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More than $30 million coming back to Colorado thanks to double jackpot run

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Reaching a record $1.7 billion in combined jackpots before the winning Mega Millions ticket was drawn on Jan. 22, the lengthy run of the both the Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots brought big wins for Colorado lottery, businesses, players and the lottery partners that support the outdoors and schools.

The three-week run resulted in more than $33 million dollars in sales for tickets alone.

That’s a more than 526 percent increase from the same time frame in 2020.

Although the big winners weren’t from the state, of the thousands of tickets sold, big winners ranged from $10,000 to $1 million in Colorado.

In Colorado Springs, three winning tickets of more than $10,000 dollars were sold.

When Colorado plays, the state’s outdoor spaces are the big winners. The amount of every dollar spent that goes to lottery beneficiaries averages about 23 cents across all games. For national jackpot games, that jumps to 39 cents of every dollar spent.

“Well, we knew it was going to be a good number because sales had been building ever since the jackpot really rolled over 300-400 million dollars. Then we really see an acceleration in player-ship and spending," said Colorado Lottery Director Tom Seaver. "So we knew it was going to be a good number we are just really happy to add so much to our beneficiaries this year.”

With $33 million coming back to the state, more than $13 million will go to lottery partners. Great Outdoors Colorado gets 50% or $6.5 million, Conservation Trust Fund gets 40% and Colorado Parks & Wildlife will receive 10%. The leftovers go to school construction.

“It’s kind of a cliche to say that everybody wins but with the lottery when you don’t have a winning ticket at least the money you are spending goes to a really good cause or several good causes across Colorado," Seaver said. "You know when you are out there on the trail or riding your bikes you can feel really good because chances are you helped contribute to building it or helped in maintaining it.”

Lottery retailers got a boost of more than $2 million on lottery ticket sales alone during the double jackpot run, a more than 700 percent combined increase over the same time period from 2020. 

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Kolby Crossley

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