THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS

SB23-259 will enable more problem gambling in Colorado

BY CORINNE NEUSTADTER

Colorado’s 74th General Assembly was one the most contentious sessions in recent history. In the midst of debates on local zoning policies and tax refunds, a bill managed to pass in its third reading on the evening of May 6: Senate Bill 23-259, or Extension of Credit for Limited Gambling, passed 33 to 32 in the House of Representatives.

The bill —which still requires the Senate to vote on House amendmens before it can head to the governor’s desk — allows casinos to extend lines of credit of at least $1,000 to gamers. But the consequences for Coloradoans could prove far more dire. It ignores the inherent complexity of addiction, which demands legal boundaries to counter it, instead allowing casinos to operate with impunity.

Keeping gambling recreational depends on going into it with a clear plan. Sticking to a budget and a time limit, playing solely for entertainment and treating winning as a bonus can help players stay within their boundaries. The Prevention Action Alliance recommends never gambling on credit, as it can enable customers to spend beyond their limits without realizing the full obligations of the financial contract they’ve entered into.

SB23-259 requires customers to apply for lines of credit beforehand, denying credit to those with outstanding warrants, unpaid child support debt, unsettled debt to the state or restitution from a state-level criminal case. However, there are no other explicit guidelines for casinos in determining whether a person is creditworthy. There are no limits on who a casino can approve outside the definition of being “creditworthy.” A potentially life-altering debt obligation needs to come with a detailed accounting of its terms and conditions, including its impacts on a person’s credit score.

Moreover, SB23-259 dictates that customers can take out lines of credit totaling $1,000 or more — nearly half of Colorado’s average monthly rent (and a third in Boulder). Upping the ante will encourage customers to spend more money than they can afford on an activity that is inextricably linked with addiction.

One needn’t look further than Nevada’s gambling regulations to see how casino-offered credit lines — of smaller amounts — can impact people’s lives. Nevada has allowed gambling for over 85 years, but many of its regulations haven’t integrated 21st-century psychology. Nevada has one of the highest rates of gambling addiction in the United States.

Casinos there can offer “casino markers,” or interest-free lines of credit to customers they deem creditworthy.

However, these credit lines must be paid within 30 days, after which the casino can pull funds from the customer’s banking account, since the Nevada state Legislature gave casino markers the legal status of checks. If the account doesn’t have sufficient funds, the customer has five days to send the funds — after which the unpaid debt becomes a criminal case — either a misdemeanor if the debt is under $1,200, or a felony if it’s over $1,200. SB23-259 doesn’t establish criminal penalties for unpaid credit lines, but it does require customers to repay them within 150 days — after which casinos can pursue “all remedies at law to recover unpaid credit” in addition to interest and recovery costs. Since there’s no maximum interest rate outlined in the bill, casinos can charge