Politicians throw out Wyoming Lottery bill
Thursday February 3rd 2011A bill that would have allowed for multi-state lottery tickets to be sold in Wyoming has been defeated. House Bill 186, which was debated in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, would have allowed for a corporation to be set up to handle the sale of lottery tickets in the state. Supporters estimated that the move would potentially mean income of between $20million and $40million being raised through lottery sales each year –money that could have been ploughed into education.
It was also argued that there are already some forms of gambling in Wyoming, such as the casinos located on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
However, according to a report by The Associated Press, opponents of the bill were concerned that allowing tickets for multi-state games such as Powerball to be sold in the state would lead to an increase in gambling on a wider scale. They argued that the overall result would be to hurt families on low incomes who can least afford to spend their disposable income on lottery tickets.
For the foreseeable future, people in Wyoming who want to buy lottery tickets will have to continue to travel across the state border into Colorado.