A Wyoming legislative committee is proposing three tax hikes on multiple gaming industries.

The flurry of draft proposals came at the end of a Thursday meeting of the Legislature’s Select Committee on Capital Financing and Investments in Cheyenne.  

Proponents of the increase said it’s time for tighter regulations and higher taxes in light of the gaming industry’s exploding “proliferation” of the state.

Detractors, from the gaming and related industries, said the taxes will harm businesses and local workers and limit the competitive edge of companies that pay taxes to Wyoming.

Committee Chair Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, was a driving proponent of the measures.

“I think the state of Wyoming has been quite generous to the players in this space,” said Nethercott during the discussion on skill-based games, “giving them almost exclusive access to the market, in a proliferated rate — having infiltrated every block of all our communities.”  

In a follow-up text to Cowboy State Daily on Friday, Nethercott said the proposed increases are consistent with industry standards in other states.

In Wyoming, gaming “has benefitted from modest regulation and little oversight,” she added. “As the industry has grown exponentially in recent years, Wyoming needs to establish enhanced oversight and revenues to match the growing needs from impacts in our communities.”

A Wyoming Department of Health official testified at the meeting that the agency doesn’t have specific programming for gaming addictions.