Colorado Politics reports that Gov. Jared Polis signed legislation blocking the Colorado Lottery from allowing people to buy lottery tickets with credit cards. That decision reverses his earlier support for the Lottery Commission’s plan, which his office previously described as a “consumer convenience” and modernization move.
So yes, the right answer finally showed up after taking the scenic route through bad judgment. Good. People should not be encouraged by state government to gamble on borrowed money so the bureaucracy can squeeze a few more dollars out of bad odds and worse impulses.
This is not innovation. It is not customer service. It is a payday-loan mindset with a scratch-ticket logo.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Polis first supported the Colorado Lottery Commission’s move to allow credit-card ticket sales, then signed Senate Bill 117 to block it. That is not exactly a straight line, but at least the car eventually found the road.
- The Lottery Commission claimed it had authority under state law and approved the rule change anyway, even after 25 lawmakers urged it to bring the idea to the General Assembly. Nothing says “public trust” like a government gambling agency deciding it knows best.
- About 26 states allow lottery ticket purchases by credit card, while about the same number do not, including Colorado. So no, this was not some unavoidable march of progress. It was a policy choice.
- Sen. Judy Amabile said the projected $15 million in extra revenue over two years would be made “on the backs of people who are just losing money and destroying their lives.” That is unusually blunt for the Capitol, where bad ideas usually arrive wearing a lapel pin and a fiscal note.
- Retailers also backed the bill because credit card processing fees, reportedly around 4%, could eat into their lottery commissions. So even the folks selling the tickets looked at this and said, “Maybe let’s not make the bad idea more expensive.”
My Bottom Line
Government should not be running a convenience upgrade for debt-funded gambling and calling it customer service. Convenience is not an automatic virtue. Arson is also easier with gasoline.
Adults can gamble with their own money. That is personal responsibility. But Colorado should not grease the rails for people to gamble with Visa’s money. The state already profits from lottery sales. The least it can do is not hand people a shovel and point them toward a debt hole.
The bigger problem here is the Colorado Lottery’s incentive structure. When government starts acting like a casino host while pretending it is just “modernizing,” taxpayers should get suspicious. When the state profits from people making dumb financial decisions, it loses the right to lecture anyone about responsibility.
So credit where due: Polis signed the bill. Good. No medal ceremony required. The conservative position is clean and simple: do not ban adults from taking risks with their own cash, but do not let the state turn borrowed money into scratch-ticket fuel just because the revenue projections look shiny.
Source: Colorado Politics
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