PROTECT WYOMING SPORTS BETTING
Wyoming’s legal sports betting system is working. It’s fair, safe, and bringing in millions in tax revenue for the state. Wyoming is even running a budget surplus.
So why change it? A tax hike isn’t necessary, and it could make things worse for everyone.
The bottom line: A 100% tax increase would hurt local Wyoming sports fans and risk driving people back to the shady illegal market.
When legal betting becomes less attractive, more people turn back to the illegal market, where there are no protections, and the state collects nothing.
Wyoming already has a fair, balanced tax rate.
Raising it risks hurting consumers and cutting off a growing source of state revenue.
And while legal sports betting drives down the illegal market, doubling the tax rate on legal sports betting would threaten to jeopardize all of Wyoming’s progress, pushing consumers back to illegal sites that don’t pay taxes or protect players.
How Does Wyoming’s Current Tax Rate Compare?
More than 90% of bets placed with legal sportsbooks get repaid to customers in winnings, while the vast majority of the remaining dollars go toward building out technology, creating responsible gaming tools, and local partnerships and marketing. Customers in states that have raised sports betting taxes wind up with a more costly sports betting experience, from worse promotions to decreased payouts. These types of changes also make legal sports betting products less able to compete against illegal and offshore sports betting operators that pay zero in taxes but are widely available online to bettors in Wyoming.
Illegal sports betting hurts consumers
Legal and regulated online sports betting offers a safe alternative to the illicit offshore marketplace, which continues to flourish in states that haven’t yet legalized online sports betting.
Experts estimate customers spend tens of billions on the illegal sports betting market each year, depriving state and local governments of significant tax revenue. These illegal and unregulated offshore sports betting websites are unsafe products – offering no consumer protections, age verification or responsible gaming protections. Illicit market users also routinely fall victim to scams and find themselves unable to remove funds from their accounts.