Wyoming, large in territory but small in population, is the sixth US state to have introduced iGaming legislation during January. A new measure, House Bill 162, has already been assigned to what its backers hope will be its first committee stop on its way to becoming law.
HB 162, which now awaits possible discussion and votes in the Wyoming House's Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources committee, is rather different than most of the other online-gambling bills offered across the US so far in the 2025 legislature year. While HB 162 seeks to legalize full-scale, online casino-style gambling, including online poker, the bill also includes a significant framework supporting online pari-mutuel wagering thoughout the state.
Player pooling would be authorized by measure
Unlike iGaming legislation as originally passed in Michigan and Pennsylvania and now under early consideration in New York State, player pooling with other "authorized jurisdictions" is prominently mentioned within HB 162. For the purposes of online poker, player pooling with other states (or even other countries) would be all but mandatory for Wyoming, which has fewer than 600,000 residents.
Approving player pooling, however, would bring the entirety of the casino-style iGaming proposed within HB 162 to a rough equivalency with the pari-mutuel wagering portion of the bill. Wyoming's pari-mutuel facilities currently offer simulcast wagering, but only from within licensed wagering halls scattered across the state.
