Wisconsin lawmakers are proposing a small but significant tweak to local law that could help allow for statewide online sports betting via the state's Native American tribes.
- Wisconsin lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 592 to help legalize online sports betting exclusively through the state’s Native American tribes.
- The bill is minimal, only requiring that all betting servers and operations be located on tribal lands under existing state-tribe gaming compacts.
- Tribes could run their own betting apps or perhaps partner with major sportsbooks, though the bill’s future in the legislature remains uncertain.
A bipartisan group of Badger State legislators announced earlier this month that they were planning to push for a tribal-led version of mobile wagering in Wisconsin, which has legal sports gambling on tribal lands but no authorized option for statewide online betting.
The text of a Wisconsin sports betting bill to help make that vision happen is now available, and it is a very bare-bones piece of legislation.
Officially introduced on Oct. 24, Senate Bill 592 has just one section. The section would make an online sports wager in Wisconsin legal "if the server or other device used to conduct" that wager is located on the lands of a federally recognized Native American tribe and in accordance with a state-tribe gaming compact.
“Under current law, it is a Class B misdemeanor to make a bet,” an analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau says. “This bill excludes from the definition of ‘bet’ an event or sports wager made by a person physically located in this state using a mobile or other electronic device if the server or other device used to conduct such event or sports wager is physically located on a federally recognized American Indian tribe’s Indian lands and if the event or sports wager is conducted pursuant to a compact between a tribe and this state under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 that was originally entered into prior to April 1, 1993.”
That’s it, though. There are no other provisions in the bill related to online sports betting.
Presumably, then, a tribe could offer its own online sports betting app in the state. Or, perhaps a tribe could partner with an online sportsbook operator to offer mobile wagering, so long as all of the equipment to process the bets sits on tribal lands.
One small step for mobile sports betting
Nothing in the bill precludes either possibility. However, the bill is just one piece of the puzzle, which will also include federally approved state-tribe gaming compacts.
In this way, what's being proposed is similar to the Florida sports betting market. There, the Seminole Tribe struck a deal with the state that granted them exclusivity over mobile sports wagering, which is deemed to take place on Seminole lands.
“This bill does not authorize gambling on its own; it only is one part in a multi-step process to create the legal framework necessary for Wisconsin to participate in mobile sports wagering under tribal compacts,” the proposal for the sports betting framework reportedly said. “Gaming compacts between states and tribes need to be federally approved by the U.S. Department of Interior before going into effect.”
More information about the proposed framework could come as the bill makes its way through the legislature. Still, as with any bill, there is no guarantee it becomes law at all.
Even so, the push for mobile sports betting across Wisconsin comes as many in the state are already betting on sports over the internet.
They are doing so, though, via offshore sportsbooks, sweepstakes platforms, and federally regulated prediction markets. One Wisconsin tribe, the Ho-Chunk Nation, has even sued prediction market Kalshi in court over the latter's alleged offering of illegal sports betting in the Midwest state.
Online sports betting could be coming to Wisconsin https://t.co/xZ5UFMgNjS
— NBC 26 News (@NBC26) October 24, 2025
Senate Bill 592 was read for the first time and referred to the chamber's Committee on Agriculture and Revenue on Oct. 24. The legislation is now awaiting further action from lawmakers.
The Wisconsin state legislature is scheduled to have another "floorperiod" from Nov. 11 to Nov. 20, during which the online sports betting-related bill could be debated and advanced. Wisconsin’s legislature will sit next year as well, so there may be no particular rush.
More than 30 states now have some form of authorized mobile wagering, including a few of Wisconsin's neighbors, such as Illinois. Minnesota lawmakers are also expected to debate legalizing sports betting again next year.
