Colorado Lottery To Provide $71 Million In Funding For State Parks, Recreation & Conservation
DENVER (CBS4) - The Colorado Lottery announced on Tuesday it reached the funding cap for Great Outdoors Colorado nearly a month earlier than last year. The lottery will provide $71.7 million to GOCO to fund parks, recreation, conservation and open space projects across the state.
The Colorado Lottery reports record-breaking sales so far this year, after a brief dip in profits during the COVID-19 shutdown last March. Because the lottery reached the GOCO cap early, they can now provide more proceeds to support Building Excellent Schools Today.
In 2019, the Colorado Lottery provided $14 million for BEST. The organization provides competitive grants to school districts, charter schools, institute charter schools, boards of cooperative educational services across the state, as well as to the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind.
"Colorado is bursting at the seams and so are its state and community parks, open space and schools," said Tom Seaver, director of the Colorado Lottery. "The changes we made to our Scratch products, increasing the number of games, price points and prize structures, have played a major role in helping us meet the cap to support GOCO's commitment to help build new parks and recreation, trails and fund open space conservation projects, as well as school infrastructure."
Lottery officials say between 22 to 24 cents of every dollar spent on Colorado Lottery games is reinvested in the state. Of the proceeds distributed, 50% is committed to GOCO up to the cap, 40% to Colorado Parks and Wildlife and 10% to Conservation Trust Fund. Once the GOCO cap is reached, 50% of each additional proceeds dollar spills over to the BEST fund.
