DENVER — Bipartisan lawmakers working together on a new bill argue the state did not implement responsible restrictions when voters rolled the dice on legalizing sports betting more than five years ago.
Now, those behind Senate Bill 26-131 claim it is necessary to protect consumers from problem gambling and to ensure sports betting is not being excessively marketed to children.
"This bill is to put common sense guardrails on online sports betting," said State Sen. Matt Ball, D — District 31, who is one of the prime sponsors of the legislation. "At this point, online sports betting, for a lot of people, is the same as having a casino in your pocket. And that is leading to a huge spike in gambling addiction.”
However, those opposed to the proposal believe lawmakers are betting on a bill that will not win big in Colorado.
Ultimately, SB26-131 advanced out of the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday evening on a close 5-4 vote, after lawmakers heard hours of testimony and worked to answer their pressing questions.
The legislation would bring a number of changes to Colorado, including prohibiting internet sports betting operators from accepting more than five separate donations — not bets — from one person in a 24-hour period.
In addition, deposits could not be taken from a credit card in connection with a sports bet. According to the bill's fiscal note, DraftKings banned credit cards in August of 2025, and FanDuel did the same in early March of 2026.
"I've been the commissioner of a fantasy baseball league for 15 years. We're not getting in the way of legal sports betting that's practiced between friends," Ball said. "What this bill is doing is with the deposit limit is saying you can't continue to make deposits and chase your losses more than five times in a 24-hour time period. You could still put in 500 bucks and then go make as many bets as you want any given Sunday.”
SB26-131 also takes on proposition bets, known as "prop bets," which are wagers on individual players performances or specific moments that are not related to which team wins or loses. "Prop bets," which are generally considered more exciting and more addictive, would be banned under the proposal.
It was one part of the bill that garnered skepticism from lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee, including State Sen. Janice Marchman, D — District 15, who ended up voting against advancing the legislation.
"If we want to take prop bets out, we owe it to the voters to go back to them and ask them to take prop bets out," Marchman said during the hearing.
Text messages and push notifications sent to account holders from internet sports betting operations would be prohibited as well.
"If you're addicted to gambling, having push notifications is like having somebody tell an alcoholic every couple of seconds, do you want a drink? Do you want a drink?" Ball said.
Restrictions on what advertisements, and when they can air, are included within SB26-131 too. The bill seeks limit advertisements for sports betting from airing during hours when there is a large number of children in the viewing audience.
“Cigarette ads have been banned on TV, wholesale, by Congress since the early 1970s. Cannabis advertising in this state — we've been really careful about what we allow and what we don't allow," Ball said. “The whole point is we try to restrict that advertising from getting to kids. That's the same thing that we're doing here. At the end of the day, gambling is an addiction. It's like alcoholism. It's like substance abuse. And so, we have to put some guardrails on it, or it's going to get completely out of control. And that’s what’s happened.”
The advertisements would not be allowed to include words like "bonus bet" or information on how to place a sports bet.
"For the airwaves piece, the rules really only apply to broadcasts that are in state. So, there's nothing that we can do to impact, you know, the National Championship game if it's broadcast somewhere else and we get it on our airwaves," said Ball, when asked about how this component of the bill would be enforced. “To your question about enforcement, it's our hope that DraftKings, FanDuel, bet365 will follow the law. If they don't do that, the Attorney General has the ability to come after them.”
Representatives from those companies — DraftKings, FanDuel, and bet365 — testified against the bill on Tuesday.
All three of them said the legislation will force consumers to use unlicensed sites that do not abide by the same safeguards as their companies. They asserted that when underage sports betting occurs, it is not happening within the regulated market.
The Policy Director for the Sports Betting Alliance, Cameron Onumah, told lawmakers that the legislation would mean less funding for water projects in the state, along with weaker consumer protections and more room for illegal, offshore operators.
In 2019, Coloradans narrowly voted to approve Proposition DD, a ballot measure that legalized sports betting. As the state was wrestling with the COVID-19 pandemic in May of 2020, sports betting was officially launched in Colorado.
A 10% tax on the net sports betting proceeds goes toward Colorado's Water Plan Grant program, funding water projects throughout the state that support the Colorado Water Plan.
Since 2020, $100 million has been allocated to water conservation in Colorado as a result of sports betting. The 2024-25 Fiscal Year recorded a record-breaking $33 million that was distributed to the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
During the 2024-25 Fiscal Year, Coloradans wagered more than $6 billion altogether, which marked an increase of roughly $287 million over the prior fiscal year.
In January of this year, sports betting tax revenue set another record with more than $5 million raised in just one month.
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One of the people who testified in support of the legislation was Rob Minnick, who said sports betting is what sparked his addiction to gambling.
"It happened alongside other types of gambling, but it always felt like the one kind of gambling that I could be the exception to the rule, despite the fact that you really can’t," Minnick told Denver7. “When I saw a bill, just anything that was trying to help someone like me, I jumped on board to support it, because it's better than nothing.”
Minnick, who lives in Philadelphia, virtually told lawmakers his story on Tuesday. The last time he gambled was in November of 2022.
"That day was a 12-hour gambling binge that would put me into debt for the next six months, working two jobs," Minnick said.
Minnick said that problem gambling is often viewed differently than substance use, but argued it is just as dangerous for those impacted and their communities.
"I hate what these gambling companies do. They're left unchecked. They can do and say whatever they want. No one really regulates them. Even though we say that they're regulated, they're more self-regulated," Minnick said. “This idea of just making things less visible, more difficult to access, maybe putting people in a situation where they're not doing as many at-risk behaviors as I was doing, it can only create positive outcomes. But hopefully, it's just the start."
SB26-131 would require an appropriation of more than $200,000 to the Department of Revenue. During a year where lawmakers are dealing with an estimated $850 million budget deficit, bills that come with a cost are usually worrisome for sponsors.
However, Ball believes this bill will prevail, and explained to Denver7 why that is.
“We're not too worried about the fiscal note, because this is money that does not impact the general fund. What the fiscal note shows is that any impact of this bill to tax collections, sports betting revenue, is going to be drastically outweighed by just the fact that this industry is really booming year after year," said Ball. “What our fiscal note actually shows is that Colorado is going to continue to get more and more tax revenue that will go to water year after year, even if this bill passes.”
SB26-131 heads to the Appropriations Committee next.
There are systems available to support those living with a gambling addiction. Bet Smart Colorado has compiled a number of those resources online, or individuals can call or text 1-800-GAMBLER, a 24/7 confidential hotline.
The Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado (PGCC) is also ready to help those impacted by problem gambling throughout the state.
Denver7 and our parent company, the E.W. Scripps Company, are contributing funds advocating against the approval of advertising limits that SB26-131 would put forward.
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