The bar game shake-a-day is illegal in Wyoming, and multiple bar owners are shutting the games down after a recent law clarified the ban.
But many elected prosecutors aren’t eager to charge it as a crime, they told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.
“Well first and foremost, I have current prosecutions for professional gambling that is certainly of much more concern, associated with … digital gambling,” said Uinta County Attorney Loretta Howieson Kallas.
She said her urge to charge people for shake-a-day right now is “zero.”
She said the state is “inundated” with illegitimate online gambling sites, which can pervade fraud, and gambling parlors have also surfaced in various Wyoming areas.
Her office remains at about 50-75% staffing levels, and still deals with drug cases, violence, thefts, and other serious property crimes, said Kallas.
“Prosecuting matters related to a shake-a-day in your local tavern is going to be very, very low on my priority list,” she said.
The rules for shake-a-day vary from bar to bar but in some examples, a patron will pay $1 to roll five dice. Rolling a three-of-a-kind wins a free drink, four-of-a-kind means a free meal, and five-of-a-kind wins the pot.
It’s fun and a draw for bars, owners told Cowboy State Daily this week.
It’s also been illegal for years.
For the player, illegal gambling is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines. For the host it’s a felony punishable by up to three years in prison and $3,000, but only if the host plans to derive a profit from the game.
Wyoming’s gambling law tightened this year after lawmakers put firmer definitions and more restrictions on the state gambling statutes.
That prompted multiple bar owners to shut down the games – plus cry foul over what they perceive as legislative favor toward the bigger, casino-style gaming.
Fremont County Attorney Micah Wyatt was torn.
“I’m not saying this is the way a prosector ought to look at things, but I can certainly imagine a reality where people keep having shake-a-days and nobody does anything about it,” he said.
But, Wyatt added, prosecutors can get into trouble if they won’t prosecute illegal conduct.
“I’d have a lot of soul searching to do, I guess, if I was faced with that situation,” he said.
Wyatt said he’d likely be ethically compelled to charge such a case, if the conduct truly violated the law.
“Would I feel good about it? No.”
Sweetwater County Attorney Danny Erramouspe made no promises on his future choices. But “there’s other crimes right now that would take priority over shake-a-day.”
Like Kallas, he noted staffing constraints.
Johnson County Attorney Tucker Ruby said he’d never heard of such a case in his community.
“If they’re illegal, we will enforce them. Are they going to be a priority? There are much bigger priorities for enforcement, and for the safety of our community,” he said.
Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen said he’s never seen such a case in his office, and would have to evaluate each case as it comes.
Laramie County District Attorney Sylvia Hackl gave similar comments, adding she asked legislators for more clarity because of illegal poker houses – not shake-a-days.
The Legislature should pursue even more clarity so people know whether they’re breaking laws, she said.
“I think there’s some real – I don’t know if it’s a different of opinion or almost a schizophrenia, of, ‘we want gaming, no we don’t,’” she said of the Legislature’s work on this topic.
County Attorneys Quentin Richardson (Converse), Clayton Melinkovich (Sublette) and Michael Stulken (Weston) said they need to study the law more before commenting on prosecutorial discretion.
Stulken said he’s conferring with other legal minds.
Cowboy State Daily attempted to contact every county and district attorney in Wyoming on Friday afternoon.
The others did not respond by publication.
Careful Though
Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, told Cowboy State Daily he never thought or intended to restrict bars playing shake-a-day with the clarifying law, Senate File 44, that passed this year.
The bill passed the Legislature with almost no resistance.
Only two lawmakers voted against it during the roll call of this year’s session. Sen. Lynn Hutchings, R-Cheyenne, voted against it on introduction but for it on final reading, and Rep. Kevin Campbell, R-Glenrock, voted against it in a House committee and wasn’t present for its final reading vote.
The Legislature might have an appetite to exempt shake-a-day from gambling bans, Kolb said Friday on Cowboy State Daily’s Morning Show With Jake.
But, he warned, it’s “tricky.”
“Of course we can do that. We could do a carveout that (allows) shake-a-days, like (up to) $3 a shake or whatever,” he said. “But be careful. Because the onerous regulations are when it comes to accounting, right? It’s problematic for people.”
Where the Legislature specifies exemptions, people may have to work harder to show compliance, he noted.
“Sometimes I think … we don’t want people to have the Legislature create laws that box them into a corner – when no one’s been prosecuted. There’s been no charges. There’s been no – nothing on it,” said Kolb.
Wyoming Gaming Commission director Nick Larramendy told Cowboy State Daily this week that the agency hasn’t enforced against the game. It hasn’t sent a bar owner a cease-and-desist letter and it hasn’t handed a case to a prosecutor, he said.
Still, Larramendy said it’s “smart” not to risk it.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
