Colorado does not have real money online casinos, but it’s possible that the state could legalize the option within the next couple of years. In the meantime, players in Colorado can win cash prizes by playing slots, blackjack, roulette, and more at sweepstakes and social casinos. The state also has more than 30 land-based casinos as well as online sports betting.
Best Colorado Online Casino Gaming for Cash Prizes – September 2024
Anyone 18 or older can redeem cash prizes at sweepstakes casinos in Colorado. These are the best sites for social and sweepstakes play:
Gambling is for entertainment purposes only. Stay safe and ensure success when you gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? Call or text 1-800-GAMBLER for confidential support. Visit SAMHSA’s National Helpline website for resources that include a treatment center locator, anonymous chat, and more.
How We Rank the Best Colorado Online Casinos
We spend hundreds of hours exploring each social casino in Colorado before ranking them in order of their all-around quality. These are the criteria we assess:
- Reputation: We start out by assessing the reputation of each Colorado online casino. Our reviewers seek out trusted, legitimate social and sweepstakes casinos that operate legally in the Centennial State. We will only ever recommend reputable sites that offer fair games, implement robust security measures, and guarantee quick, safe payouts when you win.
- Range of Games: Our experts then break down the range of games at each online casino. We are looking for variety and quality in equal measures. The best sites offer a large library of casino games, and they are also impressive titles from established, reputable providers. They should cover lots of different bases, such as classic slots, video slots, jackpot slots, table games, bingo, live dealer games, and so on.
- Player Experience: Next, we focus on the general strength of the user experience. Some online casinos feature a clunky design. They are difficult to navigate, and the software is unreliable, leading to frequent crashes. We cut those sites from our shortlist and narrow it down to reliable, accessible, intelligently designed online casinos.
- Bonuses: We then analyze the bonuses and promotions that each online casino offers in Colorado. Our reviewers will assess the size and frequency of the online casino bonuses, along with the simplicity of the playthrough requirements. We identify CO online casinos that offer no deposit sweepstakes bonuses, daily login bonuses, discounts if you decide to buy coins, rewards programs, giveaways on social media, and other deals.
- Customer Support: We request support from each available customer service channel and make a note of the response times. The quality and accuracy of the responses is also important, as is the professionalism and friendliness of the staff. We remove any online casinos with poor customer service from our shortlist.
- Payments: We pay close attention to the online casino payment process from start to finish. You never need to make a payment if you play at social online casinos in CO, but some players like to buy coins and cash out prizes. We test the redemption process and the withdrawal speeds, and we also focus on the number of banking methods provided and the minimum redemption limits.
Colorado Real Money Gambling Snapshot
Colorado may join the small group of states with real money online casinos, but for now, it offers the same options as most USA online casino states, with sweepstakes casinos and real money sports betting.
| Gambling Type | Legal | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Online Casino Gaming | No | Colorado does not allow online casinos to operate, but you can use sweepstakes and social online casinos. |
| Online Poker | No | The Centennial State has not passed any legislation to permit online poker tournaments or cash games. |
| Online Sports Betting | Yes | Online sports betting is legal in Colorado, and it has more than a dozen online sportsbooks. |
| Online Lottery | Yes | Play the lottery online in Colorado via the Jackpocket app. |
| DFS Contests | Yes | DFS contests are legal and regulated by the Colorado Division of Gaming. |
| Online Horse Betting | Yes | Colorado permits pari-mutuel wagering, which is overseen by the Colorado Racing Commission. |
Online Casino Games in Colorado
The leading sweepstakes casinos in Colorado host between 500 to 1,000 games. They are sourced from the same software providers that supply real money online casinos in other states, such as Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. These casino games fall into a few broad categories:
Slots in Colorado
Slots are popular with online casino players in Colorado, as they offer simple, accessible, fast-paced action. Some sites host more than 800 slots from providers such as 3Oaks, BGaming, Betsoft, NetEnt, Playson, Pragmatic Play, and Relax Gaming. These are the different types of slots you might find at a Colorado casino online:
- Classic Slots | These 3-reel stepper slots are similar to the old mechanical slot machines found at casinos in Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek in the early 1990s. They offer simple gameplay, low volatility levels, and basic graphics.
- Video Slots | Most online slots fall into this group. The term was originally used to describe the Random Number Generator-powered video gaming terminals that replaced mechanical slots at land-based casinos. These slots use graphics, animations, and soundtracks to provide an immersive experience. They normally have at least 5 reels, they come in loads of different themes, they offer an array of bonus features, and they can feature low, medium, or high volatility levels.
- Megaways Slots | These games are video slots that use the Megaways slot feature invented by a company called Big Time Gaming. It increases the number of ways to win on any slot. Typical slots might have 20 paylines, whereas Megaways slots generally offer more than 100,000 ways to win.
- Jackpot Slots | Progressive jackpot slots give you the chance to win a large payout. A percentage of each bet you make will go into the progressive jackpot pool. As the name suggests, it grows progressive larger until a player wins the top prize, typically during a bonus round.
Table Games in Colorado
The table games section at an online casino will feature the same games you would find at retail casinos in Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek. The games include:
There are virtual table games powered by Random Number Generators at certain social online casinos in CO. Blackjack and roulette are the most widely available, but you can often play baccarat, poker-style games, and dice games too.
Some online sweepstakes casinos also offer live dealer table games. You’ll link up with a real dealer in a studio or a land-based casino, and you can chat while the game takes place. Live dealer blackjack, live dealer roulette, and live dealer baccarat are the most common games found in live dealer sections.
