Boom In Sports Betting Benefits Colorado's Water Plan
In a state that exemplifies many of the country’s largest water issues, a surprising source of revenue is helping to drive solutions.
In 2019, Colorado legalized sports betting through a proposition that promised to funnel revenue from the practice to much-needed state programs, including Colorado’s Water Plan, a comprehensive initiative to protect the state’s drinking water sources while preparing them for increased demand.
A little more than a year later, it’s becoming clear that the state’s bet on sports gambling is paying off.
“Colorado has already collected more than $3.4 million in sports betting tax revenue through the end of December, more than enough to cover the roughly $2 million in startup costs that had to be paid off before wagering dollars could start being directed to the water plan projects, including increasing storage capacity,” The Colorado Sun reported. “More than $1 billion has been wagered so far.”
As a state with limited available source water, Colorado is working to not only protect its drinking water resources today, but establish projects that will guarantee that its growing population maintains access. As such, its water plan could cost as much as $40 billion, per reports.
Creative revenue models like the taxation of casino proceeds will be needed to foot that bill.
“As we look at population growth, as we look at pressures on our watershed and where we think the state is going to go by 2050, I think the water plan is going to increasingly become one of the most important priorities that we need to help send dedicated funding to,” Colorado House Speaker Alec Garnett told The Denver Post.
Colorado’s department of revenue plans to make distributions of the money at the end of the fiscal year as the Colorado Water Conservation Board works on revisions to the state water plan before granting money to any new projects. With increasingly strained budgets in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and drought conditions only worsening, those grants likely can’t come soon enough.
“Garnett said that the sports betting tax revenue is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to the water plan’s needs, but it’s a good start,” per the Sun.
To read more about how water systems battle drought, visit Water Online’s Water Scarcity Solutions Center.