The Colorado Constitution and Colorado law allow only certain types of 'gambling.' In addition to limited gaming in Colorado casinos, the following forms of gambling are legal:
- Colorado Division of Racing-Live and off-track betting on horse racing events
- Secretary of State's Office - Licensing & Regulations for bingo, raffles and charitable games.
- 'Social' Gambling (See Social Gambling Exception below)
All other forms of gambling are prohibited.
Information and commonly asked questions about both legal and illegal gambling activities:
- Some games are way more of a ripoff than others — even by casino standards.
- Losing big at the casino, say: IN A HOLE. The term “casino” originated in the 1700s, then describing a public room for music or dancing. “Casino” is a diminutive of “casa” meaning “house”. “Three-headed” arm muscle: TRICEPS. The triceps brachii muscle is found at the back of the upper arm.
Although the Division of Gaming cannot provide any legal advice, the following is some guidance based upon what has been deemed illegal under Colorado law. Counties and municipalities would have jurisdiction over these matters and may have local ordinances that also address gambling issues, so we encourage you to contact your local district attorney or city attorney's office for guidance because the Division only regulates casino gambling in Central City, Cripple Creek and Black Hawk.
Colorado law does allow charitable organizations to sponsor gambling events at a licensed retailer/operator. (This means a licensed casino in Cripple Creek, Black Hawk or Central City, Colorado.) The provisions governing these events are found in Colorado Revised Statutes, sections 12-47.1-901, 902 and 903. (View Colorado's gaming statutes.)
Outside of the gaming towns, criminal statutes govern gambling activity. For 'gambling' to occur, three elements must be present: consideration, chance, and reward. These elements are sometimes expressed as 'payment, luck, and prize.' The first level of inquiry, then, is whether all three of these components are present, because by eliminating any one of them, the activity would not meet the definition of 'gambling' as set forth in Colorado law.
Am I able to bet on horse racing at the Sports Lounges at Seneca Resorts & Casinos? You are not able to bet on horse racing at the Sports Lounges. How many teams can I bet on a parlay? A parlay wager may include up to 12 teams at the self-service kiosk and up to nine teams at.
For example, if the consideration component is eliminated and no fee, buy-in or other money is required or solicited from the participants, then prizes may be awarded to the player(s) who perform well in a casino type game. This is how several organized poker tournaments are able to operate legally outside the three gaming towns. On the other hand, if an organization charges a donation, fee or other buy-in for the casino games or just for the event, then it cannot legally distribute prizes or money based upon who wins or plays well in the casino type games. Such an organization could legally conduct a drawing, door prize or raffle as long as the prizes are awarded randomly and are not tied to success in the casino type game(s). Likewise, the organization could legally conduct the casino type games for the pure entertainment value alone. By disconnecting any prize or money from the risk element of the casino type game(s), such activity would arguably not meet the definition of gambling.
Although there is a social gambling exception in statute, the Colorado Supreme Court has held that charitable events do not qualify. Charnes v Central City Opera House 1989.pdf
Because a charity event typically seeks to raise money, the only way to hold a casino night where participants pay or donate money, is to hold the casino games for entertainment value only. In other words, there can be NO cash or other prizes awarded as a result of the games played. However, a raffle or door prize scenario where anybody can win the prize without regard to how they played or if they played the games is an option.
Companies do exist that will rent the needed equipment for casino type games. Lastly, if the charitable event will involve a liquor license, the Division of Liquor Enforcement could provide guidance on these issues.
Colorado Division of Gaming
May 2014
'Find a penny, pick it up,' might be a familiar childhood rhyme, but in Colorado casinos, keeping found money in or from a casino is a violation of state gaming law.
When Colorado voters legalized limited gaming in 1990, slot machines typically used coins: pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. In many jurisdictions outside of Colorado, people would walk around casinos, glancing at empty slot machines, looking for any coins left behind. The name 'silver miners' was coined to describe people who looked for money around casino games.
Slot machines keep track of how much money has been played and how much money has been won or lost, but in recent years, most slot machines have migrated to modern technology where the machine does not spill out coins when there's a jackpot. Electronic bells and whistles have taken the place of the happy jangle of a pile of coins spilling into a metal tray.
The problem of people 'mining' for dropped coins has also evolved along with technology. People may be questioned or even charged with Fraudulent Acts if they sit down at a slot machine and play off credits another player has left behind.
Buckets of jackpot coins have been replaced with slips of paper, called 'TITO‚' slips for 'ticket in, ticket out.' When a player finishes playing a slot machine and has credits accumulated on the machine, he or she can cash out the winnings, which is a printed slip of paper showing the balance. That TITO slip can be reinserted into another slot machine, redeemed at a kiosk, or turned into a casino cashier in exchange for cash.
So if a person sits down at a slot machine and plays someone else's credits, how do casino staff and Division of Gaming investigators determine just whose money is being played? For starters, every slot machine is under surveillance. Surveillance video can determine who played, how much they bet, how long they played, and whether jackpots were won. Event logs maintained on each slot machine can verify every transaction that took place, including game play history.
