Colorado tightens sports betting rules with credit card ban, deposit limits, and marketing curbs

Colorado has enacted new sports betting restrictions that will bar credit card deposits, limit users to six deposits within a 24-hour period, and prohibit mobile push notifications and text messages that solicit bets.

Gov. Jared Polis signed Sen. Matt Ball’s SB 26-131 into law, with the new rules set to take effect Wednesday, Aug. 12. The legislation gives the Colorado Gaming Control Commission authority to impose a maximum penalty of $25,000 for violations.

Colorado is the first state to legalize both a ban on marketing push notifications to betting customers and a daily deposit limit.

Gov. Jared Polis

The law is the first major change to Colorado’s sports betting framework since voters approved online wagering in 2019, but it is narrower than the original proposal.

Earlier versions sought to ban prop bets and prohibit sports betting advertisements from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., or during live sports broadcasts. Those provisions were removed after concerns that they would be difficult to implement and damaging to the state’s sports betting market.

The proposed prop-bet ban, covering wagers linked to individual player statistics such as rebounds or touchdowns, drew concern over lost tax revenue. A fiscal estimate found that a full ban would have reduced sports betting tax revenue by $2.4 million in 2026-27, $2.6 million in 2027-28, and $2.7 million in 2028-29.

After the Senate Finance Committee removed the measure, the expected revenue decrease fell to about $800,000 in 2026-27.

Last year, more than $6.5 billion in wagers were placed in Colorado on events ranging from table tennis to the NFL. The state collected almost $44 million in sports betting tax revenue, much of it directed toward water conservation projects.

Sportsbooks including DraftKings and FanDuel have increased revenues as prop bets and multi-leg parlays have become more prominent, although such wagers are harder for bettors to win.

Concerns over online sports betting have focused on easy access through phone apps, widespread advertising, addiction risk, and financial harm. A working paper by UCLA and USC researchers found greater rates of financial problems in states with online sports gambling, including personal bankruptcy filings being up to 30% more likely.

“Pernicious algorithms and advertisements are increasingly preying on vulnerable online sports bettors,” said State Sen. Matt Ball, D-Denver, in a statement after the bill was signed into law.

“Since Colorado’s legalization of online sports betting in 2019, technology has rapidly transformed the industry, catching more and more people in the cycle of devastating gambling addiction.”

The state will also collect data and publish reports in the coming years to assess the industry’s impact on consumers.

“Yesterday’s bill signing is the result of months of advocacy from Coloradans who refused to accept that an industry generating billions in revenue could continue operating without basic public health guardrails,” said Joshua Ewing, Executive Director of Healthier Colorado, in a statement.