While states rush to legalize sports betting, Wisconsin adopts a cautious approach

Potawatomi Casino Hotel in Milwaukee provides for a party for the first Super Bowl in its permanent sports book on Sunday.

The sportsbook will have several televisions showing the game, a tailgate buffet and nearly 1,000 Paris options, said Justin Arnett, vice-president of digital games at Potawatomi Casino Hotel.

“The Super Bowl is the highest volume bet on the sportsbook calendar,” said Arnett. “It is such a traditional American thing, a cultural thing, that it brings out a lot of people for the first time to get a bet on the game.”

Potawatomi Sportsbook Open last year With more than 20 kiosks, a restaurant, seats for more than 200 sports fans, a broadcast cabin and an LED screen of more than 2,000 square feet. The casino previously opened a temporary sports book in 2023 while the permanent was under construction.

The county of Forest Potawatomi is one of the six tribal nations recognized by the Federal Government of the State which had operations of operational sports in the casinos of Wisconsin at the end of 2024, according to a new Wisconsin policies forum report.

While most states have legalized sports betting, Wisconsin has adopted a cautious approach, allowing only the sports game on tribal land.

According to the report, the state could try to extend sports betting online to create additional tax revenues, but this could be accompanied by negative side effects.

In 2018, the The United States Supreme Court has canceled A federal law which has effectively prohibited commercial sports betting in a large part of the country.

Following the decision, many tribal countries of Wisconsin negotiated with the state to modify their compacts to allow sports games in their casinos, according to the report.

Nine from the 11 tribal countries recognized by the Federal Government of Wisconsin modified their game compacts with the State to authorize sports betting at the end of 2024, according to the report.

The six tribal nations with active sports betting operations are the Oneida nation, the Indians of St. Croix Chippewa of Wisconsin, the Sokaogon Chippewa community, the county of Forest County Potawatomi, the short ears band and the Band of the Flambeau, According to the report.

The constitution of the State prohibits most types of game games in Wisconsin, with a few exceptions, including the state lottery. Most other forms of play can only be managed by tribal nations.

Arnett, with the Potawatomi casino, says that the first year of the permanent sportsbook was the most successful. He said that Milwaukee is a sporting city and that sportsbook continues to develop its bet volume. He said that this NFL season was one of the worst for the upheavals of recent years, which has ended up being good for customers because most people are betting on privileged teams.

“This year, they won a clip higher than normal, which was not as good financially for us, but that brings people to the door,” he said. “People enter and they bet and they have a good time.”

The tribal countries of Wisconsin use a share of their net gains in gaming operations to support tribal members services and make annual payments to the State to reimburse it for the regulation of casinos, noted the report of the policies forum.

“The State gives tribes the exclusive right to lead certain types of play operations, and essentially what the State obtains these payments in return,” said Mark Sommerhauser, the author of the report and spokesperson for Wisconsin Policy Forum.

Tribal game payments were relatively flat before the COVVI-19 pandemic, according to the report. But these payments reached higher pre-pale levels in 2022 to $ 57.6 million. In 2023, game payments reached $ 65.9 million, then $ 66.3 million last year.

Meanwhile, the raw income of sports betting at the national level have increased by almost ten times in the past four years, against 352 million dollars in the third quarter from 2020 to 3.24 billion dollars during the Same period last year, the report indicates.

This growth corresponded to an increase in revenues from states and local governments of sports games, according to the report. States have collectively “collected hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue” since the precipitation to legalize sports betting.

“In most cases, at least part of this will in a way pay the process of state regulation and monitoring of game operations. But in many cases, it goes far beyond that”, said Sommerhauser.

The report recognizes that there is “a certain amount of illegal sports betting” which take place online in Wisconsin.

Certain applications and websites, including those marketed as fantastic sports sites, have gaming elements and are accessible in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin could try to extend sports betting online without modifying its constitution by renegotiating the game compacts to allow online games of tribal land if it goes through servers on tribal land, noted the report. Florida has made a similar Treat with the Seminole tribe, but we don’t know what an agreement in Wisconsin would look like, said Sommerhauser.

The report also indicates that there are risks for the expansion of sports betting in Wisconsin. The political forum cited a 2024 Research document This revealed that the United States legalized online has seen increased bankruptcy rates, debt sent to collections and car loan delinquencies.

“Several studies have shown that household finances in states where online sports betting has been legalized were negatively assigned overall,” said Sommerhauser.

The executive director of the game of the Wisconsin Council on Problem Gaming, Rose Blozinski, said that dependence on the game is already a problem in Wisconsin and that there has been an increase in problems resulting from sports betting in recent years.

While most people can play for fun, she said, dependence on the game can have serious consequences.

“There is a high suicide rate on people who have gone too far on the game, with problems with problems,” said Blozinski. “In addition to that, there are generally a lot of financial problems. People can be involved in legal issues. »»