Lawmaker Looks to Legalize Sports Betting in Wyoming

Tom Walters, a Wyoming House of Representatives member out of Natrona County is looking to introduce a new bill that would legalize online and mobile sports betting.

Walters, representing District 38 in the Wyoming House of Representatives, plans to introduce the bill (House Bill 133) at a legislative session next month. Now that more than 20 states have some form of legal sports betting, Walters is hoping that Wyoming can be added to the mix. He told Wyoming News Now about why he plans to introduce the new bill:

My colleagues are certainly hearing from their folks at home. This is something they want to see...The wagering public, when they place a bet in today’s market, they have no protection if they will be paid or not. In a regulated environment, which is what this bill aims to achieve, they have recourse if they’re not paid, but there really wouldn’t be a concern for not being paid.

Walters also noted that one of the biggest benefits in the legalized sports betting bill would be the substantial increase in revenue for the state of Wyoming as well. Net revenues of all wagering will be taxed at a 10 percent rate, as proposed by the new House Bill.

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Ideally, should the bill pass, Walters has ideas of legalized sports betting to be in place by the start of the 2021 college football season. That would nearly mirror what Colorado was able to do after they had sports betting legalized in the fall of 2019. Not long after, in May 2020, their first legal sports wager was placed.