Colorado Poker Laws
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- Colorado Online Poker Laws Colorado is one of the trickier states to unravel when it comes to online poker laws. On the one hand, prohibition is aimed at operators and service providers, not players. On the other hand, there are state issued documents that express point-blank that “internet gambling is illegal under state and federal law.”.
- Colorado Online Poker Law. Lead by a strong allegiance of casino owners, the engine is slowly chugging toward making online poker legal in Colorado. With 40 casinos, many of which have poker rooms, Colorado has the political and lobbying infrastructure to get an online poker bill done.
Brick and Mortar Gambling Laws in Colorado Title 12 (Professions and Occupations) Articles 47.1 and 47.2 of the Colorado Revised Statutes cover casino gaming. Article 47.1 is the Colorado Limited Gaming Act which covers 38 private casinos in the historic gold mining cities of Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek. Home » Laws Colorado is a reasonable state to live in for poker players. On one hand online poker is illegal (at least that's a reasonable interpretation), but on the other hand it's possible to play poker live in any licensed casino, as well as at home in a social setting.
Last Updated November 2, 2020
While online poker relatively recently joined the list of gambling types in the state of Colorado, the game of poker and its assorted brethren have been residents of Colorado practically since Americans have. Cities like Black Hawk, Cripple Creek, and Central City support dozens of land-based casino gambling sites among them. The days of frontier gambling may be in the past, but online poker and online gambling are opening up new horizons for Colorado gamblers – horizons we’ll explore as we look at the law, the facts and the recent developments regarding legal online poker in the state of Colorado.
Online Poker in Colorado
As a state that hosts a fair amount of land based casinos and live poker, Colorado is a natural hub for online poker as well. The enthusiasm for the game is evident in the big turnouts and steadily growing games across Colorado’s poker rooms, and it’s certain that thousands more are playing poker online, perhaps in even bigger games.
Online poker players from Colorado should only use poker sites that are licensed and properly regulated. By sticking with legal poker sites, poker players have a better shot at secure, fair games and reliable banking that gives them quick access to their money. Our top regulated poker rooms for Colorado:
Are There Any Poker Sites Open to Colorado?
If you’re from Colorado and want to sign up at an online poker room for real-money play, you won’t have much trouble finding a suitable match. All of the major US-friendly online poker sites accept players from the state of Colorado. The picture isn’t quite so rosy for other states – such as neighbor Utah – but in the state of Colorado you won’t have a problem locating an online poker site that will let you sign up, deposit and play for real money. We strongly suggest narrowing your list of potential rooms to the legally regulated online poker rooms on our real money poker page.
Is Poker or Gambling Legal in Colorado?
Poker players from CO are naturally curious about how the state’s gambling laws could apply to the relatively new forum of peer-to-peer online poker. While we don’t claim expertise on the issue, we have assembled some useful resources to help you navigate the question of whether playing online poker is legal in Colorado.
Here a a few relevant aspects of Colorado code that could pertain to Internet poker:
It is a crime to engage in any gambling, which is defined as
“risking any money, credit, deposit, or other thing of value for gain contingent in whole or in part upon lot, chance, the operation of a gambling device, or the happening or outcome of an event, including a sporting event, over which the person taking a risk has no control” (Section 18-10-102(2))
With exceptions made for social gambling and authorized gambling.
The penalty for engaging in gambling as a player in Colorado: A fine. Gambling is a class 1 petty offense in Colorado (Section 18-10-103(1)). Far stricter penalties are assigned to those who are in the business of operating or promoting illegal gambling.
Colorado law makes it a crime if someone to
“knowingly transmits or receives gambling information by telephone, telegraph, radio, semaphore, or other means or knowingly installs or maintains equipment for the transmission” (Section 18-10-106(1))
Proving a crime was committeed is a key concern for Colorado law enforcement. Gambling devices like slot machines and roulette machines therefore garner a lot of attention from authorities, because they serve as hard proof of an illegal gambling operator’s intentions. We were unable to locate opinion or case law clarifying whether or not this could apply to someone playing Colorado online poker, but it appears to target operators and not players.
