Wyoming’s Select Committee on Gaming has recommended draft legislation that would prohibit online sweepstakes games and place their operation under the state’s felony professional-gambling law. Draft 27LSO-0098 now goes to the Legislative Management Council, which must decide whether to sponsor it for introduction in the 2027 General Session.
The proposal has not been formally introduced and would require passage through the normal legislative process before it could change state law. If enacted, it would take effect July 1, 2027.
The committee’s action marked a reversal from July 30, when a motion by co-chairman Sen. John Kolb to forward the prohibition draft failed for lack of a second. As reported on Oct. 6, the committee’s meeting had initially appeared to leave both the ban and regulatory proposals unresolved.
There is conflicting reporting over the outcome of the Oct. 5-6 Rock Springs meeting. WyoFile reported that the committee unanimously sponsored the prohibition draft, while RG and Deadspin reported that no vote on either the prohibition proposal or its regulatory alternative had been reported. SweepsKings reported that the committee later recommended the ban draft at its Oct. 6 meeting and sent it to the Management Council.
The prohibition would explicitly cover online sweepstakes systems using single, dual or multiple currencies, as well as free-play, promotional-play and sweepstakes-entry formats. It would extend liability beyond operators to businesses knowingly providing payment processing, geolocation, hosting, platform, gaming-content or advertising services. Individual Wyoming residents who participate only as players would be exempt.
Existing Wyoming law makes professional gambling punishable by up to three years in prison, a fine of up to $3,000, or both. The draft would bring sweepstakes offerings under that existing provision and would also extend seizure rules for gambling devices, records and proceeds to the newly covered conduct.
The legislation seeks to settle an area that officials say is unclear under current law. Wyoming prohibits online casinos while allowing online sports wagering and fantasy sports, but regulators have faced uncertainty over whether sweepstakes complaints belong with the Gaming Commission or the Consumer Protection and Antitrust Unit. Gaming Commission Executive Director Nicholas Larramendy said complaints have been passed between the agencies in a “constant cycle,” and that the bill would make clear that the products constitute illegal gambling.
The proposed ban drew opposition in July from Virtual Gaming Worlds, which operates Chumba Casino, and ARB Interactive, the company behind Modo. VGW presented an alternative, 27LSO-0200, that would allow online sweepstakes subject to consumer-protection conditions including age and geolocation checks, self-exclusion, spending controls and one active account per player.
Bill Gantz argued that the prohibition was overbroad because it could conflict with Wyoming’s existing treatment of sweepstakes tied to purchases of goods or services. The regulatory draft would define permissible online sweepstakes as games connected to consumer-product or service sales in which no purchase is necessary to enter or win. Both drafts carry a proposed July 1, 2027, effective date.