Likewise, if the first or second player used a player card (a player-specific card issued by the casino to track player use as well as link the player to promotions and marketing opportunities), transactions that took place on the slot machine after the card was inserted by the patron can be accessed to view the details.
Sometimes the second player sits down at a slot machine and simply doesn't recognize that there are credits on the machine, and may insert additional money on top of existing credits. The slot machine event logs, as well as the visual information from surveillance, is usually enough to determine if either player is owed credits or money. A player who finds someone else's credits and plays them off can be issued a citation under the Fraudulent Acts law.
If you find a lost ticket, cash or coins on the casino floor, let a casino staff member know. If you want to play a vacant slot machine and discover someone else's credits are waiting, you can find another machine or notify a casino staff member to properly document and remove the existing credits so you can play. If a patron returns to the casino looking for the lost ticket or money, the casino will return their property. If they return to a slot machine where they have left credits, the casino can return those as well. But there is no allowance under Colorado law for 'finders keepers' to keep a windfall.
2014
Colorado law allows a 'social gambling' exception, which allows 'gambling' that is incidental to a bona fide social relationship and is participated in by natural persons. A 'bona fide social relationship' means that the parties must have an established social relationship based upon some other common interest other than the gambling activity.
Further, one participating in such social game cannot directly or indirectly participate in 'professional gambling,' which is defined in Colorado law as 'aiding or inducing another to engage in gambling, with the intent to derive a profit therefrom.' This generally means that no one other than the players can profit from the game or activity in any manner. The profit does not need to be direct profit. Colorado law defines 'profit' as any 'realized or unrealized benefit, direct or indirect, including without limitation benefits from proprietorship, management, or unequal advantage in a series of transactions.'
These two criteria - a bona fide social relationship and no profit motive - must be present for a gambling activity to be considered legal 'social gambling.'
The Colorado Attorney General's Office and the Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission have worked together to put together this response for information purposes only. This response should not be construed as a legal opinion, and you should consult with legal counsel before taking final action regarding the information in this response. Further, this response only encompasses Colorado State statutes. County and municipal jurisdictions may have local ordinances that may also address gambling issues. You should contact your local district attorney's office to determine these ordinances.
The first consideration in determining if a poker tournament or 'casino night' is allowed under social gambling laws is whether the activity is defined as 'gambling.' For gambling to occur, three factors must be present - consideration, chance and reward. These can be better described as 'payment, luck and prize.' If any of these three factors is not present, then the activity is not considered gambling. For example, if no donation, fee, buy-in, tips, drink minimums or any other monetary consideration are required or solicited from the participants in a poker tournament or casino night, then prizes may be awarded to the player(s) who perform well during the tournament or games.
On the other hand, if an organization charges a donation, fee or other buy-in for a poker tournament or casino night, then it cannot legally distribute prizes based upon who wins or plays well in the tournament or event. Such organization could legally conduct a drawing, door prize or raffle as long as the prizes are randomly awarded and are not tied to success in the tournament or event. Likewise, the organization could legally conduct the tournament or casino night for the pure entertainment value alone. By disconnecting the prize from the risk element of the poker or other event, such activity would arguably not meet the definition of gambling. The Colorado Secretary of State handles permits for bingo and raffle events. This paragraph applies even if the poker tournament or casino night is for charity and/or the prizes are donated.
Once the activity has met the legal definition of 'gambling,' it can still be a legal activity if it meets the 'social gambling' exception in Colorado statute.
Internet gambling is illegal under state and federal laws. Colorado law prohibits the transmission or reception of gambling information by any means. The federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, signed into law in October 2006, prohibits online gamblers from using credit cards, checks and electronic fund transfers to place and settle bets. Further, the federal 1961 Wire Act also prohibits the use of wire communications in interstate or foreign commerce for the placing of bets or wagers or information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers.
Unlike participants in legalized forms of gambling, persons who wager on online casinos have no recourse with any state agency should they not be paid for winning wagers or have any other dispute with the entity with which they are placing their bets. Furthermore, players are not guaranteed odds. By statute, slot and video machines in Colorado casinos must pay out between 80 percent and 100 percent. Online casinos are not required to have minimum payouts and are under no form of regulatory control to ensure compliance with any payout controls.
Many online sites advertise they are 'legal' and 'licensed' forms of wagering. They may be legal or licensed where the bets are received, but it remains illegal to place bets from Colorado with these businesses.
In addition, the Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission prohibits persons and businesses licensed in the casino industry in Colorado from having any involvement with internet gaming sites that can be accessed by Colorado residents.
I’ve lost a lot of money playing slot machines in my life. Of course, this doesn’t make me special in any way because most slots players are in the same boat.
Along the way I’ve learned many valuable lessons about slot machines. None of these lessons have helped me win, but some of them have helped me become a better slot machine player.
Here are seven slot machine lessons I’ve learned from years of losing play. You can learn a few things from my experience that can help you improve your slots play.
