Colorado Sweepstakes Casinos
Sweepstakes casinos operate openly in Colorado, which is fortunate for players because they are a close approximation to the real thing. Sweepstakes casinos offer games like blackjack and slots but operate on a “no purchase necessary” model to ensure they don’t meet Colorado’s definition of illegal online gambling.
Some of the most popular sweepstakes casinos in Colorado include:
- Casino.click
- WOW Vegas
- Stake.us
- Ace.com Casino
Sweepstakes sites allow players to play casino-style games using virtual Sweeps Coins (SCs) and redeem their winnings for cash prizes. The full experience feels much like playing at a real online casino but with an extra step at the cashier.
See our full sweepstakes casinos guide for more details on how they work and why they’re able to operate in most US states.
Are Sweepstakes Casinos Legal in Colorado?
Colorado law does not address sweepstakes casinos one way or another. Dozens of sweepstakes casinos have accepted Colorado players for years without a single enforcement action, but that reflects the lack of a challenge rather than a permission slip.
How Sweeps Casinos Operate Under Colorado Law
Under CO Rev Stat § 18-10-102, an activity qualifies as “gambling” if it includes “risking any money, credit, deposit, or other thing of value for gain” on an outcome determined fully or partially by luck.
In short, Colorado uses the standard three elements to determine if an activity is gambling: consideration (risking something of value), prize, and chance. Remove any one and the activity doesn’t meet the state’s definition of “gambling.”
Sweepstakes casinos operate in Colorado on the assumption that the “no purchase necessary” model exempts them from the state’s definition of “gambling.” No Colorado regulator or court has tested that theory, so it stands by default.
However, that doesn’t mean Colorado sweepstakes casinos are immune from future enforcement actions. Some other states with gambling laws similar to Colorado’s have successfully forced sweepstakes casinos out.
Colorado Has Targeted Similar Sweepstakes Products in the Past
It’s also worth noting that Colorado has targeted a similar business model in the past. In 2014, the Attorney General’s office issued an opinion concluding that internet sweepstakes cafes (physical shops that sold telephone or internet time cards bundled with entries into casino-themed sweepstakes promotions) constituted illegal gambling.
Later, the legislature passed a bill to ban sweepstakes cafes. The legislative declaration at CO Rev Stat § 18-10.5-101 states the law’s purpose plainly: to ban systems and devices that “enable gambling through pretextual sweepstakes relationships predicated on the sale of” other products.
Lawmakers had physical businesses in mind when crafting the law, but its language is broad enough that it wouldn’t be a big reach for local officials to use the law to target sweepstakes cafes’ online counterparts.
For now, the primary downside for Colorado gamblers is the lack of oversight. Unlike online sportsbooks in Colorado, sweepstakes casinos are not subject to consumer protection rules or ongoing oversight. For those reasons, BettingUSA strongly advises players to stick with established, reputable sweepstakes casinos only.
Colorado Online Gambling Laws
Colorado law prohibits all gambling that the state has not specifically authorized.
CO Rev Stat § 18-10-103 makes participation in unauthorized gambling a petty offense, while professional gambling (running the game or profiting from it as a skilled player) is a Class 2 misdemeanor.
The law comes down far harder on operators than players, but Colorado authorities have shown no interest in prosecuting individual people just for placing wagers online.
Article XVIII, § 2 of the Colorado Constitution prohibits all gambling outright outside of specifically authorized exceptions, such as the state lottery and licensed brick-and-mortar casinos.
Colorado’s constitution is why every major gambling expansion in Colorado (limited gaming in 1990, expanded games and bets in 2008 and 2020, and sports betting in 2019) occurred through constitutional amendments approved by voters.
Will Colorado Legalize Online Casinos?
Colorado is unlikely to legalize real-money online casinos this decade.
The Colorado Constitution’s restrictions on gambling mean legalizing casino apps would require a constitutional amendment approved by at least 55% of voters statewide. Furthermore, the towns that host Colorado’s land-based casinos have already declared their formal opposition to online gambling.
Legalization Requires a Constitutional Amendment
A formal opinion from the Office of the Attorney General answered the constitutional amendment question in 2013.
Opinion No. 13-02 concluded that online casino games cannot qualify as limited gaming under Article XVIII, Section 9 of the state constitution, which confines gambling to physical buildings in Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek.
The opinion also closed the most obvious workaround by stating unequivocally that, under Colorado law, a bet occurs where the bettor sits, not where the operator’s servers sit.
There are two ways Colorado online gambling proponents could amend the constitution. One is for the legislature to refer a measure with a two-thirds vote in both chambers. The other is for a citizen initiative, which requires signatures from at least 2% of registered electors in each of Colorado’s 35 state senate districts.
In either case, amendments that add language to the Colorado Constitution require at least 55% approval in a statewide vote, meaning a simple majority isn’t enough to legalize online casinos.
The 55% supermajority threshold has killed past Colorado gambling measures. For instance, Amendment C in 2020 (a measure loosening specific charitable gaming rules) secured 52.35% of the vote and failed.
