Wyoming Lawmakers Move to Further Restrict Gambling as Bar Owners Decry Ban on Traditional Dice Games
Wyoming's gambling establishments are headed for another record-breaking year in money wagered, and state lawmakers took steps this week to rein the industry in further.
The Wyoming Legislature's Select Committee on Gaming voted unanimously this week to sponsor draft measures tightening regulation of the industry, the Laramie Boomerang reported. It follows a new state gambling law that took effect in July, which made classic bar games — bingo, dice, football boards and other games of chance — illegal to host or play, punishable by up to six months in jail or a $750 fine.
Bar owners are feeling the squeeze. Cheryl Burkhardt, who has owned The Office Saloon in Gillette for 12 years, is shutting down her popular shake-a-day dice game, in which customers pay a small fee to roll dice and can win a cash pot or a free drink by hitting combinations like three of a kind. She said the games are just for the patrons' fun and don't profit the bar. She believes the law drives business exclusively toward state-sanctioned casinos: with eighty-plus machines in each casino, she told the Cowboy State Daily, one giving away free food and cheap beer, she cannot compete — no one's going to come out and pay her for a meal or a drink when they can get it cheap or free at the casino.
Tyler Bennett, owner of the No Name Bar in Sheridan, is also ending shake-a-day on October 10. "I'm 44 and ever since I was allowed in bars, there's been shake-a-days," he said. "Now we've got a Wyoming lottery and gaming halls all over the place, but we're not letting people do a small-stakes game of chance like that?"
Wyoming Gaming Commission Director Nick Larramendy said his office is not targeting shake-a-day games: "Our office has not sent any cease and desist letters for shake-a-day. We have not presented any cases to prosecutors for shake-a-day." Still, he acknowledged the games are illegal under the new law.
The committee's next legislative moves will shape the future of gambling regulation in Wyoming, pitting concerns over the social costs of gambling expansion against fears that blanket bans are killing small-town bar culture.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0（Wikimedia Commons）摄影：Postdlf
