The Wisconsin Legislature has handed laws that might permit the state’s federally acknowledged gaming tribes to simply accept sports activities bets from clients positioned all through the state. These tribes are already permitted to conduct sports activities betting at their bodily on line casino places on tribal land, however AB 601 would permit them to increase their operations to cellular and on-line betting. The invoice was despatched to the desk of Governor Tony Evers (D) the place it awaits his signature.
What Does AB 601 Do?
In contrast to many legislative texts, AB 601 is brief and candy. All it does is amend the Wisconsin statutes such that sure actions are exempt from being thought-about a wager for the needs of the state’s anti-gambling legal guidelines. To be extra particular, “occasion or sports activities wagers” made by folks positioned inside the borders of Wisconsin through “a cellular or different digital gadget” are usually not unlawful bets so long as the server accepting these wagers is positioned on tribal lands and the wagers are performed underneath the auspices of an Indian gaming compact.
Due to this fact, the tribes which can be presently allowed to simply accept sports activities bets at their bodily places will now be capable to do the identical with cellular and on-line wagers. These bets will likely be topic to no matter phrases are specified within the related gaming compacts.
Present Sports activities Betting Market in Wisconsin
All of Wisconsin’s casinos are operated by tribal gaming pursuits. There are some two dozen brick-and-mortar playing halls within the state, and they’re run by 11 tribes. The unique gaming compacts have been signed within the ’90s, and over time, these agreements have been renegotiated to permit tribes to maintain their casinos open for longer hours and to supply new forms of gaming.
After the landmark Supreme Courtroom resolution Murphy v. NCAA in Could 2018, which opened the floodgates to sports activities betting growth throughout the nation, it took a while for this type of wagering to seem in The Badger State. Tribal compacts needed to be renegotiated first, after which a sportsbook lastly opened on Nov. 30, 2021 on the Oneida On line casino in Inexperienced Bay.
Since that point, different WI sportsbooks have launched, and there are actually round a half dozen of them. Totally different casinos has set their minimal playing ages at both 21 or 18, and presumably, these identical guidelines will likely be in impact on-line. Beneath the phrases of the Federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, not less than 60% of the revenues generated by gaming should stay with the tribe.
AB 601 Timeline
AB 601 was launched to the Wisconsin Meeting on Oct. 29, 2025 and was learn for the primary time on that very same date. After passing by means of the Committee on State Affairs and the Committee on Guidelines, it proceed to a 3rd studying the place it was handed by voice vote.
The invoice then proceeded to the Senate on Feb. 23, 2206 and had its first studying on Feb. 25. It went to the Committee on Senate Group and was then voted on. On the third studying on March 17, it handed with a vote of 21-17.
AB 601 then proceeded to the desk of Governor Tony Evers (D). He has six days to signal it, veto it, or permit it to move into regulation with out his signature.
Whereas Evers initially confirmed nice help for expanded sports activities betting, his latest statements have been extra equivocal. Governor Evers has said that he doesn’t want to proceed with expanded on-line sports activities betting until there’s unanimous help from all of the gaming tribes. Most of them do help the invoice, however there are a handful who’re opposed.
Wisconsin Governor Tony EversIf Governor Evers does signal AB 601, there’ll nonetheless seemingly be a prolonged wait earlier than the primary on-line sportsbooks seem instate. Tribal compacts would most likely have to be amended and guidelines drafted for this new type of sports activities betting. The whole course of would most likely take till late 2026 or 2027 to be accomplished, and solely then would possibly we see the primary WI-licensed on-line sportsbooks launch.
Vital Opposition to Invoice
There was important opposition to the net sports activities betting invoice. In actual fact, a ballot performed by Marquette College Regulation College in February discovered that 64% of Wisconsin voters oppose on-line sports activities betting legalization.
Some imagine that declaring bets to “not rely” in the event that they’re registered on a tribal server is a weak try and get across the Wisconsin constitutional ban on most types of playing. Others cite drawback playing issues and the problem of policing underage betting within the on-line realm.
State Senator André Jacque, who voted towards AB 601, mentioned:
When sports activities betting is confined to casinos it’s bounded by location, by time, by effort. An individual has to make a deliberate option to go someplace and finally, to go away. That friction issues. It creates pure limits. This invoice removes these limits.
It is not simply these apprehensive about playing habit who’re against the invoice. The Sports activities Betting Alliance, which is comprised of well-known sportsbook operators like bet365, BetMGM, and DraftKings, dislikes the truth that industrial entities will not be capable to provide on-line sports activities betting in Wisconsin until they workforce up with a gaming tribe. A spokesperson for the group said:
It’s merely not economically possible for a industrial operator handy over 60 p.c or extra of its income to an in-state gaming entity, only for the proper to function within the state.
Most legislators gave the impression to be resigned to on-line sports activities betting as a fait accompli, concluding that it is higher to have the market strictly overseen by the state moderately than leaving it unregulated. As State Senator Kristin Dassler-Alfheim defined:
If we’re going to have on-line playing – which we’re. It already exists on the perimeters, behind closed doorways. It’s already there. And it’s already being abused by some and that’s not going to alter. I might moderately us put as many parameters round it as we are able to to handle our shoppers and hold the revenues.
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March 25, 2026 – by Max Golden, Editor-in-Chief
