Is sports betting legal in Colorado?
Yes, online and at casinos. House Bill 19-1327 made sports betting legal, voters approved its 10% tax as Proposition DD on November 5, 2019, and bets have been taken since May 1, 2020. Every sportsbook works under a master license held by a casino in Black Hawk, Central City or Cripple Creek, and you have to be 21 to bet.
Where you can bet
The Colorado Division of Gaming's licensee list, checked September 27, 2026, shows 13 online sportsbooks: Bally Bet, Bet Monarch, bet365, BetMGM, BetRivers, Caesars, Circa Sports, DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, Hard Rock Bet, Sporttrade and theScore Bet. Each is tied to a casino. FanDuel runs under Bally's Black Hawk West, for example, and Sporttrade under Easy Street Casino. The same list shows 10 retail sportsbooks, all in casinos in the three mountain gaming towns.
State law bars betting on high school sports and on video game contests that no sports governing body sanctions. College games are allowed, Colorado teams included, but proposition bets on college events aren't.
Operators pay a 10% tax on net sports betting proceeds. Since July 1, 2026, they can't deduct free bets from that figure (HB25-1311). SB26-131 took effect August 12, 2026. It limits online books to six deposits per person per gaming day, bans push notifications and texts that solicit bets or deposits, and makes taking a credit card deposit a class 2 misdemeanor.
How Colorado legalized sports betting
Limited gaming, 1990 to 2018
Statewide voters approved Amendment 4 in November 1990, which added Article XVIII, Section 9 to the constitution and allowed "limited gaming" in Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek. Gaming began on October 1, 1991, with a $5 maximum bet and only slots, blackjack and poker. Amendment 50 (2008) let voters in the three towns raise the limit to $100, add craps and roulette and allow 24-hour play, and Amendment 77 (November 3, 2020, 60.54% yes) lets them remove the bet limit entirely, with changes allowed from May 1, 2021.
The Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe run casinos on their reservations in southwestern Colorado under gaming compacts with the state. The Southern Ute compact is dated August 21, 1995. The compacts let the tribes offer class III games that state law permits.
HB19-1327 and Proposition DD
Murphy v. NCAA struck down the federal sports betting ban on May 14, 2018. The next year Rep. Alec Garnett and Rep. Patrick Neville, with Sens. Kerry Donovan and John Cooke, sponsored HB19-1327. It passed the House on April 24, 2019, and the Senate on May 3, the last day of the session. Gov. Jared Polis signed it on May 29, 2019.
Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights requires voter approval for any new tax, so the Legislature referred the 10% levy to the November 2019 ballot as Proposition DD, a statutory measure. It passed 800,745 to 756,712 (51.41%). The law also made betting in each gaming town depend on local approval at the same election.
The law decriminalized sports betting from May 1, 2020. It put the Division of Gaming in charge, under the Limited Gaming Control Commission, and limited master licenses to existing casino licensees. A master licensee can contract with a licensed retail operator, a licensed online operator, or both. Tax money first repays startup costs and pays for regulation. After that, 6% goes to a hold-harmless fund for other gambling revenue recipients, some goes to problem gambling programs, and the rest goes to the Water Plan Implementation Cash Fund.
Launch and later changes
Online and retail betting began on May 1, 2020. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe opened its own statewide app, Sky Ute SportsBook, on June 2, 2020, under its own tribal gaming rules and with no state license (see the court cases below). It closed in July 2023.
The first deduction rules let operators subtract free bets from taxable proceeds without limit. HB22-1402, signed June 7, 2022, capped that deduction from January 1, 2023, at 2.5% of total bets per month, stepping down to 2.25% from July 1, 2024. The same law created a responsible gaming grant program and a statewide exclusion list run by the Division from 2023.
The 2019 ballot measure estimated $29 million a year in tax revenue, and under TABOR the state couldn't keep more without another vote. HB24-1436, signed May 20, 2024, referred that question, and voters approved Proposition JJ on November 5, 2024, 76.44% to 23.56%. All tax revenue above $29 million now goes to water projects. A no vote would have required refunds to operators.
HB25-1311, signed May 15, 2025, sped up the phaseout of free-bet deductions. They were capped at 2% from July through December 2025 and 1% from January through June 2026, then ended on July 1, 2026. SB26-131 (sponsored by Sens. Matt Ball and Byron Pelton and Reps. Steven Woodrow and Dan Woog) was signed June 1, 2026. Along with the deposit, notification and credit card rules, it bans advertising aimed at people under 21, requires annual operator data reports, and bars the state from sending less to the water fund in any year than it did the year before. The Division reported more than $47 million in sports betting tax for fiscal 2026.
Sports betting court cases in Colorado
Southern Ute Indian Tribe v. Polis (tribal online betting)
After the Sky Ute SportsBook launch in June 2020, the Division sent a letter to the tribe's vendor on June 16, 2020, saying it considered bets taken from people off tribal land to be illegal. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe's vendor got a similar letter and ended its relationship with the tribe. On May 17, 2021, the Division offered the Southern Ute tribe a state license conditioned on paying 10% of net proceeds on bets from off tribal land.
