Wasatch Poker Tour. Later Event: June 18. Wasatch Poker Tour. Check us out on Facebook and instagram @londonbelle.sc. According to this Desert News article from 2013, businesses offer poker tournaments based on the same legal loopholes we covered with bingo. One example is the Wasatch Poker Tour, which runs poker tournaments at bars and pubs around Salt Lake City. Wasatch offers cash prizes and live tournament prize packages to top finishers.

• Casino Gambling: Not Legal
• Tribal Gambling: Not Legal
• Poker: Not Legal
• Horse Racing Betting: Not Legal
• Dog Racing Betting: Not Legal
• Lottery: Not Legal
• Daily Fantasy Sports: Not Specified
• Charitable Gaming: Not Legal
• Social Gambling: Not Legal
• Online Gambling: Not Legal

Along with Hawaii, Utah is the only American state that bans all forms of gambling.

But Utah takes things a step further by progressively ensuring that their residents have no gaming options. In fact, House Rep. Jason Chaffetz even tried to get online gambling banned on a federal level in 2015.

Utah’s staunch anti-gambling stance has to do with their history.

In the 1840s, Brigham Young led a group from the Church of Latter Day Saints (a.k.a. Mormons) to settle Utah. The LDS Church frowns on any vice, including drugs, sex, and gambling.

Today, 65% of Utahans identify themselves as Mormons, and the majority is always against gambling when the issue surfaces on ballots.

You won’t find a legal commercial casino, tribal casino, or lottery in the Beehive State. Their laws even prohibit social/private gambling in homes.

Given what we’ve discussed, it doesn’t seem like there’s much to write about regarding Utah’s gambling laws. But you may be surprised to know that bingo parlors and poker rooms have sprung up around Salt Lake City, attempting to operate through legal loopholes.

What are these loopholes?

Find out as we cover what you should know regarding Utah’s gambling laws, along with some crackdowns by local law enforcement.

As covered in the introduction, Utah doesn’t have any legal forms of gaming. This means that the state doesn’t derive a single dollar from gambling.

The closest thing that Utah has a casino is Southgate Social Club, which serves dinner and free bingo cards.

When the Salt Lake-based business opened, they initially only gave bingo cards to those who ordered dinner. But since this meant that Southgate was profiting off the bingo games, the government forced them to offer bingo cards to non-diners as well.

It’s hard to classify this as gambling because you can’t risk any money on Southgate’s bingo action. But in a state with 85,000 square miles and no legal casinos, racetracks, or poker rooms, this is the next best thing.

• Age Requirements: N/A
• Approximate Annual Gambling Revenue: $0
• Approximate Annual Gambling Taxes: $0
• Number of Commercial Casinos: 0
• Number of Racinos: 0
• Number of Tribal Casinos: 0
• Casino Regulatory Body: N/A
• Lottery National Rankings: N/A

Considering that Utahans have no legal gaming options, their best bet is to visit nearby states.

The good news in this respect is that Utah borders six states that offer legal commercial and/or tribal gaming. Below you can see these states along with where their casinos are in relation to Utah borders:

• Arizona – This isn’t a very good option for Utahans because most of Arizona’s casinos are in the center of the state (near Phoenix). Even still, this represents a possibility for those living on Utah’s southern border.
• Colorado – The Centennial State offers a couple of casinos in its southwest corner, near Utah’s southeastern border.
• Idaho – With nearly 10 casinos near its southern border, Idaho is an excellent place for northern Utahans to gamble.
• Nevada – Given Las Vegas’ close proximity to Utah’s southwestern corner and its wealth of casinos, this is the most-popular gambling destination for Utahans.
• New Mexico – The Land of Enchantment has two tribal casinos near Utah’s southeastern border, along with a cluster of gaming establishments beyond this in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe areas.
• Wyoming – With several casinos in its southwestern corner, the Cowboy State offers plenty of gambling for those in northern Utah.

Idaho and Wyoming have both stacked multiple casinos near Utah’s northern border so they can entice the greater Salt Lake City area.

Wasatch Poker Tour Schedule Dates

Also featuring Provo and Odgen, this metropolitan cluster is home to over 1.15 million residents. And while this isn’t enough to support several largescale casino resorts, Salt Lake’s population is large enough to boost these casinos’ profitability.