Colorado gambling tax calculator

Colorado allows gambling losses only if you itemize on your federal return. It caps your whole deduction, gambling losses included, at $1,000, or $2,000 on a joint return, once federal adjusted gross income reaches $300,000, and a win alone can carry you there. Whether only 90 percent of your losses count from 2026 is not settled.

Your numbers

For each winning bet, what it paid out less what you staked. Add these up for the year, before taking off any losses.

What you staked on your losing bets for the year. More than your winnings is normal.

Get a more accurate numberFiling status, other income, deductions and withholding
Filing status

Wages and everything else, before deductions. Leave out Social Security.

Mortgage interest, charitable gifts, and state and local tax up to its federal cap. Enter these even if you usually take the standard deduction. Your losses may make itemizing worth it, and the calculator compares the two for you.

The year’s total from Form SSA-1099, box 5, for both spouses on a joint return. A win can make more of it taxable. Leave blank if you have none.

Your age (optional)

At the end of 2026. Federal and some state deductions are larger at 65 or older.

Compare reporting methodsEvery wager, or netted by session

These three numbers require going through every bet of the year by hand and grouping them into days. We are building a paid tool to do this for you.

Add up the net gain on every day that finished up.

Add up the net loss on every day that finished down, as a positive number.

The calculation runs on your device, so nothing is sent to work out your number. If you accepted cookies, what you enter is also sent to our analytics.

Your estimate

Enter your state, winnings, and losses to see an estimate.

Checked against Colorado’s own sources on 2026-09-25.

How Colorado treats gambling losses

Colorado allows the deduction only to filers who itemize on the federal return. Take the federal standard deduction and the offset disappears, so gross winnings are taxed even in a year you finished down.

The two examples below are the same numbers the calculator uses, worked at Colorado rates.

Two examples, worked at 2026 Colorado rates

A single filer with $60,000 of other income who takes the standard deduction on everything except gambling losses.

A losing year

You win $50,000 and lose $52,000, so you finish down $2,000.

Federal
$3,596
Colorado
$849
Total
$4,445

You finished the year down and still owe tax.

Federally you itemize, so your losses offset your winnings, but the 2026 rule caps that deduction at 90 percent and leaves $3,200 taxable. Colorado allows the loss deduction only to filers who itemize federally, which you do. Your Colorado income, after the deduction your federal return takes, because Colorado starts from federal taxable income, goes from $43,900 without the win to $63,200 with it. The extra $19,300 is taxed at 4.4 percent, which comes to $849.

A winning year

You win $50,000 and lose $10,000, so you finish up $40,000.

Federal
$10,350
Colorado
$2,200
Total
$12,550

Federally you take the $16,100 standard deduction, which is worth more than itemizing, so your gambling losses do not reduce your federal tax at all. Colorado allows the loss deduction only to filers who itemize federally, and you do not. Your Colorado income, after the deduction your federal return takes, because Colorado starts from federal taxable income, goes from $43,900 without the win to $93,900 with it. The extra $50,000 is taxed at 4.4 percent, which comes to $2,200.

Full Colorado rules, rates and sources

The rules behind these numbers