Colorado’s sports‑betting industry will face new regulations — limits on deposits, prohibitions on credit‑card funding, and barring companies from targeting anyone under 21 — under a bill signed by Gov. Jared Polis.

Senate Bill 131 — sponsored by Sens. Matt Ball, D‑Denver, and Byron Pelton, R‑Sterling, along with Reps. Steven Woodrow, D‑Denver, and Dan Woog, R‑Erie — limits customers to six deposits within a 24‑hour period and bans the use of credit cards to fund betting accounts.

The measure also bars sports‑betting companies from targeting anyone under 21 and from sending push notifications or text messages that solicit bets or deposits.

An earlier provision that would have outlawed proposition bets, which are wagers on specific in‑game events, such as passing yards or the first team to score, was removed from the bill before final passage.

Sponsors argued that the proposal puts guardrails around a fast-growing sector, while critics said they worry it would force people to underground gambling.

“After months of work alongside recovery advocates, health care professionals, and families across Colorado, SB 26-131 is now law,” said Ball. “This law puts guardrails on an industry that has ballooned in Colorado to more than $6 billion in annual wagers in just a few years. That growth has come at a real cost — to families’ financial security, to kids’ well-being, and to the integrity of the games we love.”

Woog said the bill isn’t about dictating how people live but about ensuring that sports‑betting companies meet basic responsibilities — especially when it comes to protecting children and other vulnerable Coloradans. He added that voters across the political spectrum have been calling for stronger safeguards, and the bipartisan support behind SB 26‑131 shows how widely that sentiment is shared.

Some 73% of Coloradans say the 2019 legalization of sports betting has made problem gambling worse in the state, and that research has found that about half of all gambling addicts have considered suicide, and 1 in 5 have attempted suicide, according to Healthier Colorado, a nonprofit group.

Joshua Ewing, executive director of Healthier Colorado, said the bill is “the most comprehensive set of online sports betting protections in the country.”

“We are deeply grateful to Sens. Ball and Pelton and Reps. Woodrow and Woog for their bipartisan leadership, to Governor Polis for his signature, and to the coalition of recovery advocates, families, health care professionals, and Coloradans across the state who carried this law across the finish line,” he said.

SB 131 cleared the legislature on a 20–14 vote in the Senate and 50–13 in the House.

The measure drew opposition from major sports-betting companies, including FanDuel and DraftKings, which argued the new restrictions would drive people to unregulated gambling markets and reduce state revenue for water projects.

“At a time when Colorado faces an $850 million structural budget deficit and no replacement revenue source, we do not believe now is the time to divert revenue to illegal, unregulated markets,” said Stanton Dodge of DraftKings.

More than 90% of the tax revenue Colorado collects from casinos’ sports‑betting profits is dedicated to water conservation efforts.