Wyoming’s largest advocacy group for people age 50 and older is urging lawmakers to rein in scams associated with cryptocurrency automatic teller machines.
Alan Stuber, a police detective for the city of Gillette, said in 2025, his department and the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office investigated more than 75 cases where residents were conned into depositing money into crypto ATMs, money they never saw again.
"Between our two departments last year alone, we're looking at roughly – just in Gillette and Campbell County – over probably $3 million have been lost," Stuber reported.
About 45 crypto ATMs have been installed across Wyoming. The machines convert cash into cryptocurrency, which can be sent to digital wallets worldwide. Nationally, more than 11,000 reported crypto ATM scams resulted in $246 million in losses in 2024. Because many victims are embarrassed and do not report the crime, actual losses are likely much higher.
Criminals extracted $650,000 from unsuspecting victims in Cheyenne over a 16-month period last year. Sheridan saw $1.5 million in losses over a two-year period.
Tom Lacock, associate state director of AARP Wyoming, said scams frequently begin with a fake emergency. Scammers might tell you if you don’t pay a fine, you will be arrested because you missed jury duty – or if you do not make a deposit, your electricity will be shut off.
"They'll tell you that you have an IRS fine that needs taking care of. Once again, you don’t," Lacock explained. "But they’re trying to get you out of that stable place in your mind into a very frenzied place where you make, unfortunately, bad decisions."
Attorneys general in Iowa and Washington, D.C., have sued multiple crypto ATM companies, arguing more than nine in 10 transactions on their machines were scams.
AARP Wyoming is not asking for a ban on the ATMs but Lacock stressed the state could require companies to be licensed and regulated by the state banking division. He added they could also limit transaction fees – currently as high as 20% – as well as transaction amounts.
"No more than $1,000 per day, and no more than $10,000 over the course of a month," Lacock recommended. "The reason for that is once people are identified by scammers as someone they can hit for a scam, they come back, and they come back, and they come back to that same person."
A bill sponsored by Rep. Ken Clouston (R-Gillette) would set up a licensing system for virtual currency kiosk operators. It’s awaiting a second vote in the House.
Amendments made after the bill was successfully introduced last week added a waiting period to complete transactions – 48 hours for new users and 24 hours for existing users. A user may cancel transactions made during that time.
Another amendment added a transaction limit for new users. For the first three days after a new user’s first transaction, they’re limited to $2,000 in transactions per calendar day.
