- The law took effect Wednesday and caps online sportsbooks at six deposits per customer a gaming day.
- It also bars credit-card deposits, directly or through any other account funded by a credit card.
- Each operator sets its own 24-hour gaming day, and the six-deposit count applies separately at every book.
- Amendments stripped a proposition-bet ban and a ban on limiting winning bettors before final passage.
DENVER – A Colorado sports betting law that took effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday caps online sportsbooks at six deposits per customer a gaming day and bars credit-card funding. The proposition-bet ban and the winning-bettor protection written into the bill as introduced did not survive to passage.
What The Cap Counts, And Where It Resets
The deposit limit sits in section 44-30-1506 of the Colorado Revised Statutes, amended by Senate Bill 26-131. Under the act, “an internet sports betting operator shall not accept more than six separate deposits from an individual during a gaming day.”
The same sentence defines a gaming day as a continuous 24-hour period “established by an internet sports betting operator to record, reconcile, or report gaming activity for tax or regulatory purposes.”
Two consequences follow from that wording. The reset hour is an operator setting, not a state one, so the count rolls over at a different time on different apps and there is no single Colorado midnight. The duty also runs to the operator rather than the account holder, which means the ceiling is counted book by book. A bettor with accounts at three licensed apps carries three separate counts of six.
The provision counts transactions and names no dollar figure. Six deposits of $20 and six deposits of $5,000 sit inside the same limit, and nothing elsewhere in the act sets a ceiling on the amount.
Credit Cards Are Out, Including Through An E-Wallet
The funding ban was written into a different statute. Section 4 of the act adds a fourth item to 44-30-1511, the sports betting unlawful acts section, making it illegal for an internet sports betting operator to accept deposits by credit card “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 language. It reaches a card sitting behind an intermediary wallet, not only a card entered on a cashier screen. Debit cards, bank transfers, prepaid instruments and cash at a retail sportsbook counter are not named in the act at all, and the act sets no test for when an account counts as one funded by a credit card.
The penalty tier follows the credit-card subsection specifically. Section 5 of the act amends 44-30-524 to extend the Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission’s $25,000 maximum monetary penalty to an internet operator that violates 44-30-1511(1)(d), and the General Assembly’s summary of the act states that a violation of that prohibition is a class 2 misdemeanor. The deposit cap carries no separate dollar figure and falls instead to the commission’s general licensing discipline.
Push Alerts Are Barred Only When The App Is Closed
The ban itself sits at 44-30-1506 (8)(b), which bars an operator from initiating or sending push notifications, including alerts, to account holders in the state soliciting bets or deposits. Section 1 adds a definition at 44-30-1501 (8.7) that fixes the boundary: a push notification is an automatic electronic message, text messages included, displayed on an account holder’s mobile device “when the user interface for an internet sports betting operation is not actively open or visible.”
A promotion delivered inside an open app is outside that definition and outside the ban.
What Came Out Between February And May
The bill introduced Feb. 25 went further than the one now in force. It capped deposits at five in a 24-hour period, prohibited proposition bets outright, and banned advertising for a sports betting operation from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and during a live broadcast of an athletic competition. It also barred a book from limiting the size and frequency of a customer’s deposits or bets because that customer was winning, the clause behind April’s report that sportsbooks can’t limit winning bettors.
Three of those four came out in amendment and the fourth was loosened, the deposit cap landing at six in an operator-defined gaming day. The enacted advertising section, new 44-30-1506.5, reaches only content that targets people under 21 or appears on media whose audience is expected to be majority under 21, and it exempts public venues where attendee demographics cannot be determined.
The prop ban had its own slot in the statute as introduced, at 44-30-1511 (1)(d), with the credit-card prohibition one line below it at (1)(e). Amendment deleted the prop line and moved the card ban up into (1)(d), the subsection now in force.
In place of the prop ban, Section 7 rewrites 44-30-1505 (7) so a sports governing body may petition the commission to restrict any “certain type of wager with respect to sporting events of the sports governing body.” That right previously covered only wagers decided solely by one player’s actions. Colorado books may still offer props unless the commission acts on such a petition.
The Senate passed the bill April 28 and the House followed 50-13 on May 9. The Senate concurred in the House amendments 28-7 on May 13, the final day of the session, and Gov. Jared Polis signed the act June 1. Sens. Matt Ball and Byron Pelton carried the measure, with Reps. Steven Woodrow and Dan Woog handling it in the House.
Because the General Assembly attached no safety clause, the act commenced on the day after the 90-day referendum window closed. It applies to conduct occurring and agreements entered into on or after Wednesday, so deposits made before that date are untouched.
Where Colorado Sits Among The Credit-Card Bans
Colorado is not the first state with legal sports betting to close the card. Massachusetts has barred it since its 2022 sports wagering act, which states at chapter 23N, section 13 that an operator shall not accept a wager from anyone under 21 or “a credit card.” Colorado’s text goes a step further by naming indirect funding, which captures an account topped up by a card before the money reaches the book.
The deposit-count cap has no counterpart in the Massachusetts law. Chapter 23N reaches the payment instrument; Colorado’s 44-30-1506 reaches how often an account can be funded, whatever the instrument.
Enforcement Money And The First Data Filings
Section 8 appropriates $124,623 for the 2026-27 state fiscal year to the Department of Law, drawn from the legal services cash fund on revenue that reaches it from the sports betting fund. The appropriation assumes an additional 0.5 full-time equivalent and covers legal services for the Department of Revenue.
The reporting obligation starts later. New section 44-30-1507.5 requires every internet sports betting operator to file all transactional data and metrics for the preceding calendar year with the Division of Gaming by Feb. 1, 2028, and each Feb. 1 after that. Submissions must have personally identifiable information redacted and are exempt from the Colorado Open Records Act.
The division must compile that material into a public report by Jan. 1, 2029, and every three years after that. It will be the first official measure of what the deposit cap and the card ban did to Colorado sports betting.
