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Senate narrows online-lottery bill amid constitutional concerns about iGaming; amendment adopted
Summary
Senate Bill 117 was amended on the floor to narrow its scope to lottery purchases and to bar certain credit-card purchases after sponsors and members raised fiscal and constitutional concerns about broader iGaming expansions; the amendment was adopted and the bill advanced.
Senators on April 22 took up Senate Bill 117, a measure originally drafted to address online lottery sales and related rules. Sponsors and other members debated the fiscal implications of expanded online gaming, consumer-protection concerns and constitutional limits on slot machines.
Sponsor Senator Bridal said the bill, as originally introduced, sought to restrict a Department of Revenue rule that would expand online gaming and allow credit-card purchases. Bridal cited the bill’s fiscal-note estimates: “the people of Colorado were going to lose $28,000,000 in 2627, and $40,000,000 in 2728,” and said amendments negotiated with the governor’s office reduced those figures to roughly “about 12,000,000 in 2627 and 24,500,000 27,28.”
Bridal also raised a constitutional objection, saying Article XVIII of the Colorado Constitution limits where slot machines can be played. “They were putting slot machines on our phones. The Constitution of the state of Colorado says that cannot be done without a vote of the people to change the Colorado Constitution,” Bridal said on the floor.
Senator Amabile urged caution on expanding online gambling, saying she was "terrified that if everybody gets a slot machine on their phone ... they'll just be able to destroy their lives by gambling." Senator Bridges and others clarified that the adopted amendment narrowed the bill’s focus, noting the bill as amended would prohibit lottery purchases on credit cards rather than ban all online sales.
An amendment (L006) that substituted a revised appropriations committee report and narrowed the bill was offered and adopted on the floor. The committee report and the amended bill were adopted and the chair announced the bill adopted on the floor; the transcript does not record a separate final floor tally for the bill in the available segments.
The action changed the bill’s scope from a broader ban on online sales to a narrower restriction on certain payment methods for lottery purchases and preserved the constitutional constraints discussed on the floor.
