Colorado Governor Signs Sports Betting Restrictions Into Law
David Genge Published 03/06/2026
Colorado Governor Jared Polis has signed into law a sports betting bill that places significant restrictions on how players in the state can utilize their sports betting accounts. Among the guardrails put into place are daily deposit limits for sports betting accounts. There's also a ban on certain phone app push notifications. Using credit cards to place bets is now prohibited in Colorado.
The new law is a watered-down version of the original bill. Lawmakers set out with plans to place bans on sports betting advertising and on all prop betting at the outset. Both of those initiatives were later dropped as the bill was moving through the state assembly.
Colorado sports betting reforms are very significant
Colorado was among the first states to approve legal and regulated sports betting. It's been available in the state, both retail and online, since 2019. This bill was the first attempt at any sort of reform to how sports betting operates in Colorado.
"[This] 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,” Joshua Ewing, Executive Director of Healthier Colorado, told Colorado Public Radio in a statement.
Among the changes implemented, a limit is now in place on deposits to sports betting accounts. Players can make a maximum of six deposits over any 24 hours. This step should prevent bettors from chasing losses by throwing good money after bad.
Betting sites will no longer accept credit cards as an account funding option in Colorado. This change will halt an easy method for quickly adding money to a betting account.
The state also intends to begin a process of gathering extensive data on sports betting habits and trends. This will lead to reports on the findings from this data collection. The idea is to gain a better understanding of how the sports betting industry is impacting consumers.
Push notifications and the targeting of underage bettors will stop
Sports betting sites sending push notifications or text messages is out. The purpose of these notifications is to solicit bets or encourage deposits to sports betting accounts.
“Pernicious algorithms and advertisements are increasingly preying on vulnerable online sports bettors,” State Sen. Matt Ball said 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.”
Ball, a Democrat from Denver, co-sponsored this bipartisan bill with Senator Byron Pelton (R‑Sterling), and Reps. Steven Woodrow (D‑Denver) and Dan Woog (R‑Erie).
There's also a prohibition on sportsbook operators targeting anyone under the age of 21 with advertising, marketing, or promotional materials.
“After months of work alongside recovery advocates, health care professionals, and families across Colorado, SB 26-131 is now law,” Ball told Colorado Politics. “This law puts guardrails on an industry that has ballooned in Colorado to more than $6 billion in annual wagers in just a few years.
"That growth has come at a real cost — to families’ financial security, to kids’ well-being, and to the integrity of the games we love.”
Colorado lawmakers backed off from the plan to ban prop betting
State politicians didn't follow through on aggressive planning to include the banning of prop betting on all sports. Lawmakers realized how much damage the ban would inflict on the state's bottom line from sports betting.
Colorado sports bettors wagered $65 billion in 2025. Over 50% of that was through prop betting.
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