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The Wyoming Gaming Commission (WGC) has begun the process to amend its regulations to put any gambler found to have harassed a college athlete onto the state’s involuntary exclusion list.
The commission’s unanimous decision on Friday (November 22) followed months of conversations with various groups on how to protect collegiate athletes at the University of Wyoming from being harassed if they miss a three-point shot in a basketball game or make another mistake on the field of play.
“We have been working on the harassment [issue] with the NCAA discussing how we can help alleviate that,” said Charles Moore, the commission’s executive director. “They have acknowledged … that this is a good idea.”
Moore said the WGC has also received support for the regulatory changes from the University of Wyoming and the Sports Betting Alliance, which represents FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM and Fanatics. Wyoming, whose team name is the Cowboys, is a member of the Mountain West Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
“We are utilizing the involuntary exclusion that we already have to deal with this,” Moore added.
Despite lobbying from the NCAA, the approved regulatory changes will not prohibit player-specific proposition bets on college athletes, which are currently available on Wyoming football and basketball games.
Commissioners discussed a possible ban at a meeting on July 11 but decided to table the issue citing a desire to monitor developments in other states before making a final decision.
“We don’t have anything that is specific in the rules for someone who is found to be harassing a student athlete to where they could be banned from wagering and maybe that is the direction we need to go,” Moore told commissioners in July.
Moore added that if Wyoming officials found that an athlete was being harassed they would investigate and submit what they found to the WGC for agents to review, and then “it would be as simple as picking up the phone and sending a message to the sportsbooks that that individual needs to be eliminated from wagering”.
The commission’s discussion was part of a broader debate begun by the NCAA in an effort to protect collegiate athletes from harassment by angry gamblers.
Earlier this year, NCAA president Charlie Baker began asking various state gaming regulators to ban prop bets on collegiate athletes after numerous reports of integrity issues and player harassment. State regulators in Ohio, Maryland, Louisiana and Vermont have since banned such wagers.
Several states already had bans of some sort in place, including New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia and Oregon.
Moore said the amendments to the regulations simply define “harass”, as well as add a definition of “athlete.” The WGC defines an athlete as “an individual contestant in a commission approved event.”
The WGC’s definition of harass “means to engage in conduct including but not limited to verbal threats, written threats, electronic threats, lewd or obscene statements or images, vandalism or nonconsensual physical contact directed at a person that the (offender) knew or should have known would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress; substantial fear for their safety or safety of another person; or substantial fear for the destruction of their property.”
Moore assured commissioners that “this was a first step forward in trying to alleviate this problem”.
“We’ve tried to address it in a little different manner than some of the other folks have suggested and done,” Moore said. “The NCAA has had an opportunity to review this … they are in favor.”
The proposed amendments to Wyoming gaming regulations have been sent to Republican Governor Mark Gordon for his approval and then begins the 45-day comment period.
Wyoming iGaming Bill Set For 2025
Wyoming, with its population of 584,057, would be the smallest state in the country to legalize online casino games, such as blackjack and roulette, if Republican state Representative Robert Davis can get a bill through the legislature when lawmakers return to Cheyenne on January 13.
A Spectrum Gaming report released last week found legalizing iGaming could generate significant tax revenue without causing “erosion” to the revenues of existing land-based gaming operations. If legal, the report predicted iGaming could generate gross gaming revenue of between $93.4m and $138.4m.
That could result in state tax revenues of $20m to $30m in year one.
There are three Native American casinos, with no commercial properties in Wyoming. The state’s gaming market also includes five online sportsbooks, skill-based machines at bars and truck stops, historical horseracing (HHR) machines, charitable gaming, and three racetracks.
Earlier this year, Davis sponsored House Bill 120 that would have authorized iGaming, regulated by the WGC, but the measure failed to move forward during the session.
Davis expects to refile his iGaming legislation in 2025.
“I hope there is enough support for the bill,” Davis told Vixio GamblingCompliance. “Spectrum’s findings will help support the bill, I believe.”
The study also recommended that the minimum age for gaming be consistent throughout and that it be raised from 18 to 21. Currently, the legal age to play skill games is 21 but it is 18 for sports betting and HHR.
“It is very unusual especially for online sports betting to have the minimum age at only 18,” Steven Ingis, Spectrum’s vice president of legal and regulatory services, told the commission.
