Wyoming Declares Electronic Skill Games As Illegal And Against The Law

The McGill Act of 1901 banned all forms of gambling in Wyoming; a ban that would see strict enforcement for over a century. In early 2013, lawmakers amended the Act, legalizing certain forms of real cash games like lottery, bets on horse racing, bets on dog racing, games at select Indian casinos and social & charitable games like raffles.

Unfortunately for companies like the North Carolina based games developer Banilla Games Inc, electronic skill games didn’t form part of this list.

Skill games have for long had a dubious definition in the eyes of gambling regulators. Quite a few regulators across the United States believe that the use of “skill” in gambling, effectively stops the game from being a “gamble” or a game of chance and reduces the probability of each player having an equal chance to win the game. 

In a formal opinion letter to the Natrona County District Attorney, Michael Blonigen, Wyoming Attorney General Peter Michael declared electronic skill games as a form of illegal gambling, effectively making the act of playing skill games a crime in the eyes of the law.

Banilla Games Inc and a few other developers of skill games have been named in the letter, with a request to the Natrona County District Attorney’s office to investigate whether these establishments are actively selling their illegal games to casinos in the State. Since gambling is to be prosecuted as a State crime, the letter lists out the measures that law enforcement officials need to take in order to effectively prove an establishment’s illegality of operations.

The letter also states the actions operators need to take, if found guilty. For one, all machine observed to be a game of skills must be mandatorily removed from the operator’s premises effective immediately. Some of the games that the letter highlights in particular and asks for immediate removal from casinos are Spooky’s Loot, Fruity Sevens, Bath-time Bucks and Mega Money Reel. Sgt. Aaron Shatto of the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office is one of the few officers enlisted with the task of notifying local businesses about the games’ illegality.

But things may not go very smoothly on the ground. The Attorney General’s letter has met with criticism from casino operators and players. While the letter sheds light about the reasons for electronic skill games being a crime, there is no mention of the visibly negative impacts that pari-mutuel off-track horse racing terminals have had across the State or of the gambling operations conducted by the Northern Arapaho and the Eastern Shoshone tribes at the Wind River Indian Reservation. This has led citizens to question the true intent of the Attorney General’s letter and its possible impact on Wyoming’s games industry.