Iowa Lottery Posted Wrong Winning Powerball Numbers

A group of Powerball losers in Iowa were actually winners for about seven hours this week after the state lottery shared the wrong winning numbers for the game.

Lottery officials cited an unspecified "human reporting error” for the wrong numbers being posted for Monday's Powerball drawing.

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The incorrect numbers were posted to the Iowa Lottery website about 12:30am Tuesday and stayed there until 7:15am before anyone caught that there was a mistake. That's when someone took down the numbers and halted the payouts.

The lottery said the initial, incorrect numbers would have resulted in prizes of $4-$200, but officials didn't specify how many people won.

Anyone who woke up early, saw they "won" and cashed in their ticket will be able to keep the money.

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Monday's Powerball drawing was for an estimated $355 million. The lottery spent all day Tuesday, not getting the system corrected until 3:30 pm before they could begin to cash the correct winners.

With the correct numbers, 3,998 players won prizes from $4-$200.

The real winning numbers from Monday night's Powerball drawing were 2-21-38-61-66 with a Powerball of 12.