Wisconsin lawmakers have now passed legislation that would authorize statewide online sports betting, but the finished product, if approved by the governor, will look a bit different from what other states have done.
- Lawmakers passed a bill to legalize statewide mobile sports betting, expanding existing tribal-run wagering beyond casino and tribal lands.
- The system would put Native American tribes in full control of online betting, allowing residents to place bets from home through tribal-operated apps.
- A required revenue structure favoring tribes could keep major national sportsbooks out of the market, potentially limiting competition and consumer options.
To start, the bill approved yesterday by a majority of Wisconsin state senators, A.B. 601, would put Wisconsin’s Native American tribes squarely in charge of online sports betting.
It would be through them that mobile wagering is offered, which is also how legal Wisconsin sports betting has been offered at all thus far.
You can legally wager on sports while at Native American casinos or using certain apps while on tribal lands. There is, for example, an Oneida Sportsbook app you can use to bet on Oneida Nation lands.
The Wisconsin State Senate votes 21-12 to PASS the tribe-led online sports betting bill. https://t.co/vAXF1Tswv2
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) March 17, 2026
The big change that A.B. 601 would usher in is that tribes would be able to expand into statewide mobile sports wagering. In other words, someone won’t need to drive to a casino or tribal lands to make a bet; they could use an online sportsbook from their own home.
Granted, statewide mobile sports betting is already happening in Wisconsin. It’s just being done with offshore sportsbooks or through federally regulated prediction markets. A.B. 601 would offer an alternative and try to channel what is estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars in annual wagering into a state-level option.
What the bill actually does is tweak the definition of “bet” under Wisconsin law. Currently, it’s a “Class B” misdemeanor to make a bet in the state. A.B. 601, though, would exclude any online wager made by someone who is in the state, as long as those wagers then flow through tribal lands in Wisconsin under the terms of a gaming compact between a tribe and the state government.
More from NEXT NYC, on how Native American gaming tribes see prediction markets as an "existential" threat to the gambling business - and state and tribal sovereignty:
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) March 11, 2026
Tribal Gaming Leaders: Prediction Markets Already Hurting Revenue https://t.co/S7LoRUhsfp @Covers
This type of online sports betting model has been referred to as "hub-and-spoke," and it is used in Florida by the state's Seminole Tribe and its Hard Rock Bet brand.
"Under this model, the wagers placed on mobile devices (the 'spokes') are legally considered to occur where the server (the 'hub') is located on tribal lands, thereby complying with federal law," Wisconsin State Sen. Howard Marklein explained in written testimony to his fellow lawmakers.
It’s a little complicated but can be boiled down to this: You could legally bet on sports using an app or website offered by a Native American tribe in Wisconsin.
This is where Wisconsin would differ from other states, such as Illinois to the south. In the latter, it’s corporations and not tribes that have the inside track to online sports betting. So, the likes of DraftKings, FanDuel, and several others are really the entities driving the industry in Illinois.
That's not gonna work for us
In Wisconsin, the tribes will be in control. That is a key difference because major sports betting brands have warned that the proposed regulatory structure could keep them from joining Wisconsin’s online sports betting market.
The reason why can be summed up with one word: money.
Wisconsin’s Native American tribes would offer online sports betting via gaming agreements they have with the state government, which are called compacts.
Those compacts must also be approved by the federal government, and so will any future amendments to the agreements involving mobile sports wagering in Wisconsin. That is an additional box that will need to be checked before the state's new mobile sportsbooks can launch.
"After the bill’s passage and signing, Wisconsin tribes interested in offering mobile sports betting would need to renegotiate their compacts with the state," Marklein explained. "Final approval would occur once those renegotiated compacts are approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) within the U.S. Department of the Interior."
Furthermore, the compact mechanism is provided for under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which requires that at least 60% of the net revenue from sports betting stay with the tribes. That means any partner they use to help with online sports betting could only get a minority share of the money generated from that wagering.
The revenue split may not be doable for major U.S. online sports betting operators, according to the Sports Betting Alliance, whose members include bet365, BetMGM, DraftKings, Fanatics, and FanDuel.
“Online sports betting is a low margin, capital intensive business,” an SBA lobbyist warned in written testimony to Wisconsin lawmakers. “It is simply not economically feasible for a commercial operator to hand over 60% or more of its revenue to an in-state gaming entity, just for the right to operate in the state. That’s why Wisconsin adults would not be able to use national brands they see advertised on national TV under this bill.”
This means Wisconsin residents may not have access to DraftKings or FanDuel’s online sportsbook. And that would be a major difference between a state like Wisconsin and states like New York or Illinois.
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Whether this creates issues, such as a weaker legal market in Wisconsin, was the subject of debate as A.B. 601 was progressing through the legislature.
It's also worth noting that a similar revenue-sharing situation faced sportsbook operators in Arkansas, which DraftKings and FanDuel eventually made peace with.
However, the bottom line is that if Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers does sign the bill into law, there would eventually be state-authorized online sportsbooks, and perhaps several of them. The tribes believe they can offer a competitive product as well.
Edward Mullen, an elected representative of Wisconsin's casino-operating Ho-Chunk Nation, told a state Senate committee last year that the group is "highly capable" of conducting mobile wagering.
"It would allow the nation, and other tribes, to tap into a new revenue source that can be used to support tribal governmental functions, sustain self-sufficiency, and assist with meeting the needs of tribal members," Mullen said.
