No Reason to Expect Online Regulation
Given Wyoming’s reluctance to approve most forms of land-based gaming, it would be very surprising to find that lawmakers here had made major strides towards iGaming. Sure enough, Internet gambling sites haven’t been a priority here, and few people expect to see the state seriously take up the issue anytime in the foreseeable future.
But that doesn’t mean that residents of the state can’t enjoy placing bets over the Internet. Many reputable online casino operators allow players from the Cowboy State to sign up and play real money slots, blackjack, poker and other games. For these offshore sites, Wyoming (like much of the United States) is a grey market – and since players won’t face any legal repercussions simply for playing at these websites, many do so each and every day.
Lottery, Racing Industry Are Hot Topics
Looking forward in Wyoming, there is still plenty to be settled when it comes to the future of its gaming industry. As we noted before, the lottery here could potentially disappear as early as 2019, though that seems like an unlikely outcome. But when the issue comes up, expect a lot of debate as to what is allowed: right now, Wyoming is one of just two lottery states that does not allow scratch off cards to be sold (the other being North Dakota), and since those account for about half of all sales nationwide, there could be a push to legalize them the next time around.
More immediate are concerns about the horse-racing industry. As in some other states, tracks have been pushing for historical racing – a form of betting in which gamblers take their chances on predicting the outcomes of previous races, without knowledge of the horse names, the dates of the races, or the tracks where they took place.
However, those machines were shut down in 2015, due to concerns from state officials that they were too similar to slot machines. It’s an easy complaint to understand: many of these games are designed to almost perfectly mimic slots, with players getting their results in the form of a slots interface in which a winning combination means they picked the right winner.
While that’s different from a true slot (the results are still related to the horses picked, similar to how video lottery terminals may have games with predetermined results that are represented by a simulated slots spin), they are clearly designed to feed on the appetite for Vegas-style gambling – and it shows in the fact that these games brought in well over $110 million in revenues for 2014, compared to just over $7 million for betting on live and simulcast racing combined.
After about two months, the historic racing machines returned to operation in late November 2015. The state attorney general’s office had determined that while bonus rounds and other special features were illegal, the basic concept was not, and that individual machines could now be verified as compliant. Expect this issue to get more attention in the years to come.
Other issues in the state include the potential creation of a gambling commission to oversee all such activities in the state, but this move was rejected in late 2015. Given the relatively low-key nature of the state’s gaming industry, it seems that many lawmakers feel that the current oversight for the lottery and parimutuel wagering is plenty.
None of this suggests that there is any appetite for Internet casinos, and there is no evidence out of the state legislature or other government officials that there might be interest in even bringing the idea up in coming sessions. Our best guess is that it will be a very long time before you can place bets over the Internet here – most other states will likely have already set up regulatory systems before Wyoming even begins to consider the idea.
