Colorado Dems Quash Work to Examine Polis’ Ties to Sports Betting Market
Posted on: September 30, 2022, 01:05h. 
Last updated on: September 30, 2022, 01:47h.
Colorado’s bipartisan Legislative Audit Committee wasn’t so bipartisan Wednesday, when it voted four-4 along celebration lines. The vote opted not to examine whether or not or not Gov. Jared Polis’ (D-CO) company interests, potentially like ownership of a gaming stock, allowed him to personally profit from legislation he advanced.
The four-four tie is basically a victory for the Democrats, which handle Colorado politics, meaning there will be no audit of the governor’s company dealings. State Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg (R-Sterling) brought the request to the committee, reportedly sharing engrossing evidence that the governor gained from sports betting legislation he signed into law.
Sonnenberg also alleged Polis never followed via on a 2018 campaign guarantee to put his individual holdings into a blind trust to keep away from conflicts of interest. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) did that when he was governor and mayor of Denver, reports The Colorado Gazette.
Democrats dismissed Sonnenberg’s demands for an audit as election-year posturing. They did so even though pondering whether or not or not the audit committee can examine the governor’s private economic interests. No answer was supplied.
Examining Sonnenberg’s Claims
In November 2019, Colorado voters approved Proposition DD, a ballot initiative to legalize sports wagering to direct revenue to the state’s water projects.
Due to the truth that sports betting income is taxed and that the tax was new in Colorado, voters had the final say in the matter beneath the terms of the state’s constitution. But in 2018, Polis signed a bill allowing Prop DD to be integrated on the November 2019 ballot.
According to media reports, Sonnenberg claimed that in advance of Polis signing that legislation, he owned shares of FanDuel. To be precise (and assuming that’s accurate), the governor owned stock in Flutter Entertainment (OTC: PDYPY), which owns 95% of FanDuel. Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD) owns the other five%.
Citing disclosures Polis created when he was a congressman, Sonnenberg notes the governor was a Flutter investor from at least some time in 2015 by means of May possibly 2019 — the month in which he approved the Prop DD legislation.
FanDuel — the biggest on the web sportsbook operator in the US — contributed $250K to pro-Prop DD initiatives. Polis’ workplace didn’t respond to a request for comment from Casino.org prior to the publication of this report.
Interesting Optics, Timing
Polis is facing off against Republican Holly Ganahl in his quest to win a second term, and no polls indicate that this will be a competitive race.
Across the country, nonetheless, voters’ disdain for politicians profiting from “sweetheart” deals and info the public doesn’t have access to is the rare situation with bipartisan assistance.
In Colorado, the timing of Democrats declining to examine Polis’ purported Flutter investment is interesting, simply because it comes just days soon after a group of their counterparts in Congress stalled legislation that would have barred members from owning person stocks.
Three members of Colorado’s congressional delegation — two Democrats, which includes Hickenlooper, and a Republican — are amongst 72 members of the Property and Senate that have run afoul of the STOCK Act. In all 3 cases, the violations aren’t necessarily egregious and boil down to late disclosures and filings.