Happy 30th Iowa Lottery

It's been three decades of scratch ticketing and number choosing in the Hawkeye State. The Iowa Lottery just hit the age of 30. Rewind back to 1985 and you may remember the launch of the state's gambling era.

Dog Tracks were also started about that time. I dropped a few bucks at the Dubuque track, but never did much lotto ticket buying back in the day. As the years rolled on, I stayed away from ticket buying except when the jackpots were big. Then, I'd get into a pool here at work. The dogs? Well, they are but a distant memory.

My friend Scraps once hit a $5K payout in the Iowa Lottery. And, a good friend in Princeton, IL once took home a nice payment in the Illinois Lottery. Don't know if their winnings evened out their expenditures over the years to make it a wash. If you buy a ticket Wednesdays and Saturdays, that's $104 a year. Small price to pay for "Dreaming a little Dream," right? Just not for me for some reason. I'll lay down $3 on candy and soda, so maybe I should stop that an move over to the ticket booth from now on!

KCCI says Iowa Lottery sales have totalleed $6 billion and players have won just over half of that amount [$3.5 billion]. Someday, all of this gaming will transfer to your smartphone. Convenience stores may lobby against that move, but actual convenience that will win out in the end.