A proposal to legalize Wyoming online casino gambling did not gain much steam this year, but the legislature has created a new committee to help handle potential expansion of the gambling industry.
The Wyoming legislature created the new select committee after five gambling bills stalled out in the 2025 session, including an online casino proposal.
“The issue is, there’s no home committee for gaming,” Sen. John Kolb, one of the co-chairmen for the new committee, said, per the Buffalo Bulletin. “It’s been kind of the unwanted child, getting passed from committee to committee.”
Wyoming online casino push
In 2024, the Joint Appropriations Committee created a special work group for gambling. That work group put together a study on the industry and sponsored five gambling bills.
Spectrum Gaming Group submitted the report to the legislature last year.
Among the bills was House Bill 162, which would have legalized online casinos. During two committee discussions, there were concerns about cannibalizing tribal casino revenue and responsible gambling. The legislature also discussed several horse racing-related bills.
New select committee
The new legislative committee will focus on gambling issues in the Cowboy State.
It will have three members from the House and three from the Senate. Along with Kolb, Rep. Jayme Lien is a co-chairperson.
The committee is not a novel idea, as multiple states across the country have legislative committees focused on gambling issues.
Online casino potential
Spectrum’s report estimated online gambling operators could generate up to $200 million annually. That would send approximately $40 million in taxes to the state.
Wyoming legalized sports betting in 2021. Since the launch of legal online betting, sportsbooks have taken more than $629 million in wagers, generating $65 million in sports betting revenue and $3.8 million in taxes.
Multiple state legislatures considered online casino proposals this year, but none of the legislation passed.
