- Colorado operators may take only six deposits from a single customer in a gaming day.
- No dollar ceiling applies, so six deposits of $20 and six of $5,000 sit inside the same limit.
- Each operator defines its own 24-hour gaming day, so the reset point differs from app to app.
- Taking a credit-card deposit carries a penalty of up to $25,000 and is a class 2 misdemeanor.
DENVER – Online sportsbooks in Colorado may take no more than six deposits from an account holder in a gaming day, and none funded by a credit card, under a law that took effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
Six Deposits, And No Dollar Figure Anywhere
The limit comes from Senate Bill 26-131, titled “Concerning protections against abusive practices in sports betting,” which Gov. Jared Polis signed on June 1. The Senate passed it 21-13 on third reading on April 28 and the House passed it 50-13 on May 9. The Senate repassed the amended bill 20-15 on May 13. Sens. Matt Ball and Byron Pelton carried the measure. Reps. Steven Woodrow and Dan Woog handled it in the House.
Its deposit provision, added to section 44-30-1506 of the Colorado Revised Statutes, bars a licensed book from taking “more than six separate deposits from an individual during a gaming day.” The same sentence hands that definition to the operator, describing a gaming day as whatever continuous 24-hour period a book has established for its tax and regulatory accounting.
The restriction counts transactions and stops there. No dollar amount appears in the provision, and the act sets no deposit ceiling anywhere else either, so six deposits of $20 and six deposits of $5,000 sit identically inside the limit.
The state also does not fix the clock. Each licensee sets its own gaming day for accounting purposes, so the hour at which a Colorado account’s deposit count resets is an operator setting rather than a statewide one. Because the cap attaches to the operator rather than the person, it applies separately at each book an account holder uses. Colorado is one of the states with online sports betting, and a bettor holding accounts at three of its licensed apps has three separate six-deposit counts.
The Ban Reaches Accounts Funded By A Credit Card
The credit-card language sits in a different section. The act amends 44-30-1511, the sports betting unlawful acts statute, adding a fourth item to its list of illegal conduct. A licensed book that lets a customer fund a betting account on credit now breaks the law, in the act’s words, “either directly or indirectly, including through an account funded by a credit card, in connection with the acceptance of a sports bet.”
That indirect clause is the operative part. The text as written reaches a credit card routed through an intermediary account. Debit cards, bank transfers and cash at a retail counter are not named, and they remain the funding routes at state-licensed Colorado gambling sites.
The section names no instrument other than a credit card. Prepaid cards and gift cards appear nowhere in the act, which leaves open whether a deposit funded by one falls inside the ban. The Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission has rulemaking authority over sports betting operations and would have to answer that question by rule rather than by statute.
The $25,000 Penalty Names One Provision
Section 5 of the act amends 44-30-524, which sets the monetary penalties the commission may impose in place of or alongside suspension or revocation of a license. The amendment extends the $25,000 maximum to an internet sports betting operator that violates 44-30-1511(1)(d), the credit-card subsection. A violation of that section is also a class 2 misdemeanor, according to the Colorado General Assembly’s summary of SB 26-131.
The deposit cap and the push-notification ban carry no separate dollar figure. Both sit in 44-30-1506, outside the unlawful acts statute the $25,000 tier points to, and fall instead to the commission’s general authority to discipline a licensee.
Push Alerts Are Barred Only When The App Is Closed
The same section bars an operator from sending account holders in the state mobile push notifications, including alerts, that solicit bets or deposits. A new definition added to 44-30-1501 describes a push notification as an automatic electronic message, including a text message, displayed on an account holder’s mobile device when the operator’s user interface is not actively open or visible.
The ban therefore turns on where the message lands. A promotion delivered inside an open app falls outside the definition.
Reporting Starts In 2028
The act creates 44-30-1507.5, requiring every internet sports betting operator to file all transactional data and metrics for the prior calendar year with the Division of Gaming in the Department of Revenue by Feb. 1, 2028, and each Feb. 1 after that. The submissions must be stripped of personally identifiable information and are exempt from the Colorado Open Records Act. The division must compile them into a public report on internet sports betting by Jan. 1, 2029, and every three years after.
The Act Also Reaches Marketing Affiliates
Separate sections bar sports betting operations and their marketing affiliates from targeting anyone under 21 and broaden the wager types a sports governing body may ask the commission to restrict. The act also sets a floor under the annual transfer from the sports betting fund to the state water plan implementation cash fund and appropriates $124,623 to the Department of Law for an estimated 0.5 full-time position.
The act defines a marketing affiliate as a person who promotes a sports betting operation for a commission or fee, the arrangement that sends traffic to USA gambling sites, and excludes broadcasters.
The act applies to conduct occurring and agreements entered into on or after Wednesday. Nothing in it reaches bets or deposits made before that date.