Colorado Water Plan Won’t Get Much Help From Sports Betting In Year 1

• The newly legalized sports betting taxation will not fully help with Colorado’s water issue.
• Voters expected sports betting to accumulate $1.5 million and $1.7 million in tax revenue in 2020-2021.
• Colorado sports betting will launch in the late spring of 2020.

DENVER – The Colorado Division of Gaming says sports betting during its first year is expected to bring in $1.5 million and $1.7 million in revenue. This amount however, will not be enough to fund their water project– the sole reason for approving the industry.

When the state gave the voters the ability to legalize sports betting, they were under the impression that legal sports betting would deliver millions in tax revenue in its first year. This new projection is much different from the state lawmaker’s anticipations when it placed on the November’s ballot.

Some analysts in the state believe the launching industry may actually cost the state money to start. Between a low licensing fee cost and more, the state believes they will not even be able to cover the costs of policing the Colorado sports betting industry to start.

According to the Colorado Sun, a spokeswoman for the Department of Revenue – which oversees the Division of Gaming – said that “all of these numbers are still projections.”

She went on to say “the department has been consistently conservative in its assumptions about sports betting revenue when speaking with lawmakers and legislative analysts.”

This does not mean that the water project will not be taken care of but the funds coming in will likely be less than what was originally projected. However, this has been the case in many states with legal sports. Rhode Island, for example, missed out on their original $11.5 million sports betting revenue projection by multiple millions.

Regardless of how much money the new industry brings to the state, gamblers will be able to enjoy betting beginning in May 2020. Everyone 21 years and older will be able to legally place sports bets on professional sports, esports, college sports, and even the Olympics.

News tags: Colorado