Players reviewing Colorado law are often confused by the crime of “professional gambling,” (Section 18-10-103(2)) which sounds as if it might apply to a full-time poker player. This charge is actually reserved for individuals who are operating of profiting from the operation of illegal gambling activity.
Colorado code instructs officials to “liberally” construe anti-gambling laws (Section 18-10-101(2)), which essentially means that the laws should be applied broadly assume ambiguous activity not directly described by code, but similar in nature to described actions, to be illegal.
The issue of online poker’s legality from a player perspective is a tricky one in every state, and Colorado is no exception. The state’s laws are broad, somewhat dated and exceedingly vague on important points. For this reason, we suggest that players review Colorado code for themselves to gain a stronger understanding of the law as it might apply to online poker. As is always the case, it is imperative to seek professional legal advice before you do anything that could involve criminal exposure.
Will Colorado Regulate Online Poker?
The state seems closer than many, but not as close as some, when it comes to this question. Back in May of 2012, CardPlayer reported that a draft bill seeking to regulate online poker had been written by the Colorado Gaming Association, but there have been no updates since that report.
Still, recent gambling expansion efforts in the state have been fairly successful, as casino resorts now dot the landscape in cities like Cripple Creek, Black Hawk, and Central City. With the CGA on board, it seems as if Colorado would quickly jump on board as other states roll out products – if they don’t end up taking the lead themselves.
Colorado Gambling Facts
Like many Western states, Colorado’s history with commercial gambling is intertwined with a mining boom, winding back well into the 19th century and littered with tales of fortunes won and lost, of games crooked and fair. Fast-forward a century or two, and gambling continues to play a major role in the state’s economy – a role greatly expanded in 1982 when the state authorized a lottery and again in 1990 when the state amended its constitution to permit casino resort gambling.
Colorado has more than its share of brick-and-mortar casinos. Five cities have gaming dens, including Black Hawk (15), Central City (6), and Cripple Creek (11). Black Hawk contains interesting venues like Wild Card Saloon, Golden Gulch, and Sasquatch Casino. Cripple Creek boasts land-based casinos like Bronco Billy’s, Century Casino, and the Colorado Grande. Central City features gaming venues like Johnny Z’s Casino, the Ameristar Casino Black Hawk, and the Grand Z Casino Hotel.
Regulated Gambling Options in Colorado
For a state that embraced regulated gambling a relatively short time ago, Colorado has no shortage of options for gamblers. There’s the state lottery, pari-mutuel wagering, tribal gambling choices and multiple casinos to choose from. Colorado casinos used to have restrictions that allowed patrons to make very small maximum wagers, but those restrictions have since been eased multiple times and wagering limits are now more in line with a typical casino experience for the majority of gamblers.
Does Colorado Offer any Regulated Online Gambling?
Is Online Poker Legal In Colorado
While there are regulated poker rooms accepting players from Colorado, the state of Colorado does not regulate any online gambling sites or offer any licenses for online poker sites in CO and so on. It does seem likely that Colorado will regulate some form of online gambling in the near future (most likely poker), but at the time of this article there are no online gambling sites licensed or regulated directly by the state of Colorado.
All Poker and Gambling Laws by State
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Colorado Gambling Resources
Colorado Division of Gaming . The central resource for all of the information you’ll ever need about gambling in Colorado. Access laws, regulations, forms and plenty of consumer information regarding casinos, financials and other details that make up the picture for gambling in Colorado.
Colorado Gaming Association . Trade group that represents the casino industry in Colorado. Said to be primary force behind the push for regulated online poker in the state.
Colorado Poker Laws
Colorado.com. Tourist portal contains information (and special offers) for those seeking to visit one of the state’s casinos.
Colorado’s Place in Poker History
There aren’t a lot of famous female poker players today, but there were even less in the 1800s. One notable exception to that rule was Colorado’s own Alice Tubbs, aka “Poker Alice.” Alice was known not just for her skills at the table , but for favoring trips to New York fashion salons as a use for her winnings. Colorado has also served as the backdrop for a more modern poker drama over the legal definition of poker, with the state Supreme Court ultimately declining to hear arguments that poker is, in fact, a game of skill.
