Colorado casinos are one step closer to yet even more needed relief.
Perhaps more importantly for Gilpin and Teller County? More jobs for casino workers.
At the monthly Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission (CLGCC) meeting on Thursday, the members approved gaming rules for a tranche of new games.
What that means is, come May 1, you will see those games in the casinos in Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek.
The games approved were:
- Keno
- Pai Gow Tiles
- Big Wheel Six
- Baccarat
There was also approval for Stadium Blackjack and Multi-hand Blackjack, as well as two new poker games: Stadium 3-card Poker and Stadium Casino War.
As one person on Twitter noted: “There’s demand for Stadium Casino War?”
Amendment 77 paves the way for new games
The reason the rules for these games were before the CLGCC is because Colorado voters approved Amendment 77.
The amendment gives local control to residents in those three gaming towns. That means they have the authority to approve the maximum bet of any amount.
That also means voters could approve the addition of casino games to what is allowed in the Colorado Constitution: blackjack, craps, poker, roulette and slots.
It’s important to point out that the amendment does not alter gaming laws in Colorado.
Since it passed, the residents in the three towns have the option to hold a local election and decide whether residents want to extend betting limits and games.
That has since happened in all three communities.
The next step was to establish the rules.
As was pointed out in the discussion, investigator Bradley Nelson, Table Games Committee chairperson, and his team reached out to casinos in California, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, and numerous tribal casinos for their input on possible rules for these new games.
They used the input of the Colorado Gaming Association (CGA), as well as casinos not in the association. The rules team also connected with Colorado sister casinos in other states that actually have these games.
Painstaking process
Next, Jones and his team painstakingly went through the rules, found the ones they wanted and put the rules together.
Jones said in the discussion that they then presented them in a workshop, and numerous phone calls with stakeholders and investigators from Nevada.
After that, they sent the rules out to different stakeholders.
Jones and the rules team received their comments and reviewed their comments for whether to include them in the rules that were presented to the CLGCC.
As Jones said in the meeting:
“It was a working document, and is a working document.”
What was made clear in the discussion is that the casinos in Colorado are good with these rules and they’re comfortable with them.
As Peggi O’Keefe, executive director for the CGA, said:
“It was a heavy lift in a short amount of time.”
Colorado casinos get table games back
The other noteworthy item is that table games are back in all three gaming cities casinos.
It was announced last week that table games were back in Gilpin County.
Dan Hartman announced they’ve also returned to Cripple Creek.
This is huge, positive news for Teller County.
