Wyoming Gaming Commission Debates NCAA Props Ban, Holds Off On Final Decision

The Wyoming Gaming Commission (WGC) has yet to reach a conclusive decision on the NCAA’s proposal to ban sports wagering props on college athletes nationwide. During a WGC meeting held on Thursday, the commission chose to table the issue, opting to observe developments in other states before making a final call.

The NCAA launched a campaign in March to introduce a nationwide ban on prop bets placed on college athletes. This initiative, spearheaded by NCAA President and former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, is being presented as an attempt to reduce the number of harassment cases against athletes.

“We all agree that harassment of student athletes is bad and something that should not be tolerated,” wrote WGC Operations Manager Michael Steinberg in a paper prepared before the Thursday meeting. “The question then becomes, is banning prop bets going to eliminate the harassment of athletes?”

The state of the states

Before the campaign began, 10 states — New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, and Oregon — already had bans of some sort in place. Following the NCAA’s request, three more states, Maryland, Ohio, and Vermont, have introduced bans.

So far, Montana is the only one of the 38 legal sports betting states to have outright rejected the ban. 

“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity and competition and leading to student athletes and professional athletes getting harassed,” said Baker in a March statement, as reported by ESPN. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets.”

He continued, “The NCAA is drawing the line on sports betting to protect student-athletes and to protect the integrity of the game — issues across the country these last several days show there is more work to be done.”

The NCAA’s campaign has been met with some scrutiny, and not just from sports bettors. U.S. wagering lobbying coalition the Sports Betting Alliance (SBA), comprised of Fanatics, BetMGM, FanDuel, and DraftKings, expressed some discontent at the proposals.

“With the prop ban, you remove a tool from the legal market that could be used to root out other issues like harassment,” said SBA lobbyist Scott Ward to the commission, as reported by iGB. Ward spelled out that as long as gamblers in unregulated markets can continue to place prop bets on the college athletes, player harassment will remain a concern.