WY is preference points, meaning its NOT a lottery. If you dont have the right amount of points accrued it is NOT possible to get a tag in the primo areas. They do have whats called the special draw that you can apply for. Twice the amount of money, and increases your chances significantly.
That's mostly true but not 100%. 75% of the tags go to the people with the most preference points. 25% though go into a random draw and so anybody can draw these tags. Even with 0 points.
As longshot mentioned, you can apply in the special draw which I think is $1,200+. To a large degree though, it doesn't make a huge difference on your draw odds. Lots of times it only is 1 point different from the regular draw. One other caveat. In some of the super primo units, they don't give out many tags and therefore, they might not even give out any tags in the random draw. Thus, your chances are 0% in the random draw.
As to your original question Kurtr, I guess it all depends. If you'd be happy with shooting just about any bull, then I'd say apply for the general tag, go hunt every other year or so, learn some units and you should be successful at some point. If you're going for a primo unit though, it might take 15-20 years to catch up to the point creep. I burned 7 points 2 years ago and had mid 60 degree weather in November and the hunting sucked. I had great info too from guys who had hunted the unit and my friend and I really struggled. Even in a good unit, it ain't easy.