Gambling in Colorado: What’s the luckiest casino?

In days gone by, people flocked to Colorado to try to get rich quick—not by gambling, but by participating in the “Gold Rush.”

Even now, the state isn’t just known for the Rocky Mountains and that creepy hotel from The Shining – there are also 35 casino destinations. 

Several forms of gambling are legal in the state, including retail sports betting, commercial and tribal casinos, the state lottery, and off-track betting. 

In the 19th century, keen gamblers might have been found laying their cards on the table in a traditional saloon, but nowadays, you’ll find impressive gambling destinations, as well as more traditional-style casinos set in scenic mountainous locations like Central City and Black Hawk. 

These traditional casinos give more of a feel of stepping back in time, like you’re one of those old school outlaws indulging in a wager or two. 

The impact of gambling on the economy of Colorado is significant – the sector accounts for roughly $4.16 billion, and employs over 19,000 people across the 35 casinos. To go into it in a little more detail, sports betting revenue in the state actually declined 27.1% in February of 2024, down to $25.8 million. 

But there was less bad news for casinos – revenue from casinos stood at $96 million in March 2024, which was the best month since July 2023. Of that figure, $82.3 million came from slots, so they’re definitely the most popular choice.

We got a bit curious and decided to take a deep dive into which casinos are the luckiest and unluckiest in the state of Colorado. 

We devised a very reliable and scientific method to do this: Tripadvisor! We scoured the reviews of the major casinos in Colorado and checked for mentions of specific keywords like “luck”, “success”, and “jackpot”. 

These are the casinos we looked at, ranked:

So, let’s get straight into it. 

Topping the list with 28% of reviews mentioning at least one of our keywords was Johnny Z’s Casino in Central City. It’s a pretty small casino with around 350 slot machines, so they aim for a more boutique style experience. 

The most common keyword here was “won,”  appearing in 10 reviews out of 75. 

One review said, “On a $0.60 bet, I won $175”. We wish we could all be that lucky!

Not far behind is Bronco Billy’s Casino, which had the highest percentage of reviews that mentioned the word “won” – 34/260. This traditional Colorado casino has around 800 slots, and it has consistently been voted as the best casino by local publications.

In third place, we have Ute Mountain Casino, which has 27.08% luck. There were only 96 reviews, but a total of 9 of those called out “won”, and six referred to “winning.” When we looked deeper into the reviews of this casino, we found one in particular that said, “I walked away with 33% winnings. Now that’s FUN!”. We have to agree—that really is fun! 

On the other end of the scale, Monarch Casino got 14.49% on the scale, with only 30 out of 207 reviews mentioning one of our keywords. We’re starting to doubt our own system, though, as we did notice a one-star review that said, “Our gaming experience was also great!”. Everyone does know how ratings work, right?

Coming in second from the bottom is Ameristar Casino Black Hawk (14.95% on the scale). The casino has an impressive 455 reviews, but only one has the word “hand pay,” and none at all mention success. Anyway, we’re happy for that one person who did get the hand pay—they really overcame the odds to do it when no one else could.

Methodology

Casinos.com utilized Trip Advisor reviews to do an in-depth analysis of phrases associated with luck to determine the luckiest and unluckiest casinos in the state of Colorado. We calculated the percentage of luck-rated mentions in the total Trip Advisor reviews and extrapolated them as if all Casinos.com had the same number of reviews for fairness.

Keywords tracked: Lucky, Luck, Winning, Big Win, Winner, Bonus, Profit, Success, Jackpot, Hand Pay

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