(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Lottery is opening the doors back up today (Thursday) to allow you to cash winning tickets in person. Lottery spokesperson, Mary Neubauer says they’ve been working to make it safe. “We have additional protective glass or plexiglass up at the customer service counters in all of our offices. We have hand sanitizing stations just inside the front door to all of our offices and we hope everyone will use them,” Neubauer says. “We’ve installed floor decals to reminding everyone about keeping the six-foot distant to maintain social distancing.”

She says they are taking other precautions as well. “Our staffers will wear masks when interacting with the public and we strongly encourage visitors to our offices to also wear masks. We will wipe down and sanitize the areas after each prize claim appointment. And visitors can again use hand sanitizing stations as they leave our offices,” she says. Neubauer says this is phase three of the ticket claim adjustments. They started by requiring winners to mail-in tickets or leave them at a secure drop box outside the lottery offices. The second phase instituted a curbside process where Lottery employees would come to the parking lot to get tickets from customers.

“In the first couple of weeks after we implemented curbside prize claims — we just saw an influx of folks bringing us winning tickets — we processed hundreds of claims those first couple of weeks,” according to Neubauer. “It turns out a lot of folks had chosen to simply hold onto those tickets rather than mailing or shipping them to us or using a secure dropbox.” Neubauer says they are asking those in a group who have won a prize to send just one person to collect. She says moving the prize redemption’s back inside will have them ready for any winter weather. “I don’t want to think about it myself, but I know here in Iowa we’ve got a month left of warmish weather. We sometimes have had snow before Halloween, so I know we are moving in the right direction,” Neubauer says.

Iowa Lottery prizes up to 600 dollars in the lotto, InstaPlay and instant-scratch games may be redeemed at any lottery retailer location in the state if sufficient funds are available. Pull-tab prizes of up to 600 dollars must be redeemed at the same location where the ticket was purchased. Prizes of more than 250-thousand dollars must be claimed in person at the Iowa Lottery headquarters office in Clive.