Colorado released its casino gambling figures for the month of July that saw over $98 million in adjusted gross proceeds (AGP) across the state.
July 2023 AGP was 3.3% lower than July 2022 when more than $101.5 million of revenue was generated. That being said, July revenue was just about 8.2% higher than in June when over $90.1 million of AGP was generated. While numbers have slipped slightly, they are generally in line with expectations.
As usual, slot machines carried most of the weight across all casino games, but players still enjoyed quite a bit of blackjack, baccarat and roulette as well.
Colorado slot machines took over $1.1 billion in wagers in July
Colorado has 33 casinos split up among its three towns that legally can host such establishments. Black Hawk, Cripple Creek and Central City are the only three cities that are allowed to host casinos in the state per state law. Although there has been recent legislative discussion on the subject, currently Colorado online casinos are illegal.
The total slot handle in July was virtually the same as the year prior with only a difference of under 2%. July 2023 saw $1.11 billion in wagers on slot machines while July 2022 saw $1.13 billion in slot machine bets. That being said, July’s slots total was 10% better than June.
The most popular slot machine option was multi-denomination slot machine games. Over $497 million of wagers went into those machines which was 44.6% of all bets placed. That generated over $33.5 million in AGP despite a low hold percentage of 4.9% which was second-most of all slot machine denominations.
Penny slots came in second with nearly $364.5 million in wagers placed. That made up 32.7% of all slot machine wagers and generated just under $35 million in AGP, which led the way among slot machine options. The 5,087 penny slots also represented just under half of all slot machines in the state.
The third most popular denomination for slot machines was $1 which was nearly $169 million in total wagers and over $10.4 million in AGP generated from the 1,045 $1 slots machine games in the state.
Among the three cities that house gamin establishments, Black Hawk casinos far and away led the state in slot machine wagers and AGP generated from those machines. Over $826 million was bet on slot machines in Black Hawk which was nearly 75% of the statewide total. The same goes for the $62.5 million of slot machine AGP in Black Hawk which was 74% of the state total.
Casinos in Cripple Creek came in second with over $197 million in slot machine handle and over $14.3 million in AGP from that handle. Central City casinos came in last, but still had over $91.1 million in wagers placed through slot machines that resulted in nearly $7.5 million in AGP.
Table games at CO casinos generated nearly $14 million in revenue
Table games were pretty far off from the success of slot machines in July, but the sheer number of slot machines skews that perception.
There are only 267 table games in all of CO while there are nearly 10,500 slot machines. That means table games make up just 2.5% of all available casino games. Despite that extreme difference, table games still accounted for more than 14% of the statewide AGP. Nearly $14 million of AGP came from table games.
Black Hawk was by far the most popular destination for table games. Over 76% of all table games reside in Black Hawk and those tables generated $12.8 million in AGP. Cripple Creek was in second place with 952,000 in table game AGP and in last was Central City with just under $168,000 of revenue generated.
Blackjack was the most popular game among table game aficionados. Nearly $21.5 million was wagered on blackjack alone which generated more than $3.6 million in AGP. Next up in popularity was baccarat which saw over $14.6 million in bets placed generating over $3 million in revenue.
Black Hawk was without a doubt the leader in table game offerings. 91% of table game revenue came from the casinos in Black Hawk which is home to 205 of the 267 table games in the state.
Casinos in Colorado contributed over $6.1 million in gaming taxes
After a month of casino gambling, July’s total led to over $6.1 million in taxes contributed to the state of Colorado which was just over 9.1% less than July 2022 which saw over $6.7 million in tax contributions.
Over $6 million of the taxes contributed came directly from casinos in Black Hawk which is an overwhelming 98.1% of total taxes generated. The remaining 2% of statewide casino gambling taxes came from Central City, which added nearly $41,000, and Cripple Creek, which added over $75,000.
