Colorado’s Water Plan Won’t Be Saved By Sports Betting In First 14 Months

Sports betting was expected to be the answer to Colorado’s Water Fund, but it appears like that won’t happen until a little after a year. People close to the situation say the once-promised solution to the water issue is now more like a drizzle, as opposed to free-flowing way out.
At a recent Joint Budget Committee meeting, Colorado lawmakers that work on preparing the budget were warned about the slow-moving process this will likely be getting off the ground. Most expected money earned from sports betting to immediately start going toward the water fund, but there are plenty of other obstacles to overcome before they see one dime.
Back in November, voters passed Proposition DD that would legalize sports betting on May 1, 2020, and the tax on casino revenues would be at 10 percent. However, there were some estimations on that bill that appear to be misleading.
The fiscal note said that casinos could be charged up to $125,000 for the sports betting license, which would have to be renewed every two years. Instead, it’s the Division of Gaming (not lawmakers) that oversees that fee. In late November, the Division of Gaming set the fee for a sports betting license at only $2,000 – quite the difference in numbers.
“With the fee revenue, although it was stated they could charge up to $125,000, the Division (of Gaming) indicated that the fees are not meant to be for profit, it’s supposed to be for the actual cost of the licensing process and the background investigation,” said Joint Budget Committee staff analyst Angela Uhl.
Misleading Numbers
But this wasn’t the only misleading information of numbers that Uhl brought to the Joint Budget Committee. Colorado’s Blue Book estimated a $16 million per year revenue, and, in reality, it’s more $1.5 to $1.7 million. Even if that is what is collected by the state, none of it will go to the Colorado Water Plan.
The bill requires that money must first go to paying the start-up fees, administration and legal outlooks of sports betting. In addition, there’s $130,000 that goes to gambling addiction services.
Not to mention, six percent of the revenue goes into a holding fund – a pot of money that gambling cities and counties, community colleges and the State Historical Fund can reach into if proven they lost money due to a downtick in the amount of money bet on traditional gaming (table games, slots, etc.).
JBC Chair Rep. Daneya Esgar (D-Pueblo) certainly still has some concerns on how all of this information got tangled and twisted.
“The fact that we had a fiscal note that said one thing, when we passed the bill, a lot of numbers that were floating around during the actual campaign for (Proposition) DD, and now the reality of what we’re being told are drastically different, so I think we’re going to have to have a pretty good conversation with the department (or Revenue) on this one,” Esgar said.
Luckily, all of these questions surrounding the Colorado Water Plan won’t affect the starting of legalizing sports betting. Sara Leonard, the communications director for the Colorado Water Conservation Board, said that state lawmakers still need to plan out funding for the water plan. Technically, it’s not in the budget to be spent yet.
Things might be moving slowly, but it’s good that plans to keep legalized sports betting in Colorado are still there.