Sports betting will soon face more regulations in Colorado after state lawmakers passed a bipartisan bill this legislative session.
The bill bans using credit cards for betting accounts, bans push notifications to solicit bets, and bans marketing to anyone under the age of 21.
The bill will not ban bets on a specific event, outcome, or statistic in a game, also known as prop bets.
According to lawmakers, a prop bet ban would have lost the state $2.4 million in tax revenue, which helps fund Colorado’s water projects.
“There's a lot that goes into this bill, but specifically what I like about the bill is putting protections in place to prohibit people being able to gamble on credit. That's one of the largest risk factors that we see for individuals, when they start gambling with money they don't have,” Jamie Glick, executive director of Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado, said. “There's a lot of other aspects of the bill that we're neutral on.”
Glick said while he is not in support of marketing to young people, he’s neutral on some of the other marketing specifics, like language.
On Wednesday, the Colorado Department of Revenue reported the state collected more than $4 million in sports betting tax revenue in March, and a total of $36 million has been collected this fiscal year.
Once Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signs the bill, Colorado will join nine other states that have banned the use of credit cards for deposits for sports betting.
