State health officials, county public‑health collaborators and industry representatives outlined prevention and treatment efforts, data gaps and industry-led responsible gaming tools as the Select Committee on Gaming examined the social impacts of expanded gaming.

Stefan Johansen, director of the Wyoming Department of Health, described three roles for the department: prevention and awareness funding that largely flows to counties, public‑financed treatment for mental‑health and substance‑use centers, and coordinating data collection. Johansen said about $300,000 per year from the Gaming Commission is made available to counties for prevention and awareness activities. He told the committee the department is preparing statewide environmental‑scan data — and can add targeted questions to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to produce more specific statewide trend information — but cautioned those statewide surveys have a one‑to‑two year lag.

On treatment demand, Johansen said state‑funded community mental health centers recorded about 22 clients in the most recent year who identified problem gambling as part of their addiction out of roughly 10,000–11,000 clients overall. "The raw numbers are pretty low," he said, but cautioned that state‑funded centers do not represent the entire treatment landscape and that problem gambling frequently co‑occurs with substance use or other behavioral health conditions.

Laramie County’s environmental scan, presented in person by Susan Janke of the Laramie County Gambling Prevention and Treatment Collaborative, found an estimated 43% of adults in the county gambled in the last year (about 32,000 people) and that roughly 5% of that group would meet criteria for problem gambling — about 1,600 people. Janke said about 12,000 of the county’s gamblers exhibit at least one gambling‑related problem, and that a person with gambling problems often affects six to eight other people in their social circle. The collaborative’s survey respondents also expressed a preference for online telehealth and financial‑counseling options rather than visiting a mental‑health center in person.

Industry speakers described programs they say are intended to help prevent harm and increase access to services. Dr. Jennifer Shatley, president of the Responsible Online Gaming Association (ROGA), said ROGA’s first priorities include developing evidence‑based best practices, creating an independent certification program and building a shared data clearinghouse beginning with a national cross‑operator self‑exclusion registry. "The first iteration of what we're doing in this area is a shared self exclusion database ... implement[ing] a cross‑operator, cross‑jurisdiction, national self exclusion across the online space," she said.

Chrissy Thurmond, head of responsible gaming relations at DraftKings, described platform tools available to players: a persistent Responsible Gaming Center, the industry’s "My Stat Sheet" feature (which DraftKings reports has received more than 20 million visits), a newly launched "My Budget Builder" tool and an industry‑funding program that provides $15,000 annually to state problem‑gambling councils (DraftKings reported more than $2 million donated to councils to date). Thurmond said DraftKings provides links to a telehealth provider, Cambridge Behavioral Health, for self‑excluded players and maintains informational resources and proactive non‑promotional responsible‑gaming messages that direct players to tools and support.

Committee members and other presenters emphasized current limits in data and access to treatment. Wyoming’s 1‑800‑GAMBLER line was cited as a commonly used resource; the Wyoming Council on Problem Gambling reported 6,519 calls from Wyoming to that number since February 2016, and since 2023 the service recorded 93 chats and 83 texts from Wyoming. Several presenters urged the committee to develop Wyoming‑specific public messaging, expand telehealth access, and coordinate prevention funding rather than keep funds dispersed across multiple small programs.

The committee agreed to continue work on social impacts, problem gambling and responsible‑gaming tools and requested follow‑up data from the Department of Health and LSO when more statewide environmental‑scan results are available. No formal policy vote was taken at this meeting.