Of that money, $22.5 million would go toward the Colorado Water Plan, the project aimed at ensuring Colorado has enough water for its growing population amid climate change-induced drought. The Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting and the nonpartisan Legislative Council Staff project that sports betting tax revenues will be as high as $24 million in the 2022-23 fiscal year, which began July 1. Since sports betting began in Colorado on May 1, 2020, more than $8 billion has been wagered within the state, generating tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue. “It is the cooperation and willingness to work together that makes us all stronger.” “We can’t always agree on every issue but sometimes it’s better to disagree and work together,” Baker said. They asked the Colorado General Assembly to keep tribal issues in mind when working on policy.

Heart and Baker gave speeches to the legislature Wednesday under a 2022 bill that offered the tribes the opportunity for the first time to address state lawmakers on an annual basis. Heart added that he wants the state to make an exception that would allow the tribes to earmark sports betting tax revenue for tribal water projects. “And since this has been passed in 2019, we’ve lost that much money with sports betting.” Tribes do not pay state taxes on their gaming revenue. Under Proposition DD, sports betting tax revenue is collected by the state and the majority of it is earmarked for water projects. Under federal law, the tribes are required to use gambling proceeds for tribal services. Heart said there are conflicts between state and federal law. “They never even talked to us,” Baker told The Colorado Sun. Ute Mountain Ute Chairman Manuel Heart and Southern Ute Chairman Melvin Baker said neither tribe was consulted when the legislature in 2019 referred a measure to the ballot that year, Proposition DD, asking voters to approve sports betting. The chairmen said in-person sports betting is allowed at the tribes’ respective casinos – the Ute Mountain Casino Hotel in Towaoc and the Southern Ute Sky Ute Casino Resort in Ignacio – but that the tribes haven’t been able to offer online sports betting like other casinos in the state. The chairmen of Colorado’s two Native American tribes asked the legislature Wednesday in speeches at the Capitol to change the state’s sports betting laws so that they can cash in on the multibillion dollar industry. 11, 2022, to address a joint session of the legislature. Southern Ute Chairman Melvin Baker, right, and Ute Mountain Ute Chairman Manuel Heart are welcomed into the Colorado House chambers on Wednesday, Jan.

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