Cripple Creek voters gave a resounding OK to expanded gambling.
More games, longer hours and higher bets passed in landslide tonight, 267 for it and 13 against in the Teller County town of 1,200 people.
Voters and city leaders have said it will mean more tourists, more tax revenue and more jobs in an industry hit hard by the economic downturn.
Cripple Creek will be the first of the state’s three casino towns to raise betting limits from $5 to $100, add games such as craps and roulette, and keep gambling hall doors open around the clock.
Before Tuesday’s vote, casinos had to close between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., and only slots, blackjack and poker were allowed.
The measure also takes away regulators’ authority to raise taxes on casinos, forcing a statewide vote on future hikes.
The local referendum is a product of the state constitutional amendment adopted with 60 percent of statewide voters last month.
State voters allowed the towns to re-establish gambling in 1991.
The state collected $112 million in taxes from gambling last year, as the state’s 43 casinos generated $816 million in revenue.
If adopted in all three towns, some studies project that tax revenue could swell by about $300 million in each of the first five years.
Towns get to keep 10 percent of the windfall, with 12 percent for their counties and 78 percent going to the community colleges.
Colorado casinos now employ about 8,000 people.
Cripple Creek, a gold mining boomtown once known as Poverty Gulch, is home to 17 casinos.
The Cripple Creek City Council had announced plans to hold the vote as soon as possible, even before the statewide vote.
Residents in Black Hawk, home to 20 casinos, will vote on the measure on Jan. 13. Central City leaders have said they will schedule a vote, affecting six casinos, in February or March.
