COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Powerballs $2 tickets have a $500 million dream attached to them.

"Oh yeah we be going on vacation, we be hitting the road," James Keith, a Colorado Springs resident said.

Two million people have bought into the Colorado Lottery over the last three days and while the winning numbers won't be released until Wednesday, the state of Colorado has already won.

For every ticket sold a portion of the proceeds go to our parks and wildlife.  In fiscal year 2011, of $70 million in Powerball sales $27 million went back to the state.

"Even if you don't use these trails everyday tourists are using them and taking advantage of them and it is helping the local economy," Heather Black, spokeswoman for the Colorado Lottery said.

Lottery proceeds are critical to the Division of Parks and Wildlife and fund one-fifth of their annual $200 million budget.

The agency doesn't receive general fund tax revenue so they rely on people who hunt, fish, visit our state parks, and play the numbers.

"The great wildlife resource that we have in this state really wouldn't exist without the foresight of people back in the 1980s when lottery came into existence," Randy Hampton, spokesman of the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife said.

The profits from the Colorado Lottery are dispersed to three wildlife projects:

50 percent to the Great Outdoors Colorado, 40 percent to the Conservation Trust Fund, and 10 percent to the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife.