• Year Colorado Regulated Gambling: Horseracing (1950), Lottery (1982), Casinos (1991)
• Estimated Tax Revenue from Gambling: $232 million
• Estimated Gambling Revenue (from casinos): $1.1 billion
• Colorado Gambling Age: 18 for lottery and bingo, 21 for casinos and racing
• Smoking ban: The Colorado bans indoor smoking. Reservations casinos are the only exclusion related to gaming.
• Colorado Online gambling: Horseracing is the only form of legal online gambling

There is a liberal stance when it comes to Colorado gambling. Its horse racing industry dates back to the 1950’s. Colorado also had greyhound racing but it was outlawed when the last surviving track folded last decade.

The state created a lottery in 1982, selling its first ticket the following year. Colorado saw former mining cities on the brink of becoming ghost towns. Voters approved Colorado casinos located in Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek in order to save those twons. This also permitted the Utes to operate Colorado casinos on tribal land.

Colorado Online Poker Laws Colorado is one of the trickier states to unravel when it comes to online poker laws. On the one hand, prohibition is aimed at operators and service providers, not players. On the other hand, there are state issued documents that express point-blank that “internet gambling is illegal under state and federal law.”. For many poker players, California has been the state they go to for prestigious live tournaments and high-stakes cash games. This has been the case for a number of years now and despite the questions concerning online poker, live poker is still a popular scene in the state of California. Online poker will come to California maybe as soon as 2014. A crowded industry split into three factions may delay action on online poker bills already submitted. With a steady and strong push from its significant casino industry, online poker legislation is most likely forthcoming in Colorado sometime in 2015. Online Poker Sites Available in Colorado Colorado features plenty of destinations for live real money games, and this situation is mirrored online. These internet sites aren't regulated by the Colorado Division of Gaming, and so it's up to you to choose safe places to.

Paying Gambling Taxes in Colorado

Do you have to pay taxes on your gambling winnings? OnlineUnitedStatesCasinos has gathered everything you need to know about paying taxes on your gambling winnings straight from a Certified Public Accountant. For more information please visit our exclusive Gambling Taxes article.

Colorado Casinos Map & Guide

• Black Hawk
• Central City
• Cripple Creek
• Ute Mountain
• Sky Ute

• Number of B&M Casinos: 43
• Number of Poker Rooms: 9
• Number of Indian Casinos: 2

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Types of Colorado Online Gambling Allowed

The only form of online gambling specifically legal in Colorado is off-track betting. These types of wagers may be made on greyhound and horse races.

Online poker, casino games, and sports betting are not legal in Colorado. In 2013, Attorney General John Suthers opined that it would take a constitutional amendment to legalize online poker in Colorado.

Daily fantasy sports sites like DraftKings and FanDuel operate in Colorado. The companies assert that the niche qualifies as a skill game under Colorado law. No opponents have emerged in the state over this opinion.

Types of Colorado Live Gambling

• Slots: Yes
• Blackjack: Yes
• Poker: Yes
• Craps/Roulette: Yes
• Horses: Yes
• Lottery: Yes

There are four types of legal Colorado gambling. Live horse racing is permitted. These facilities may also offer off-track betting. There is a state lottery that sells tickets for instant games and lottos. These include interstate drawings. The Colorado casinos are permitted in three cities; Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act extends this to tribal land in Colorado. There are two casinos on reservations that operate under the same rules as commercial ones.

Charitable gambling is also legal in Colorado. Bingo and raffles are among the permitted games of chance available to nonprofits to raise money. All Colorado casinos can offer players the best games, including blackjack, roulette, craps, and slot games. These casino games are also permitted on Native American land.

Colorado Gambling Laws

Colorado gambling laws cover almost all forms of wagering. Live horse racing is permitted when funds are placed into a pari-mutuel pool. Off-track betting is allowed at racing sites and taverns. Greyhound racing was outlawed in 2014 after the last dog track folded in Colorado. Off-track betting is still permitted on greyhounds. Players that want to bet on the races must have the minimum Colorado gambling age of 21 years.

The Colorado Lottery is operated by the state. It is permitted to sell instant games and lotto tickets. State law permits the lottery to operate lotto drawings specific to Colorado and join massive interstate jackpots. Lottery players must be 18 years old.

Charities may also operate games of chance. The charities must be registered and all proceeds must go to these organizations. They may not be operated in a commercial manner. Like lotteries, charity players must be at least 18 years of age.

Colorado casinos were legalized in an attempt to revive the ailing economies in three mountain towns. Casinos in Colorado are only legal if located in Black Hawk, Central City or Cripple Creek. The bet limit at all of these Colorado casinos is $100, where all games are permitted. This includes slots, video poker, live poker, blackjack, Three Card Poker, Four Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em, craps and roulette. Casino players must meet the minimum gambling age of 21 years. Casinos are now permitted to operate 24 hours a day in Colorado. Colorado casinos pay 20% of the gaming revenue to the state in the form of taxes.