Sources & Citations For This Article on Colorado Online Poker
The state of Colorado bucks the trend among American states, most of which create complex and headache-inducing legislation regarding gambling. Colorado’s gaming regulations are downright pithy compared to other states.
The state government of Colorado is mostly interested in blocking the type of gambling that involves organized crime. That means they aren’t all that interested in busting individuals for hosting home games or gambling on the Internet, but the regulations that exist to include some poker restrictions. The end result is that, in The Centennial State, home games are legal (if they follow a few rules and regs), and casino poker is easy to find. Colorado is a relatively poker-friendly state.
Playing Poker & the Law in Colorado
There is no shortage of poker players in the state of Colorado, but many of them may not be 100% clear on how the laws of their state view their poker activity.
The first thing that poker players in Colorado need to know: Poker is considered gambling by state law. This is asserted by the definition of gambling Colorado employs, found in Section 18-10-102, whereby games that are 'contingent' on chance, whether 'in whole or in part,' are considered gambling and thereby subject to the state's gambling laws.
The characterization was also supported by the Colorado Supreme Court in 2010 when the court refused to hear an appeal of a lower court's ruling that poker constituted gambling.
What's the practical impact of that legal reality? In a nutshell: only games of real-money poker that are specifically legal per state law are allowed, and all other games are on questionable legal ground.
That naturally leads to the next question of what types of poker Colorado law specifically permits. You have two ways to play real-money poker and remain in complete compliance with Colorado law. The first is to play at a regulated casino in one of the towns designated for regulated gambling in the state (Blackhawk, Central City and Cripple Creek). You'll find poker rooms at plenty, including Colorado Belle and Casino Black Hawk.
The second is to take advantage of a part of Colorado law that recognizes the right of those in the state to participate in so-called 'social gambling.' As laid out in Section 18-10-102 of Colorado's statutes, social gambling occurs when no party profits from running the game, all participants have a valid social relationship and no businesses or non-persons are involved.
Finally: as of this article, the list of legal charitable gambling options in Colorado did not include poker.
Is Gambling / Poker Legal in Colorado?
Evidence of Colorado’s liberal poker law is the fact that the penalties for illegal poker play aren’t very harsh. If you read section 18-10-103 of the State Penal Code, you’ll see that “ . . . a person who engages in gambling commits a class 1 petty offense.” That means breaking existing poker laws results in a penalty that isn’t enough as harsh as a misdemeanor; essentially a small fine. Break the state’s gaming law and you’re most likely to get the legal equivalent of a slap on the wrist.
When it comes to playing the game online, the law is less clear. In section 18-10-106 of state law, it states that “Whoever knowingly transmits or receives gambling information by telephone, telegraph, radio, semaphore, or other means or knowingly installs or maintains equipment for the transmission or receipt of gambling information commits a class 3 misdemeanor.”
A class 3 misdemeanor is a little more than a slap on the wrist, but as of this writing, no one has been prosecuted for this offense. Consult a lawyer if you plan on playing online poker in Colorado and want to make sure you’re not breaking the law, though it seems clear that any sort of online wagering is against state law.
Are Home Poker Games Legal?
As in most states, home poker games in Colorado are legal if they follow a handful of simple restrictions. As stated before, the state government is concerned almost exclusively with home games related to organized crime. The state law goes so far as to say specifically that Colorado wants to “ . . . avoid restricting participation by individuals in sport and social pastimes which are not for profit, do not affect the public, and do not breach the peace.”
Learn About Other State Laws
That means that a private home poker game is legal as long as it is kept in private and is not operated for profit. In Colorado, the game’s host can play and even collect winnings, but is not allowed to charge any sort of entry fees or rake any pots.
Coloradans enjoy some of the most relaxed anti-gambling laws in the country, as long as they follow the few restrictions written into the state code. Obey the law, don’t rake your home game pots, and (if you’re really worried about being in trouble with law enforcement) avoid playing online poker within state lines.
Colorado Online Poker Laws
You can find more information about poker and gambling laws in Colorado here: http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1251779563698&ssbinary=true