An initiative aiming to allow the state’s gambling towns to raise bet limits, extend operating hours and add games has been certified for the November ballot.
Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman’s office said today that an estimated 88,965 signatures submitted for the so-called limited-gaming measure were valid based on a random sample. The measure needed about 76,000 valid signatures to be approved for the ballot. Coffman’s office reviewed 6,671 signatures, or 5 percent of the 133,401 signatures that were submitted.
The industry-backed measure, which will appear as Amendment 50, would ask statewide voters to allow Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek residents to raise the casino bet limit in their jurisdictions from $5 to $100, expand to 24-hour operations and add craps and roulette. Casinos in those three towns currently must close at 2 a.m.
Under the initiative, the distribution of gaming-tax revenue up to the amount collected in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2007, would remain unchanged, with 22 percent going to the gambling towns, 50 percent to the state general fund and 28 percent to statewide historic preservation.
The measure would earmark 78 percent of any increases in revenue beyond fiscal 2007 levels to the state’s community and junior colleges. The remaining 22 percent would go to the gambling jurisdictions.
Raising the bet limit to $100, adding new games and extending operating hours would nearly double the state’s gaming-tax revenue within five years, according to a preliminary report by Gov. Bill Ritter’s planning and budgeting staff.
By the fifth year, the state would collect an estimated $158 million in gaming taxes on top of the $191 million the casino industry would generate if those changes weren’t made, the report states.
Andy Vuong: 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com
