[ticking] How far back does, does this sports gambling go?

As far back as U.S.

history.

I mean, it goes back to ancient Greece.

[ticking] As long as someone had something to gamble on, people were going to put money down.

[roulette ball rolling] But unlike poker, you don't need anyone else to gamble on sports.

[crowd noise] Sports betting was really surprising how fast growth has been.

The competition was really fierce right out the gate.

Prop DD taxed sports betting.

It estimated $29 million in revenue.

It quickly surpassed that.

[ticking] Sports betting is a behavior that can become very addictive.

People are more likely to be like, “Just delete it off your phone,” or “Just stop doing it,” when it's really not that simple.

[clapping] If we continue to see this behavior as a neutral product, I think that well never get the traction that we need.

[ticking] You can get through the day from pure gambling alone.

You don't need anything else.

It, it controls your well-being, your brain, your whole life.

[crowded sports bar] It ruins you.

It ruins you.

[neon buzzing] [ticking] Can you tell me about your personal experience with sports gambling?

I want to say probably junior year in college.

There were some bookies going around school.

College kid, not much money.

Really found an outlet into what sports gambling could do.

You think that you can master it in some type of way.

We pooled together some money.

They ended up winning.

That was the point that it kind of catapulted to [ticking] we should do this more than just a hobby.

[music] (narrator) Down to the ages, Man's quest for easy wealth has often led to gambling.

There have always been those who chose to worship at the altar of that fickle goddess: Chance.

[music] On November 5th, 2019, Colorado voters narrowly approved Proposition DD, officially legalizing sports betting.

[roulette wheel spinning] Six months later, in May of 2020, Colorado became the 18th state to begin accepting wagers.

Fast forward five years, Colorado has brought in more than $2 billion in gross gaming revenue from sports betting, offers more sportsbooks than most states, and is one of the most active table tennis betting markets in the country.

So, how did we get here?

My name is Kyle Cooke.

I'm the news editor at Rocky Mountain PBS and a lifelong Orioles fan.

Does the $1.19 I scored on a same game parlay make me a sports gambling expert?

Maybe.

But in this four-part Rocky Mountain PBS original series, I will be looking in-depth at the rise, the boom and the consequences of legalized sports betting in Colorado.

But before we step back five years, let's step back 5,000 years.

[roulette wheel spinning] This is “Cash Out.” [music] Early on in ancient Greece, and even earlier in ancient Egypt, everything from early board games were a place for gambling.

[music] People were gambling on cockfighting, and animal baiting and pugilism.

The organization of the Olympics, it takes on another level, because everyone's watching.

It's always been built into human interaction.

I mean, humans are competitive, and it's another way to be competitive.

[music] [cheering, splash] I am Jared Bahir-Browsh.

I am an assistant teaching professor here at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

I'm also the director of critical sport studies.

What would your response be to someone who's like, “Well, people have been gambling on sports for a millenia, so why is it a problem now?” Because we have cell phones.

I mean, ultimately, the smartphone has completely changed the way we gamble.

The convenience of mobile gaming makes it easier to compete against those illegal and offshore operators.

As of November 2025, there are more than 40 legal sportsbooks in the United States, many of which offer mobile apps.

This number fluctuates as operators enter and exit the market.

And regulators and access to these apps differ by state.

The apps use location tracking to ensure users are in a state where the books can legally operate.

Being able to go on your phone, the FanDuels, DraftKings, BetMGMs of the world, [lion roaring] the first state for that to exist in was in New Jersey.

I live local, so I can come here any time I want.

I live local, so I can come here any time I want.

My name is Pat Eichner.

I started with PointsBet in New Jersey [advertisement] Stay sharp.

and then ended up moving to Colorado with the company January of 2021.

Take us back to 2019.

What do you remember about sports betting at that time when it was kind of like budding?

Yeah, no, the competition was really fierce right out the gate.

The PointsBet office, we were next to DraftKings were in Hoboken.

William Hill was right there next to us in Jersey City.

BetMGM was right next to us in Jersey City.

Absolutely felt like that startup culture.

The average age was probably 27, 28 years old.

I don't know for certain, but Id imagine we were 95% male.

Felt like you were going to recreational sports with your friends.

I loved it and wouldnt trade the experience for the world.

Would you have guessed that this is where sports betting would be now?

I think I would have guessed, 2019 to 2025, that this is the trajectory we were on.

In May of 2018, the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, or PASPA.

This decision effectively allowed states to decide whether or not to legalize sports betting.

By the end of 2018, a number of states had already legalized sports betting, followed by more and more across the map spanning Pennsylvania to Oregon.

Today, 39 states, along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, allow some form of sports betting, either in-person or online.

Colorado allows both.

And with more and more players in the game, Sports betting revenue in Colorado and nationwide, soared.

(newsperson) Weve really, just, risen to the seventh spot already as far as most money wagered... We didnt think it was going to be as big.

The money surprised me.

And to think that PASPA was just overturned seven years ago, was just overturned seven years ago, ago, it's amazing how fast that growth has been across states that put it in.

When Colorado approved Proposition DD in 2019, the state tapped Dan Hartman to lead the launch.

Hartman was a longtime state employee who directed the Marijuana Enforcement Division and the Division of Racing Events.

During his near four-year tenure as the Director of the Division of Gaming, Hartman saw monthly online wagers grow from about $25.6 million in May of 2020 to $382 million in May of 2023.

