Colorado Politics

Colorado sports betting drops in April but up from a year ago

Coloradans ponied up $392.3 million for sports betting in April, the state Division of Gaming said Friday.

While that’s down month over month, it’s 60% more than residents bet in April 2021, according to a news release.

Colorado residents have gambled almost $7 billion since sports betting was legalized in May 2020.

The April total was a 22% dip from March’s total of $505.6 million. State coffers increased a bit with the $1.2 million in taxes from the April betting, bringing the 2022 total collection to $10.5 million, a 67% increase from the same period in 2021.

No football and no “major sports betting holiday, like the opening weekend of NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, led to the drop in sports betting, according to PlayColorado.com, which follows regulated gaming.

“Without football or the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament, a slowdown is always inevitable in April,” Ken Pomponio, analyst for PlayColorado.com, said in a news release. “More importantly, the state’s industry continues to post strong year-over-year gains despite concerns in the greater economy. That said, the constant growth that the industry has enjoyed over the last two years is facing a threat for the first time since the earliest days of Colorado’s market.”

That threat is inflation. When the price of necessities like energy and food rises, discretionary spending drops, according to a spokesman for PlayColorado.com.

“So far, though, we haven’t seen inflation affect wagering much, if at all, anywhere in the U.S.”

Sportsbooks won $22.6 million in gross revenue from April’s wagers, up 28.5% from $17.6 million in April 2021 but down 19.8% from $28.2 million in March, according to PlayColorado.com.

Pro basketball generated $146.4 million, likely because of the Denver Nuggets first-round playoff appearance. Baseball followed with $69.9 million, followed by hockey, tennis, soccer and golf.

In this April 24, 2019, file photo, a monitor shows a Playtech bet tracker during the Betting On Sports America conference in Secaucus, N.J. The spread of legalized sports betting is largely following regional boundaries. Lawmakers across the Northeast and upper Midwest have generally approved it or are still considering doing so this year. But in the Deep South and far West, fewer states are rushing in a year after the US Supreme Court cleared the way for legal sports betting nationally.
(AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
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