Gambling in Colorado: a brief history
Colorado's gambling history runs from the 1991 limited-stakes casino vote through the 2008 expansion that lifted bet caps to $100, into the May 2020 launch of legal sports betting under Proposition DD. Tribal casinos in the southwest corner have operated since the early 1990s. What's distinctive is how quickly the gambling product evolved on the consumer side: a Colorado resident in 2026 can place a bet from a phone in seconds, choose between roughly two dozen licensed mobile sportsbook apps, and never see a casino floor. That shift from destination gambling to ambient app-based gambling is what's driven much of the recent growth in problem-gambling helpline calls and in demand for non-12-step recovery options.
SMART Recovery in Colorado
SMART Recovery (Self-Management and Recovery Training) is a non-12-step program built on cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, and rational emotive behavior therapy. It uses a four-point program: building motivation, coping with urges, managing thoughts and feelings, and living a balanced life. There are no sponsors, no steps, no higher power language, and no lifetime-abstinence requirement, though most gambling-track participants do choose abstinence. Colorado has roughly 18 active SMART meetings across the state, with a meaningful share branded as gambling-specific or open to gambling alongside substance use. Meetings cluster in Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, and Colorado Springs. SMART's Colorado footprint leans heavily online, both because of the state's geography and because the program's broader online infrastructure has always supported remote attendance well. Many Coloradans attend SMART meetings hosted from outside the state, which the program treats as fully equivalent.
State-funded recovery resources
Colorado's gambling-recovery infrastructure is anchored by the Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado (PGCC), which maintains a statewide provider directory that includes both 12-step-friendly and non-12-step clinicians. SMART Recovery is supported nationally by SMART Recovery USA, headquartered in Ohio, and Colorado meetings draw on that organization's facilitator training, handbooks, and online tools. Kindbridge Behavioral Health, the Colorado-based gambling-specialty teletherapy practice, frequently refers clients to SMART meetings as a complement to one-on-one CBT work. Colorado uses the national 1-800-GAMBLER helpline plus the state Crisis Line at 844-493-8255. The Colorado Department of Revenue's Limited Gaming Control Commission administers casino self-exclusion, and the Division of Gaming handles sports-betting self-exclusion separately. State-funded gambling treatment for uninsured Coloradans is limited, which makes free programs like SMART meaningfully important for access.
Colorado state helpline · 24/7 confidential
1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537)Operated by the Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado
What recovery looks like in Colorado
SMART Recovery in Colorado pulls disproportionately from Front Range professional and tech communities. Members tend to be people who tried GA, didn't connect with the spiritual framing, and went looking for something more clinically grounded. The cognitive behavioral approach, with its emphasis on tracking thoughts and behaviors, urge logs, and evidence-based tools, fits the analytical bent of Denver and Boulder professionals. SMART also tends to attract people in early or moderate stages of problem gambling who don't yet identify with the disease model and prefer language about choice, behavior change, and skills. There's a smaller but meaningful share of Colorado SMART attendees who use it alongside therapy with a Kindbridge clinician or another gambling-specialty CBT therapist, treating the meeting as group reinforcement of techniques learned individually. SMART's neutrality on lifetime abstinence is also a draw for some Coloradans whose treatment goals are harm reduction rather than complete cessation, though most gambling-track participants do work toward full abstinence given how reliably small bets reignite the cycle.
18 SMART Recovery meetings in Colorado
See the live meeting map filtered to SMART Recovery on the live meeting map, or open the full SMART Recovery hub at /meetings/smart/.