Colorado sports betting sets new records for handle and tax take in October
The sports betting market in Colorado continues to grow, with record handle and take numbers being reported for the month of October. Many locals have begun to question the taxation of the gambling industry in the state, forcing the Division of Gaming to release a useful sheet explaining how taxation in the gambling industry works. Numbers that were released on Monday, November 30th, revealed that sportsbooks in Colorado took a total of $210.7M in wagers during the month of October. This was an increase of 1.5% from the previous month, though, not quite as much as the 61% growth from the month before that. Also, this was a trend that was quite persistent across America, with 13 of 15 jurisdictions reporting record handle amounts. The state’s revenue from gambling also scored a new record in October, with Colorado generating $17.4M. This was quadrupled from the $4.2M took the month before. The majority of this was accrued through online gambling, with $16.7M coming directly from online platforms. Around $9M of this was through sports betting, which was a little lower than some had anticipated but it is speculated this is a result of some generous bonus offers being made available. The return of the NFL season in September has seen a significant increase in the number of promotional offers being offered by online platforms.
Sports betting taxes explained by local authorities
The state of Colorado collected a total of $824,700 in taxes from the industry during the month, which was also a new record. Many locals, however, questioned why the state only took home such a small amount in comparison to the total amount of money made by the betting industry.
As a result, the Division of Gaming responded by releasing an info-sheet called ‘How Sports Betting Revenues are Taxed’. This sheet broke down how the earnings were taxed by the State in accessible terms.
In the sheet, it was explained that ‘in some cases, the tax credits exceeded the taxes owed, allowing operators to carryover a negative tax amount to the following month. These carryovers skew the numbers to show a lower tax rate. The tax rate in Colorado for gambling is set at 10% but there are several deductions that can be applied. Another deduction that can be applied in the state is for bonuses and promotions.
It has also been made clear by the Division that these numbers are likely to level out and become more consistent in the coming months. Online sports betting in Colorado only started in May, which means that these records are likely to be broken quite regularly for the first 12 months.
Football leads the way
Unsurprisingly, it was football that was the sport that took the most money in Colorado during the month of October. The start of the NFL Season in September was the reason for such a huge boost for that month, and that is likely to increase slowly over the coming months, with both Thanksgiving and Christmas being popular times to bet on the sport.
Just behind football, which took $68M, were baseball ($23M), college football ($16.5M), basketball ($12.7M) and rather surprisingly, table tennis, which took $9.34M. While table tennis is a bit of an anomaly, the other sports tend to be consistent with betting trends across America.
More changes in Colorado
There have also been some recent developments for casinos in Colorado recently. The city of Black Hawk has announced that it will no longer be capping individual table game bets to $100. This is the first time the law has changed since 2008 when the table betting cap was raised from $5 to $100.
This change came as a direct result of cities now being able to set their own casino limits and make changes to casino and gambling options. Voters in the city decided to lift the cap in November, and it was passed by the Black Hall City council at the end of the month. This will not happen immediately though, with the law not coming into action until May 1, 2021.
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