The Southern Ute tribe sued Gov. Polis and Division Director Christopher Schroder in the U.S. District Court for Colorado on July 9, 2024 (No. 1:24-cv-01886), and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe joined in September 2024. The tribes argued that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) and their compacts let them take bets statewide through servers on tribal land. On October 23, 2025, Judge Gordon P. Gallagher dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction. He held that gaming happens where the bettor is. A bet placed from Denver isn't gaming on Indian land, IGRA doesn't apply to it, and without IGRA the Ex parte Young exception to state immunity doesn't apply. The Southern Ute tribe appealed on November 21, 2025 (Tenth Circuit No. 25-1440). The court has extended the briefing schedule several times under its mediation rule, 10th Cir. R. 33.1, and the tribe's opening brief is due September 30, 2026.
Gutman v. PointsBet USA (promotions)
Bettors filed a class action in Colorado federal court on August 19, 2022 (No. 1:22-cv-02137), claiming PointsBet's "risk-free" bet promotions were deceptive under Colorado and four other states' laws. On August 21, 2024, Judge S. Kato Crews granted summary judgment to PointsBet on all class claims, enforcing the class action waivers in its terms, and dismissed the individual claims without prejudice for lack of jurisdiction.
Firestone v. FanDuel (daily fantasy)
Garrett Firestone filed a class action against DraftKings and FanDuel in Colorado federal court on October 26, 2015 (No. 1:15-cv-02376). Judge Christine M. Arguello stayed the case and administratively closed it on December 29, 2015, pending a decision by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on consolidating the suits.
Prediction markets and the Tenth Circuit
We found no Colorado suit or cease-and-desist order against Kalshi, Polymarket, Crypto.com, Robinhood, Underdog or Novig, and no operator suit against the state. CourtListener shows no Kalshi or Polymarket case in the District of Colorado.
Colorado's federal appeals court is the Tenth Circuit, and its pending prediction market case comes from Utah, where Kalshi sued state officials on February 23, 2026 (KalshiEX LLC v. Cox, D. Utah No. 2:26-cv-00151). On August 4, 2026, Judge Robert J. Shelby granted Utah summary judgment, holding that the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) doesn't preempt Utah's enforcement of its gambling laws against Kalshi. Kalshi appealed the next day (No. 26-4100). On September 8, 2026, a two-judge panel (Hartz and Kelly) denied Kalshi's emergency motion for an injunction pending appeal. The Tenth Circuit hasn't ruled on the merits, so no appellate precedent on preemption binds Colorado yet.
Elsewhere, the Third Circuit sided with Kalshi against New Jersey in KalshiEX v. Flaherty (No. 25-1922, April 6, 2026), and New Jersey's petition for certiorari is pending at the Supreme Court (No. 26-299), with Kalshi's response due November 9, 2026. In KalshiEX v. Assad (No. 25-7516, August 28, 2026), the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part the dissolution of Kalshi's preliminary injunction against Nevada regulators, and Kalshi petitioned for rehearing en banc on September 9.
Prediction markets and daily fantasy
We found no Colorado statute aimed at prediction markets, and CBS Sports' September 24, 2026 tracker lists sports contracts on Kalshi and Polymarket as available in the state. Attorney General Phil Weiser signed the states' amicus brief supporting Nevada in the Ninth Circuit on March 10, 2026, and on April 30, 2026 he joined 40 other attorneys general in a comment letter asking the CFTC to confirm it lacks jurisdiction over sports event contracts. Novig, operated by Ludlow Exchange, LLC (designated a contract market by the CFTC on June 16, 2026), is open to Colorado users 21 and older with ID, since its eligibility page excludes only Nevada, Arizona and Michigan, and it charges no fee on pregame straight trades.
Colorado has licensed daily fantasy since HB16-1404, signed June 10, 2016, made licensing mandatory on July 1, 2017. HB20-1286 moved the program from the Department of Regulatory Agencies to the Division of Gaming on September 1, 2020. Operators with more than 7,500 Colorado players need a license, smaller ones register, players must be 18, and contests can't include high school or youth events. The Division's list names 27 operators, including DraftKings, FanDuel, PrizePicks (SidePrize, LLC), Underdog, Betr, Dabble and ParlayPlay.
Help with a gambling problem
The Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado runs a 24/7 confidential hotline: call or text 1-800-GAMBLER. The Division of Gaming's Bet Smart Colorado site handles self-exclusion.
Sources
Colorado Division of Gaming, licensed sportsbooks and operators
Division of Gaming, list of online and retail sports betting operators
C.R.S. 44-30-1501, definitions (prohibited sports events, net proceeds)
Ballotpedia, Amendment 77 (2020), with Amendment 4 and Amendment 50 background
HB25-1311, Deductions for Net Sports Betting Proceeds (2025)
Division of Gaming, record sports betting year release (August 29, 2026)
Southern Ute Indian Tribe v. Polis, D. Colo. No. 1:24-cv-01886 (docket)
Southern Ute Indian Tribe v. Polis, order granting motion to dismiss (October 23, 2025)
Southern Ute Indian Tribe v. Polis, Tenth Circuit No. 25-1440 (docket)
Gutman v. PointsBet USA, D. Colo. No. 1:22-cv-02137, order (August 21, 2024)
KalshiEX LLC v. Cox, D. Utah No. 2:26-cv-00151, decision (August 4, 2026)
KalshiEX, LLC v. Assad, Ninth Circuit No. 25-7516 (August 28, 2026)
Colorado Attorney General, CFTC comment letter release (April 30, 2026)
CBS Sports, prediction market legal status by state (September 24, 2026)