Wisconsin’s Online Sports Betting Bill Has Passed the Senate’s Vote

Assembly Bill 601, which aims to allow tribal casinos in Wisconsin to offer online sports betting, passed the local senate’s vote with a 21-12 bipartisan vote yesterday and is now heading to the governor’s desk.

Assembly Bill 601 Moves Forward to the Governor’s Desk

The bill proposes creating a sports betting system modeled on Florida’s “hub-and-spoke” approach, allowing bets only if they are processed through servers located on tribal land. This proposal is arguably what allowed the bill to advance last month quite rapidly, as many supporters had a working model to look at with Florida’s setup.

What this structure means is that it would effectively grant tribes a monopoly in what would become the 40th state to legalize online sports betting. Operators would be allowed to form partnerships for branding and technology, but federal law mandates that at least 60% of revenue be returned to the tribes. 

However, this is a threshold the Sports Betting Alliance (SBA) has criticized as unworkable. Ahead of the vote, SBA representative Damon Stewart testified that it is not economically viable for a commercial operator to surrender 60% or more of its revenue to an in-state gaming entity merely for the right to operate in the state.

Senator Andre Jacque (R–New Franken), who voted against the bill, also noted the potential harm that legalizing gambling in the state could do. He argued that while supporters emphasize potential revenue, it is important to recognize that such income is derived from losses, often disproportionately borne by those least able to afford them.

Many Obstacles Still Remain

While the bill has already seen quite a rapid success over the past couple of months, proponents still have a lot of hurdles to overcome if they want to see the text written into law. For starters, Wisconsin must still clear several complex hurdles before implementation, including negotiating new gaming compacts with its 11 tribes, which would then require approval from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Additionally, despite sports betting’s rapidly growing popularity in the country, a lot of citizens still oppose it. Wisconsin is no exception, as according to a recent study, over 60% of Wisconsinites are against the legalization of online sports betting.

While Assembly Bill 601 now moves to Governor Evers’s desk, his support remains somewhat unclear. He has previously indicated he would sign the bill if it had the backing of the tribes. However, he’s also recently expressed concern that not all of the state’s tribes support online sports betting.