Colorado clear to move on sports betting

The state’s Attorney General confirmed the segment doesn’t need a constitutional amendment to be regulated.

US.- The sports betting segment is getting legalised, or at least debated, all across the US. Colorado had hit a stalemate as legal experts believed a constitutional amendment was needed to legislate on it. However, state’s Attorney General Cynthia Coffman has assured that there’s no need to modify the state’s guiding document before regulating the sports betting segment.

“The Colorado Constitution does not prohibit or otherwise restrict commercial sports betting,” Coffman stated in a letter and added: “Whether or not to amend state statutes to authorize commercial sports betting is a policy question for the General Assembly and the voters of this State.”

Furthermore, she explained that “whether a game is a lottery turns on the role that chance plays in the outcome,” as the debate revolved around the segment being a lottery or not. “Wagering on a sporting event falls outside this definition,” Coffman asserted.

However, casinos criticised the AG’s stance, and the Colorado Gaming Association released a statement which said they believed Coffman’s opinion “is incorrect” and said: “The weight of judicial authority throughout the country is that sports betting is, in fact, a ‘lottery.’ Attorney General Coffman’s conclusion that horse and dog racing are ‘not materially different’ than professional and collegiate sports betting is factually and, we believe, legally incorrect.”