Colorado’s Gambling Towns Oppose Online Casinos
The towns that host Colorado’s commercial casinos are already organizing against legal online gambling.
Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek adopted a joint resolution in April 2025 to declare their “strong and unequivocal” opposition to the introduction of Colorado online gambling.
The resolution argued that legalizing online casinos would be unconstitutional under the geographic limits voters approved in 1990. It also outlined the potential negative impacts that legalization would have on casino visitation, employment, local businesses, and gaming revenue.
Public Support for Expansion is Conditional
The public’s support for gambling expansion in Colorado is conditional, and it does not paint an overly optimistic picture for any future referendums to legalize online casinos.
Voters have approved every measure loosening rules inside the three gaming towns, including Amendment 50 in 2008 at 59% and Amendment 77 in 2020 at 60.5%.
Meanwhile, voters have rejected every attempt to authorize gambling everywhere else in Colorado: Denver, Parachute, Manitou Springs, Trinidad, video lottery terminals at racetracks in 2003, and casino gaming at Arapahoe Park in 2014, which lost 72% to 27%.
Online sports betting is the one exception, and it barely passed. Proposition DD passed in 2019 with 51.4% of the vote, surviving only because it was a statutory measure needing a simple majority. Drafted as a constitutional amendment, Proposition DD would have fallen 3.6 points short.
Polling points the same way (with some caveats). A poll commissioned by the National Association Against iGaming (NAAiG) in early 2026 surveyed 801 likely Colorado voters and found 58% opposed legalizing online casinos.
The percentage of respondents opposed to legalization rose to 78% after survey conductors discussed the potential harms associated with online gambling and asked them again for their opinions.
Given the survey’s methodology and its funders (a group formed specifically to oppose online gambling), it’s better to treat the results as an indicator of the effectiveness of anti-gambling messaging rather than a baseline measure of public support.
How Big Could Colorado’s Online Casino Market Be?
Unlike some of the states that have considered legalization, the Colorado legislature has not yet commissioned a study on the market potential of a regulated online casino market.
What the Benchmark States Suggest
New Jersey, with a mature online casino market and a population of 9.5 million, is the closest available comparison state. Its online casinos produced $2.91 billion in internet gaming win in 2025, which works out to about $306 per resident.
If Colorado online casinos achieved a similar per-resident revenue figure across the state’s 6 million residents, the market would be worth roughly $1.8 billion per year. The online casino markets in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia produce comparable numbers, with per-resident annual revenue figures in the $250 to $300 range.
That said, extrapolating per-resident revenue from one state to the next is a very imprecise method, especially for Colorado. Other states’ land-based casinos sit in and around population centers, while Colorado’s sit in mountain towns.
Additionally, a projection based on market revenue divided by population assumes Colorado adults gamble at New Jersey rates, which no survey has ever established. Therefore, it’s better to think of $1.8 billion as an order of magnitude than as a firm forecast.
Forecasts in this Category Have Run Low
The reason to hold that $1.8 billion number loosely is not that it might be too high.
Case in point: When Michigan lawmakers considered online casino legislation in 2019, the state’s House Fiscal Agency modeled a mature five-year market at roughly $300 million in annual adjusted gross receipts. The 2025 actual was $2.9 billion, meaning the official forecast undershot Michigan’s market potential by a factor of almost ten.
That doesn’t imply that Colorado online casinos would replicate Michigan’s (or New Jersey’s, or any other state’s) success. It implies that the forecasting track record in this industry is poor enough that any projections (including ours above) deserve a healthy dose of skepticism.
Colorado’s Geography Complicates the Cannibalization Argument
One of the key concerns Colorado’s casino towns have raised in their opposition to legalization is the risk of online casinos cannibalizing revenue from land-based facilities in Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek.
Colorado’s unique gambling geography complicates that argument and makes it difficult to draw any firm conclusions based on results observed in other states.
In Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, most residents live within a reasonable drive of a casino, so online play substitutes for a trip people were already willing to make.
In contrast, Colorado confines casinos to three mountain towns, with the nearest of those (Black Hawk) roughly an hour’s drive west of Denver. Only 18% of respondents in the January 2026 NAAiG survey reported gambling at a mountain casino in the past year.
The geography factor cuts both ways. A state with a population that rarely visits casinos in person:
- Has less revenue available to cannibalize, which weakens opponents’ lost revenue projections
- Feels every dollar cannibalized by online casinos more than a state with a much larger land-based market
- Has a weaker casino habit to convert to online play, which weakens the market estimate
Efforts to study how online gambling impacts land-based casino revenue have yielded mixed results in different states and under different methodologies. Anyone claiming certainty when discussing how the cannibalization concern will play out in Colorado is just guessing.
Colorado Online Casinos FAQ
Wes Burns has more than a decade's worth of experience as a writer, researcher and analyst in the legal gambling industry and is co-founder of BettingUSA.com. As a former professional online poker player, Wes approaches his work from the viewpoint of players.