{"id":16922,"date":"2025-08-15T11:41:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T17:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-sports-betting-tax-revenue-sets-new-record-surging-money-for-water-projects\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:38:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:38:37","slug":"colorado-sports-betting-tax-revenue-sets-new-record-surging-money-for-water-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-sports-betting-tax-revenue-sets-new-record-surging-money-for-water-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado sports betting tax revenue sets new record, surging money for water projects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The temporary sportsbook at the Monarch casino in Blackhawk features two kiosks where bettors can place their wagers, with a more expansive space to come. Retail locations at the casinos so far have played a small role in Colorado's betting action. (Kevin Simpson\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Funding for water in Colorado is seeing a surge, despite the state budget crisis, with cash from sports betting hitting a new high this year.<\/p>\n

The gaming initiative brought in $37 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the Colorado Division of Gaming. That represents a nearly 21% increase from last year, when tax revenue came in at $30.4 million. But water projects statewide still are at risk as the legislature gears up for a special session next week<\/a> to close a new $1 billion gap in Colorado\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

Approved by voters in 2019, the sports betting tax is used to fund Colorado\u2019s Water Plan.<\/p>\n

Back then, early legislative forecasts for revenues that might flow from the program topped out at $29 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the program has grown in popularity and lawmakers have, in recent years, expanded the amount of revenue from the gaming tax that can flow to water programs and also removed a tax break for gaming companies that offer free bets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Water Plan is run by the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the state\u2019s lead water planning agency.<\/p>\n

In addition to sports betting cash, the CWCB is financed using income derived from severance taxes, the state\u2019s general fund and other sources.<\/p>\n

The agency sends millions of dollars across the state each year to help pay for water-saving programs for cities and farms, habitat restoration programs, storage projects, land use planning, irrigation system repairs and the purchase of environmental water supplies for water-short streams.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 21, Gov. Jared Polis will convene a special session during which lawmakers will look for ways to fill a roughly $1 billion budget shortfall<\/a> triggered by new federal tax cuts, which have an impact on Colorado\u2019s tax collections as well.<\/p>\n

The sports betting tax program by law can\u2019t be tapped by lawmakers next week to fill budget holes. But how the CWCB and water programs financed using other unprotected funds will fare as budgets are trimmed isn\u2019t clear.<\/p>\n

Millions of dollars for water projects have already been committed this year, including $20 million in cash the CWCB set aside to help pay for the purchase of the historic Shoshone water rights<\/a> on the Colorado River.<\/p>\n

The CWCB did not respond to an interview request to discuss potential impacts on water projects due to the budget crisis. It said via email that it did not anticipate any impacts to its fiscal year 2026 budget. The fiscal year began July 1.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Democrat from Dillon, said the financial outlook is bleak for all state agencies, including the CWCB.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still too early in the process to determine exactly what water-related funding is at risk. However, this GOP-caused $1 billion hole in our budget will require some tough decisions, and nearly everything is on the table,\u201d McCluskie said in an email.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado Division of Gaming reports that $37 million for the Colorado Water Plan came in as of June 30<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1253,896,28,295],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gambling","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-water"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16922"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20466,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16922\/revisions\/20466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16922"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}