List of Colorado Casinos

As mentioned before, there are only three cities where Colorado casinos can legally operate. You will be able to find casinos in Cripple Creek, Central City, and Black Hawk. Other than these locations, American Indian tribes can also run their own casinos, as long as they operate from within the reservation lands. Below you can find a detailed guide to the casinos in Colorado. For more accurate directions you can check out the Colorado casinos map for their locations.

The only live racetrack in Colorado is Arapahoe Park. It holds live horse races and off-track betting or horses and greyhounds.

Colorado Gambling History

Colorado gambling dates back to the early mining days. Early prospectors passed the time playing poker and other games in Wild West saloons. The first casino in the U.S. is purported to have been in Colorado near the Utah and Wyoming state lines. It was called Brown’s Saloon and opened in 1822.

A puritan movement put an end to this type of unregulated gambling throughout the West. It moved underground, as opposed to operating in the open in taverns throughout communities in the Rockies as it did before.

The first step back towards legalized gambling was the creation of racing commission in 1950. This launched legalized racing in Colorado. Horses and greyhounds were once permitted. The Interstate Kennel Club failed in 2009. It was the last greyhound track in Colorado. The state banned live greyhound racing in 2014.

Off-track betting was later added to the available offerings at racetracks in the late 1970’s. Taverns were permitted to offer simulcast wagering to help subsidize the horsemen.

Voters approved a constitutional amendment to create casinos in Colorado in 1990. The casinos may only be located in Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek. This also extended legalized gambling to the Utes’ reservations. The goal was to revive busted mining towns.

Colorado casinos opened with limited gaming in 1991. The maximum bet was $5. Only poker, slot machines, video poker and table games that used cards were permitted. Casinos were only permitted to be open 18 hours a day. The standard hours were 9 am to 3 am.

Voters approved a massive expansion of gambling that launched on July 1, 2009. This permitted 24-hour casino operations. It also raised the bet limit from $5 to $100. Craps and roulette were also added as allowable games, deviating from the longstanding policy of only permitting table games that required skill.

Amendment 68 sought the approval of voters to add slots and video poker at racetracks in Pueblo and Mesa Counties in 2014. Voters overwhelmingly defeated the measure in a statewide constitutional referendum.

Colorado Casinos & Gambling FAQ

Slots, video poker, live poker, blackjack, roulette, craps and any table game that uses cards.

Online Poker Legislation Colorado Government

Simulcast pari-mutuel betting on horse and dog races is the only form of legal online gambling in Colorado.

No. It would likely require a constitutional amendment to legalize online poker in Colorado.

Yes. It includes scratch-off tickets and lotto drawings.

The minimum Colorado gambling age is 18 years for lottery and bingo. Horse racing and Colorado casinos require players to be at least 21 years old.

Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek have casinos. The two Ute Reservations also have casinos.

Black Hawk is the closest to Denver. Central City is its sister city.

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Home» US Poker Laws » State Laws » Colorado

Relevant state code: 18-10-101 et seq.; 12-60-101 et seq.; 12-47.1-101 et seq.

Colorado Quick Links

• 1.The State of Colorado & Gambling Laws
  • 1.2What is Legal in Colorado?
• 2.Colorado Online Poker Laws Explained
• 3.Is It Legal to Play Poker?
• 4.Will Colorado Regulate Online Poker?
• 5.Colorado's Gambling History

Gambling in Colorado dates back to at least the late 19th century when icons like “Poker Alice” would roam from table to table, playing cards and raking in the dough. Gambling was a popular way to pass time at camps in pre-colonial Colorado – remember, the state only became a territory in 1861 before joining the union in 1876, and at the time the region was a mix of tribal communities and settlements populated by gold miners and settlers from the east looking for land and opportunity.

Colorado Gambling Laws

Online Poker Legislation Colorado Casinos

As far as legal definitions go, Colorado defines gambling as follows:

(2) “Gambling” means risking any money, credit, deposit, or other thing of value for gain contingent in whole or in part upon lot, chance, the operation of a gambling device, or the happening or outcome of an event, including a sporting event, over which the person taking a risk has no control, but does not include:

Bona fide contests of skill, speed, strength, or endurance in which awards are made only to entrants or the owners of entries;

(b) Bona fide business transactions which are valid under the law of contracts;

(c) Other acts or transactions now or hereafter expressly authorized by law;

Colorado Online Poker Is Legal

(d) Any game, wager, or transaction which is incidental to a bona fide social relationship, is participated in by natural persons only, and in which no person is participating, directly or indirectly, in professional gambling; or

(e) [Repealed.]

(f) Any use of or transaction involving a crane game, as defined in section 12-47.1-103 (5.5), C.R.S.

Casino gambling is legal in three towns in Colorado: Central City, Cripple Creek, and Black Hawk. Not coincidentally, those three towns are also considered National Historic Districts and gambling is almost seen as a tradition there. In addition, there are two tribal casinos: the Ute Mountain Casino is in Towaoc and the Sky Ute Casino is located in Ignacio. Both of the tribal casinos operate outside the laws applied to the non-tribal casinos and they’re therefore open 24 hours a day.

What is Legal in Colorado?

