Playing the Colorado Lottery

Lottery fever struck Colorado hard this past week.
With the Powerball Jackpot  headed for over $500,000,000 - yes eight zeros! - last Wednesday, everyone was snapping up tickets.

I, too, had one quick pick with the multiplier.
It was fun to contemplate,
but as my ever-patient husband pointed out:
"You didn't have one number!"

He wonders every time I buy one why I waste money on lotto tickets.
But the E-P is the always the first to grab my ticket and check the numbers.
For me, the story of Wednesday's Powerball jackpot winners
was worth the three bucks my ticket cost me.

However, when I play the Colorado Lottery,
I win every single time with one $1.00 quick pick.
This is one of my wins!

Red-Tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado 

with Longs Peak in the Background

The Colorado Lottery had its origins in the year I arrived in Colorado.  

On July 1, 1982, Colorado's General Assembly passed Senate Bill 119 to implement a lottery.  

What the state decided to do with the net proceeds from the lottery 

has made me and every Coloradan a winner.

  

The state formula for the distribution of lotto profits has changed somewhat over the years, 

but its purpose remains essentially the same: 

to provide money for open space, recreation, parks, wildlife, and conservation education.

Immediately after the passage of S.B. 119,
the state began working to acquire the land
that became the beautiful and iconic Roxborough State Park.

[PDF] colorado lottery colorado lottery colorado lottery - Colorado ... www.cde.state.co.us/artemis/revserials/.../rev8112007internet.pdf
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View 25TH ANNIVERSARY FACT BOOK. COLORADO LOTTERY. (I can't get a link that works.) 

 Roxborough State Park

Colorado

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roxborough.jpg

The first scratch tickets were sold in January, 1983; and, I was one of the buyers.
Since then 2.3+ billion dollars of Colorado Lotto profits
have been given to the state for the purposes described above.
This includes the preservation of over 800,000 acres of priceless open space.

Over the years different groups have tried to change where the lotto money goes;
but, Colorado voters have consistently beaten back those efforts
in order to keep the money dedicated to supporting
open space, recreation, parks, wildlife, and conservation education.

So, on occasion,
I'll spend one or two dollars on a Lotto ticket
knowing whatever happens I am a winner.

My city of Aurora park along Piney Creek
may not compare with the spectacular scenery of Roxborough,
but it has given me hundreds of hours of soul-restoring pleasure.

I wander the acres between the Ponderosa Preserve and Red-tailed Hawk Park,
and often range miles beyond in many directions
from the Piney Creek Trail that passes through my small park.

My life is richer for it.

From my first attempt to photograph deer:

To my latest bunny:

From spring flowers:

And tricksy birds:

To lovely waters:

I am a lucky lotto winner!!!