He didn't expect to see Colorado buy into sports betting so quickly, but he knew his team of regulators were critical to shaping the newly-legal industry.

[music] The regulators there to really keep tabs on the legal market.

You're making sure that the wagers are safe, that people are playing on a playing field that's legal.

[narrator] You must be informed on the major types of illegal gambling... That's why you brought sports betting into the legal market: to get it away from the illegal black market, where people have no protection, they have nobody looking after them.

[narator] You, the officer, must be aware of the connection between illegal gambling and organized crime.

You helped establish the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division.

Were there any parallels in those two industries?

There's a lot of parallels.

You know, you really did it for the same reason.

You, you did it to create a safe, legal market.

Colorado blazes a new trail amending the Constitution and saying it's okay to light up.

When I explain to people the way that sports betting works, the easiest thing to equate it to is really how marijuana is rolled out across the country.

Every state is essentially its own country.

They get to set their own rules and regulations.

It was a very similar to the marijuana debate, where we said, “If this is going to occur, well, we might as well have a mechanism that allows us to enjoy a revenue stream that that ultimately helps all Coloradans.

In marijuana's case, education funding (newsperson) For the most part, marijuana taxes are split between schools and the rest of state government.

and in sports bettings case, water projects.

(newsperson) ...with bettors throwing down some $6 billion last year.

And when they lose, Colorado water hits the jackpot.

My name is James Eklund, and I am a partner at Taft, Sherman and Howard, and I am the lead of our water law practice.

As a semi-arid state, Colorado takes water very seriously.

Research emerging in the early 2000s revealed that our state was headed toward a major water shortage, ultimately prompting then-Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper to commission the Colorado Water Plan.

The plan identified new water projects, collaborations and modern conservation efforts to address the shortage.

The man behind the plan was James Eklund.

The plan required a steady stream of funds for the hundreds of water projects across the state.

In 2018, when Colorado was hit with a major drought, conversations about the state's sports betting legislation also started swirling.

Funding for water projects floated to the top of legislators minds.

Prop DD really needed to be tethered to a social good that people could get behind and feel good about.

I should probably take my hat off.

It was kind of this interesting alliance of gaming operations and water and environmental groups.

People that wanted to see water projects be successful in Colorado and funded.

Proposition DD was a bipartisan ballot measure put forth by state lawmakers in 2019.

A “yes” vote meant legalizing sports betting in Colorado and using the tax revenue to fund state water projects.

The measure passed by a slim margin.

If we didn't have a state water plan, I don't think you would have gotten the buy-in that would be necessary for the tax to have passed and for the legalization to have occurred.

Colorado taxes sports betting revenue at 10%, which is relatively low compared to other states.

But what does that actually look like?

Let's say your bet hits and you win $100.

You won't actually get all of that money.

Some will be taxed by the federal government, and some will be retained by operators as a commission.

That commission is then taxed by the state.

This is all assuming that you won your bet.

If you lose, all of your winnings go back to the operator, meaning more tax money for the state.

When Prop DD taxed sports betting, it estimated $29 million in revenue.

I think the first year it came in shy of that.

Second year, it was right around that.

And by the third year, it had overwhelmed that amount.

So that's why we have Prop JJ.

That's how we got to another revenue stream that is brought in to pay for water projects.

In 2023, voters passed an amendment which removed the $29 million cap set by Prop DD.

And looking at today's numbers, that proved to be a lucrative decision.

Colorado raised about $37 million in tax revenue in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

As of July 2025, Coloradans have placed more than $25.2 billion worth of sports bets in the five years since books opened.

That translates to more than $116 million in tax revenue, the majority of which was allocated for state water projects.

If you all were to do it all again, what would you do differently about where you would allocate the money?

Water is such a big deal in the Western states.

To have the kind of foresight to say, “Look, we've got this water plan.

It needs a lot of money to fund it.” We were able to find a new source of revenue that could do it without raising taxes in a different way.

I'm really glad that we, as a state, saw fit to channel that revenue into water projects, because we need every bit that we can get.

We've called James Eklund “The Waterboy,” because he knows what this proposition means for the state's water plan.

if we don't fund that plan, then it's hollow.

Especially if you're a planner, you never want to bank on millions of millions of dollars magically appearing in your budget.

If sports gaming continues to grow at the clip that it's been growing, I think that that dependance is probably well placed.

(newsperson) ...pay for projects that help save water.

But we've got to be smart about how many eggs we've put in this basket.

Because if we put them all in there, if we put too many, then we will have an overreliance on the revenue stream.

But, I just don't see a lot of other mechanisms, other revenue streams that haven't been tapped yet, coming online to do some of that lift, or at least at the magnitude that sports betting has been able accomplish.

(newsperson) In fact, the state Division of Gaming says $25.5 million in online wagers were placed in the month of May.

The fact that Colorado did open during the heart of Covid, May of 2020, probably pretty safe to assume that folks were glued to their screens more than ever before.

It still surprises me to this day to see how much people play on table tennis.

I see billboards.

I see Instagram ads, and all social media.

Constant Kevin Hart commercials.

DraftKings, these offers got me hyped.

If you go out to eat, its on at the bar.

Constant promotional bets.

It feels inescapable at times.

That willpower has to be enough for you to stop.

Because like I said, its everywhere you go, you'll be able to find it.

If you, or someone you know, is experiencing problem gambling, you can call 1-800-GAMBLER, or visit the Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado website to learn more.