All in all, there is a network of more than 40 gambling venues in Colorado. Approved games include poker, blackjack, roulette, craps, and slot machines, and the tribal casinos also offer keno.

Colorado residents can legally bet on dog and horse racing so long as the wagering is part of a pari-mutuel or pooled bet (the kind used at racetracks in Colorado and most other states). As of 2003, off-track simulcasts are also permitted.

Social gambling is allowed under the provisos that the game is secondary to a friendly gathering and that the host not rake or make a profit of the game. There have been pushes to classify poker as a game of skill, which would make it exempt under the gambling regulation/definition above, but that challenge was scuttled in the Supreme Court. Charity gambling is legal but limited to bingo and raffles that must be individually licensed by the state. Both types of events follow the “payment, luck, and prize” rule which basically says that all three of those elements must be present for a contest to technically be considered gambling. Therefore, a nonprofit could hold a casino night that offered no prizes or no buy-in and scoot right through the legal loophole.

Online Poker Legislation Colorado Rules

Colorado does have a state lottery as well as scratch tickets. It also participates in multi-state lotteries such as Mega Millions and Powerball.

Penalties for gambling in Colorado are staggered. Individual gamblers can be convicted of a class 1 petty offense while professional gamblers are subject to a class 1 misdemeanor for the first offense but repeated offenses pump the charge up to a class 5 felony. Underage gambling is considered a class 2 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 12 months in jail and a maximum $1000 fine. Facilitating the gambling of a minor is a felony. Possession of a gambling device (defined as “any device, machine, paraphernalia, or equipment that is used or usable in the playing phases of any professional gambling activity, whether that activity consists of gambling between persons or gambling by a person involving the playing of a machine; except that the term does not include a crane game”)is also a class 2 misdemeanor, also rising to the level of a class 6 felony of the offense is repeated.

Colorado Online Poker Laws

Colorado is yet another state that has yet to take an official stance on US online poker, at least as far as specific laws go. There is nothing on the books that singles out online poker or anything similar, however internet-based gambling is assumed to illegal under the umbrella gambling laws already in place – something backed up by a statement issued by the Colorado Attorney General in 2005. Basically, until online poker is listed as a specific exemption or otherwise licensed, it remains illegal by default.

That said, enforcement is scarce if not nonexistent. There simply isn’t much interest in policing people who want to play online poker from the comfort of their own homes and most if not all online poker sites happily welcome players from Colorado.

Is it Legal to Play Poker in Colorado?

Yes! As long as you’re playing at one of the card rooms in a licensed casino you can legally play poker in the state of Colorado. In fact, many of the casinos host tournaments that attract some serious talent all vying for the increasingly hefty jackpots. Social gaming is also permitted provided all participants abide by state law and there is a movement to classify poker as a game of skill so it would be exempt from blanket gambling regulations.

California Online Poker Legislation

Will Colorado Regulate Online Poker?

Colorado is the land of soaring peaks and a proliferation of fun-filled outdoor activities, but the Rocky Mountain State is also one of the first in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use. What does that have to do with gambling? Well, everything or nothing, depending on your outlook. The legalization of marijuana does more than hint at a progressive population – it also points towards a legislature that recognizes the need for progress and legal evolution. The ability to tax online poker would be a major asset to the state’s coffers much in the same way that taxing marijuana has benefited the state.

Online Poker Sites For Colorado

The Colorado Gaming Association is responsible for much of the pro-gambling push. They have been talking about a new bill that would legalize online poker and generate that aforementioned tax revenue – much of which would theoretically go to support community concerns such as education – but action has yet to be taken.

History of Gambling in Colorado

Many believe that the first casino in America is Brown’s Saloon, which was built in 1822 on the corner where Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming meet.

In 1983, Colorado launched their state lottery. Powerball and Mega Millions became available later, in 2001 and 2010 respectively. Colorado added the 22-state Lucky for Life game to the state’s lottery list in 2016.

Casino gambling was officially legalized in 1991 but limited to the historic towns of Black Hawk, Cripple Creek, and Central City. Guidelines mandated a maximum bet of $5 (hardly high stakes by Vegas standards) and the minimum age was set at 21 years old. The law was hotly contested, with more than 41% of voters going against the proposition.

In 1995, the state signed compacts with the Ute Mountain and Southern Ute Tribes that allowed them the right to run casinos independently from state oversight and regulation. The tribal casinos are also tax exempt but other rules governing betting limits and the type of approved games allowed on premises stand (with the noted addition of keno).

The Bingo-Raffle Advisory Board was created in 1999 to license charity games including so-called “Las Vegas Nights” as well as the obvious bingo games and raffles. Licenses are restricted to nonprofit organizations that intend to use the events solely for fundraising purposes.

In 2008, Colorado passed Amendment 50 granting the three casino towns the right to adjust their own regulations. Bets for table games were raised to a maximum of $100 per hand and slot games saw a similar rise in stakes. The types of table games also expanded to include craps and roulette alongside poker and blackjack and the original 2am curfew was lifted to allow round-the-clock gambling.