More Colorado Online Casino Games
Some games cannot be categorized as slots or table games. They include scratchcards, bingo, keno, and arcade-style games such as Mines, Limbo, Plinko, and Crash. Many social casinos offer online bingo games, and some offer video bingo too. Stake.us and Chanced are the best sites for arcade-style games.
History of Gambling in Colorado
Colorado’s frontier towns hosted notorious casinos during the Wild West era. Gunslingers such as Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, Butch Cassidy, Bat Masterson, and Tom Horn were renowned for venturing into the Rockies to play card games. However, casinos were not legalized in Colorado until 1990.
Pari-mutuel wagering on horses and other races was authorized in 1947. The Colorado General Assembly approved HB 439, and voters gave their stamp of approval in the November general election that year. Pari-mutuel betting is overseen by the Colorado Racing Commission. The Centennial State then permitted charitable gambling in 1958, including bingo, raffles, and pull-tabs. In 1983, the Colorado Lottery began. It initially sold scratch tickets, but its first drawing took place later that year.
Voters approved Amendment 4 when they headed to the ballot boxes in November 1990. It authorized brick-and-mortar casinos in three struggling mountain towns: Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek. The first casinos opened for business in October 1991. The state’s two tribal casinos opened in 1992 and 1993. Another amendment in 2009 increased the maximum bet limit at Colorado’s commercial casinos to $100, while it also allowed them to introduce roulette and craps.
In 2019, Colorado voters approved sports betting. The first online sportsbooks and retail sportsbooks launched during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020. There are now more online sportsbooks in Colorado than any state except for New Jersey. Online sportsbooks must team up with land-based casinos to launch.
Retail Casinos in Colorado
There are 33 state-licensed retail casinos in Colorado: 15 in Black Hawk, six in Central City, and 12 in Cripple Creek. The state only permits commercial casinos to operate in those three mountain towns. The largest casino is Monarch Casino Black Hawk, which offers more than 1,000 slot machines, 19 blackjack tables, and 16 poker tables, plus craps, roulette, and baccarat. Ameristar Black Hawk and Horseshoe Black Hawk are also large.
Central City and Black Hawk are located within just a mile of one another, 34 miles west of Denver. Cripple Creek is 48 miles west of Colorado Springs. Some casinos offer round-trip bus services to their resorts, and you will typically receive drinks and/or gambling chips if you buy a ticket.
There are also two tribal casinos in Colorado. Ute Mountain Casino is in Towaoc, close to the southwestern border with Arizona and New Mexico. Sky Ute Casino Resort is approximately 80 miles east of Ute Mountain Casino. It is located in Ignacio, which is close to the New Mexico border. According to the American Gaming Association, the 33 commercial casinos house over 17,000 jobs and brought in $1.48 billion in gross gaming revenue in 2023. The two tribal casinos employee over 1,800.
Colorado Online Casinos – Bottom Line
You don’t need to drive all the way to Cripple Creek, Central City, or Black Hawk if you want to play casino games in Colorado. Just pick up your phone or turn on your computer and visit one of the social or sweepstakes casinos we have recommended. They allow you to play for fun without ever feeling obliged to make a purchase. You can also buy coins and redeem cash prizes if you play through your free Sweeps Coins successfully. Use the link we have provided to visit your chosen site and redeem the no-deposit welcome bonus.
As for real money online casinos, they don’t appear to be on the near horizon. While discussions have been had, there hasn’t been a bill introduced to legalize them. The state would need a referendum due to its TABOR rule, which prevents lawmakers from implementing a new tax without voter approval. Of course, if real money online casinos were to be introduced, that would involve introducing a new online casino tax, so voter approval would be necessary here before delving deeper into legalization.
More Resources for Colorado Online Gamblers
American Gaming Association – Colorado
Colorado Gaming Industry Statistics
Online Casinos in Neighboring States
Colorado Online Casinos FAQ
No, Colorado does not allow real money online casino gaming. However, you can play at social and sweepstakes casinos like NoLimitCoins and Fortune Wheelz Casino in the Centennial State. They allow you to play hundreds of games for fun, but you will also have the opportunity to redeem gift cards and cash prizes with Sweeps Coins.
Yes, you can redeem cash prizes at sweepstakes online casinos in Colorado. First you will need to unlock free Sweeps Coins. If you successfully play them through, you can request a cash withdrawal via an online bank transfer or a digital wallet such as Skrill. Alternatively, you can receive a gift card.
We rate WOW Vegas as the best Colorado online casino for slots players. It has a huge variety of games from multiple providers, including classic slots and modern slots with impressive graphics. If you would rather play table games, Sweeptastic or Stake.us would be a better option.
There are currently 33 state-licensed commercial casinos and two tribal casinos in Colorado. The tribal casinos are located in the southwest of the state, close to the border with New Mexico and Arizona. The state-licensed casinos are clustered in three mountain towns: Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek.
You can play slot machines, blackjack, poker, craps, and roulette at land-based casinos in Colorado. Online social and sweepstakes casinos offer a similar selection of games for players in Colorado: slots, virtual table games, video poker, and live dealer games. You may also find arcade-style games at certain Colorado online casinos.
You must be 21 or older to play games at land-based casinos in Colorado. The minimum age for sports betting is also 21. Anyone aged 18 or older can participate in sweepstakes, buy lottery tickets, or place pari-mutuel wagers on horse races.
About the Author
