Colorado iGaming Revenue: Still Hungry for Table Tennis Betting, Casinos Top $1 Billion
As months and years went by and all sports resumed regular activity, that was expected to be the end of the line for Coloradans' fascination with the sport.
But it didn't happen right away - and in fact, as of the end of 2025, it still hasn't really happened at all.
It even turned out that a quiet month of tournament play in men's and women's professional tennis in December enabled table tennis to edge out traditional tennis in betting handle for the year - $338.7 million to $334.4 million.
The two sports were the largest year-round marketplaces in Colorado in 2025, with tennis handle ranging from a low of $14.4 million in December to a high of $37.9 million in August.
Table tennis, meanwhile, attracted a low of $23.3 million in wagers in March to a high of $32.5 million in May - a remarkably consistent performance. Table tennis outflanked tennis in seven months, including in November and December.
In Colorado's fiscal year 2025 - from July 2024 through June 2025 - traditional tennis ranked fourth in handle among all sports while table tennis placed a close seventh. Only pro basketball, the NFL, and MLB outranked both sports, while college basketball and pro soccer ranked as close peers.
Why table tennis?
There are a number of theories about the unexpectedly high volume in table tennis betting in Colorado.
One is that a group of professional gamblers – not necessarily native to Colorado - who initially settled for table tennis betting in 2020 soon found that they could gain an edge on "the house" by becoming experts in a relatively little-known sport - hence the continued activity. State regulators do not list the “hold” margin – the amount kept by sportsbooks after paying out winning wagers – by sport.
Another is that Colorado is virtually unique in its monthly regulatory breakdown of the top 10 sports in betting levels.
Most state reports list only a small handful of sports, relegating all others to an "Other" category that in some cases can make up a significant portion of the bets total. It's possible, then, that table tennis is more popular in several states than might otherwise be imagined.
We may learn more if Major League Table Tennis, which debuted three years ago, is successful in its goal for 2026 to convince more state regulators to permit wagering. MLTT has agreements in place with integrity monitor IC360 and with Alt Sports Data, a streaming data distributor, that might help its cause.
Overall, Colorado's sports betting handle of $6.5 billion in 2025 was up 5% over 2024.
Colorado casino revenue again tops $1 billion in 2025
The old-time gold-mining cities of Cripple Creek, Black Hawk, and Central City are the only locations in Colorado to feature casino gambling – offering the option in dozens of small locations.
The industry took in $1.13 billion in 2025 - about 2% higher than it did in 2024.
While casinos were legalized in those cities back in 1990, the state initially imposed a strict limit of $5 on a single play in slot machines or table games. In 2008, that limit was raised to $100 - still not considered a large wager in many states.
