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Proposition DD was Closer Than it Should've Been

Colten Dudley
Prof. Hitt
POLS 304
Dec. 4, 2019
When one thinks of the state Colorado, gambling and sports rarely come to mind first, that is unless the sport is skiing. The state has very few casinos and is a history of sports teams that fall into the bounds of mediocre to the brink-of-greatness. That being said, Colorado does suffer from a lack of water availability, and thus, for some reason, these two elements came together to foster Proposition DD, a measure voted on in the 2019 Colorado Ballot.
This measure asked voters 5 to legalize (and subsequently, tax) sports betting. The tax and fee revenue from sports betting is intended to pay for the regulation of sports betting and provide a funding source for the Colorado Water Plan and other water-related obligations. This measure, while making very little logical sense to many, won on the ballot, but not by a very large margin.






As seen from this chart, provided by TheDenverChannel.com, proposition DD barely won in Colorado, showing that the State is more evenly divided over certain propositions, despite the belief that Colorado is more blue than red. But why did it meet such a split opinion?
The Colorado Water Plan, released by the state in 2015, identifies objectives, goals, and actions by which Colorado will address future statewide water needs. This is a widely non-partisan cause, and the bill saw much bipartisan support, so why did the public seem so split on the bill? It is now thought that the wording of the bill, which was confusing at best and misleading at worst, saw many people vote against it. Proposition DD’s ballot question asked "Shall state taxes be increased by twenty-nine million dollars annually to fund state water projects and commitments and to pay for the regulation of sports betting through licensed casinos by authorizing a tax on sports betting of ten percent of net sports betting proceeds, and to impose the tax on persons licensed to conduct sports betting?"

The wording was confusing, so the race was closer than it should have been, arguably. Despite the state of Colorado lacking many locations where legal sports betting could occur and be taxed (like Black Hawk or the Lodge Casino’s), the measure was passed, and the combination of people who supported this measure, like business owners and agricultural workers clearly used their combined numbers to see a win, if only a marginal one over those who opposed the bill. With a more accessible wording of the measure and more educationally-based advertisements, I think the proposition would’ve been much closer.

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