Colorado Governor Signs Sports Protection Bill Into Law

• Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed SB 26-131 into law, a bill to increase sports betting protections in the state
• The bill will increase certain protections in the Colorado sports betting market
• The new law will go into effect on Aug. 12

Gov. Jared Polis (D) this week signed a bill into law to increase Colorado sports betting protections in the state.

Gov. Polis signed  Sen. Matt Ball’s (D-31) bill, SB 26-131, into law. The legislation includes a prohibition on the use of credit cards for sports betting deposits and will limit the amount of times users can deposit into an account each day.

The new law goes into effect on Wednesday, Aug. 12.

Increased Sports Betting Protections

Ball’s bill will prohibit the use of credit cards for sports gambling accounts and will limit sports betting users from depositing funds more than six times in a 24-hour period. Additionally, the legislation will prohibit marketing mobile phone push notifications and text messages soliciting bets.

Colorado is the first state to legalize a prohibition on marketing push notifications for customers and the limit of daily deposits in the country.

The legislation also allows the Colorado Gaming Control Commission to to assess a maximum penalty of $25,000 against a violator of a prohibition.

However, several prohibitions and restrictions were taken out of the original legislation after receiving criticism for being too detrimental to the state’s sports betting market. Originally, the bill prohibited all prop bets in the state. Question arose regarding the prohibition, with several legislators sharing concerns over reduced tax revenue if props were completely eliminated from the state. A fiscal estimate showed a complete prohibition of prop bets in Colorado would have reduced sports betting tax revenues by $2.4 million in 2026-27, $2.6 million in 2027-28, and $2.7 million in 2028-29.

The bill was amended to remove the controversial measure in the Senate Finance Committee. Without the prop prohibition, revenue decreases are only estimate to be about $800,000 in 2026-2027.

The final version of the bill also did not include a prohibition on sports betting advertisements during peak television viewing hours. The bill originally prohibited sports betting gambling advertisements in the state from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., or during the broadcast of a live sports event.

Campaign For Fairer Gambling Applauds Legalization

The Campaign for Fairer Gambling, a national campaign aiming to advance a bipartisan, evidence-based approach for enhanced consumer protections, lauded the decision by Gov. Polis to sign the bill into law.

“Today Colorado has raised the bar for sports betting protections and all the lawmakers involved in passing SB131 into law should be proud for putting the well-being of their constituents first,” Campaign for Fairer Gambling Director Brianne Doura-Schawohl said. “As we learn more about the harms and impact of sports betting, I hope other states realize the importance of improving and updating laws around sports betting.”