Online, Mobile, and Land-Based Slot Machines
The only difference between real money online slots, mobile slot machines, and the slots you can play in land based casinos is the names of the machines. All modern slot machines are run by computer programs, whether you’re playing a physical machine or a virtual machine.
The computer program is built using rules that dictate how much the machine gives back in the form of wins and how much the casino keeps for a profit. The computer program also dictates how many spins return money and how many spins are losers.
In the long run you can’t do anything that changes how the programming works. The only way to win is to get lucky enough to play when the program is on a cycle of giving a few more wins than losses. And there’s no way to predict when these cycles happen.
You’re going to learn a lot more about slot machines and luck in a different section in this article. But the important thing to learn in this section is that there’s nothing you can do about the way slot machine programming works.
It’s a waste of time and energy to try to figure out slot machine programming. The programs are too complicated and they guarantee a long term win for the casino.
The Casino Tricks of the Trade
Slot machines are designed using every trick that the manufacturers know to get you to play and keep you playing as long as they can. This all starts with the basic idea of slot machine. You only have to bet a small amount and you have a chance to win a big amount.
Of course, this is the same promise that many gambling games are based on, and the fact is that even when you get lucky sometimes you’re still losing overall.
Slot machines use many other tricks to get you to play more. Special bonus rounds and games within games and stories that open the more you play are all tricks that keep you playing.
Everything about a slot machine is designed to get you to risk more money. And this plays right into what you’re going to learn in the next section.
Bet More, Lose More
Here’s how slot machines work in simple terms. You bet a certain amount over time and the machine keeps a percentage of this amount. In the short run you can see a wide range of results. But in the long run the slot machine keeps the percentage of money that it’s designed to keep.
Using this simple mathematical fact you can see that if you bet more you’re going to lose more. If you bet $700 instead of $350 you can expect to lose $45.50.
The only way to lose less when you play slot machines is to risk less. This means you either have to bet less on every spin or take fewer spins, or both. You can’t overcome the math behind the machine.
Slot Machine Bonus Considerations
I’m not a big fan of mobile and online casino bonuses. I don’t like them because they’re presented like they’re giving you free money, but what they really do is force you to play so long that you’re probably going to lose all of your money.
But I look at slot machine bonuses in a different way. It’s not that slots bonuses are different. They work the same way as other casino bonuses.
However, when I play slot machines I know that the only way I’m going to win is if I get lucky and ht a jackpot. I don’t expect to cash out unless I get lucky. So I want to have as many chances to get lucky as I can get.
Mobile and online slot machine bonuses give me more opportunities to get lucky. This is why I never play slots without a bonus.
Slots and the Lottery
Slot machines and playing the lottery have many things in common. Both are available with a small investment, and they both offer the hope of winning something big. They both also usually end up taking your money and giving nothing back in the long run.
The main difference is that you make small wagers over and over when you play slot machines, and you only buy a few lottery tickets every week.
I play slot machines and I play the lottery, but I lose a lot less when I play the lottery. I spend $20 or less every week on the lottery, and I run through $20 at a slot machine in a few minutes.
Over the years I’ve played slot machines less and the lottery more. Not only do I risk less playing the lottery, but I also have a chance at a much higher jackpot amount when I play the lottery. I don’t waste money playing lottery games that don’t have a top prize in the millions, just like I don’t play slot machines that don’t have a big jackpot.
Losing At The Casino Meme
Progressive Jackpot Slot Machines
I know that I’m going to lose when I play slots. I win sometimes, but overall the slot machines are taking my money. This is why I stopped playing slot machines that don’t have a big jackpot. And the best jackpots are usually attached to progressive slot machines.
If I’m going to take a chance with my money, I want to have the chance to win a huge amount if I get lucky. If your chance of winning the top prize is basically the same, why play on a machine that only offers a top prize of $50,000 or $100,000 when there are machines that have a top prize of $500,000 or more?
Gambling Luck Is the Only Factor
I’ve mentioned this many times in this article, but the biggest lesson I’ve learned playing slot machines is that luck is the only factor. If you’re going to win playing slot machines it’s because of luck.
Losing Casino Roll
Once you accept this as fact, it helps you play slot machines the best way. Forget about trying to win and start looking for the slot machines that have the biggest possible reward when you do get lucky.
In the long run you’re going to be like every other slot machine player. You’re going to lose more than you win. The only way to overcome this is to get lucky and win a huge jackpot. This is just like the lottery.
Play slots with a big top prize and hope to get lucky. This is the only reasonable way to play slot machines.
Conclusion
If you’re relying on anything other than luck when you play slot machines you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Once you accept that the only way to beat the slots is with luck, you can start using the techniques that can pay off the best when you do get lucky.
Losing Casino Roll Nyt Crossword
I use the progressive slots jackpot method when I play slots. I found that there’s no reason why I should limit how much I can win when I hit a lucky streak.
Losing Big At The Casino
And I also learned that a big slots bonus gives me more chances to get lucky. You can use the same methods when you play the slots, waiting to get lucky.