales are available here.
CLIVE, Iowa - As part of its 40th anniversary celebration, the Iowa Lottery is going back to its roots to attempt to break a GUINNESS WORLD RECORD™ title.
Nearly 40 years ago, on Aug. 22, 1985, Iowa Lottery sales began with a kick-off celebration at the Iowa State Fair. Now, decades later, the Lottery is celebrating its history by returning to the Fair to attempt to break a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for the most people scratching scratch tickets simultaneously.
Scratching for the Record
On Thursday, Aug. 14, at 5:15 p.m., at the Elwell Family Park at the Iowa State Fair, the Lottery will attempt to gather hundreds of participants to simultaneously scratch a throwback version of its very first product — a 2025 version of the "Scratch, Match & Win!" game originally launched at the Fair in 1985. To break the world record, currently held by a lottery in Poland, more than 550 participants will need to scratch their tickets in unison.
"The Iowa Lottery is bringing Scratch, Match & Win! back to the Iowa State Fair. We want to give Iowans an opportunity to join us in celebrating 40 years of raising billions of dollars for good causes and attempting to set a new world record,” said Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn. “They say nothing compares to the Iowa State Fair and that will certainly be true as Iowans attempt to break a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title! We look forward to bringing the record title back to the U.S. and the great state of Iowa."
During the record attempt, an official adjudicator from Guinness World Records will be on hand to verify and confirm the record.
How to Participate
Fairgoers 21 and older who want to take part in the record-breaking attempt are encouraged to head to Elwell Family Park, located in the northwest corner of the fairgrounds, on the afternoon of Aug. 14. Walk-up entry will begin at 4:30 p.m., and participation will be limited based on venue capacity. Spots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so lining up early is encouraged. No purchase is necessary to take part. Another group of participants, who signed up in advance through the IA Lottery™ VIP Club, will also take part in the record attempt.
As part of the record attempt, all participants will receive a free Scratch, Match & Win! scratch ticket, which offers prizes of up to $50,000. They’ll also be entered into a drawing held immediately following the official record attempt, which begins at 5:15 p.m. One prize of $40,000 and two prizes of $4,000 will be awarded.
Throwback Game
Tickets used in this record-breaking attempt are the 2025 version of the Scratch, Match & Win! game, the first-ever scratch ticket sold by the Iowa Lottery. The ticket’s 1980s throwback artwork features a hand holding a coin to scratch a ticket, much like the lottery's original scratch game from August 1985.
The original scratch game cost $1 and had a top prize of $5,000. The new Scratch, Match & Win! game, which began distribution at lottery retailers on June 3, costs $5 and features eight top prizes of $50,000.
Players who don't win a cash prize on their Scratch, Match & Win! ticket have until 9:59 a.m. on Sept. 17 to enter eligible tickets into a second-chance promotion that will award 51 cash prizes ranging from $1,000 up to the grand prize of $100,000.
40 Years of Lottery History
Legislation authorizing a lottery in Iowa was signed into law on April 18, 1985, with the kick-off celebration at the Iowa State Fair following four months later.
In its four decades of operation, the Iowa Lottery has evolved from offering a single scratch game at its start into an organization with dozens of games on the market at a time and technology that continues to evolve to meet consumer expectations.
Throughout its 40-year history, scratch tickets have remained the Iowa Lottery’s top-selling product with nearly $300 million in scratch tickets alone purchased by Iowa Lottery players last year.
The Lottery's Impact By The Numbers
By the numbers, here is a look at 40 years of lottery history in Iowa (figures current through April 30, 2025, unless otherwise noted):
| $10.4 billion | Total Iowa Lottery sales |
| $6.1 billion | Total prizes won by Iowa Lottery players |
| $2.5 billion | Total lottery proceeds to Iowa causes |
| $722.5 million | Total lottery sales commissions paid to Iowa businesses that sell lottery tickets |
| $343.9 million | Largest lottery prize claimed in Iowa to date. A Redfield woman claimed that Powerball® jackpot on Nov. 5, 2018 |
| 2,500 | Number of retail locations in Iowa that sell lottery tickets |
| 189 | Number of Iowa Lottery tickets to date that have won prizes of $1 million or more |
| 9 | Number of Powerball jackpots won to date by Iowa Lottery players |
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