Legal Sports Betting Spoken About in Wisconsin Laws & Regulations

Wisconsin Legislators Want to Cash-In on Legal Sports Betting

By Lisa Spencer Senior Editor Updated: 08 October 2019

Lisa Spencer Senior Editor

As a Senior Editor at Betting.US, Lisa Spencer is a valuable member of our expert team. With a Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics, Lisa is adept in gambling theory and analyzing odds. She contributes by writing online sportsbook reviews and finding competitive markets to help our readers make an informed choice.

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In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court made a landmark ruling, essentially allowing gambling to be legalized throughout the country on a state-by-state basis. Since the ruling, we’ve seen a number of states completely legalize sports betting – both online and offline. Now, however, it looks as though Wisconsin is going to be the next state to look at legalizing it – and some lawmakers in the state have publicly declared their support towards looking at legalizing sports betting in the state.

Rep. Tyler Vorpagel – R-Plymouth – is said to believe that legalization would yield significant financial benefits for the state. Along with using this money to continue advancing social housing, education and public health care, he believes that it would also be beneficial as it would help to keep money within state lines. Currently, with sports betting not legalized in Wisconsin, punters need to travel out of the state to place bets. While this revenue doesn’t amount to a huge amount, it all adds up he says, and he’s worried about the state losing potential gambling revenue to other states that have already legalized sports betting.

Speaking about the issue, Rep. Vorpagel said:

“It doesn’t make sense [for Wisconsin] if other states allow gambling and can capture Wisconsin dollars from people interested in gambling.”

Wisconsin Doesn’t Want to Get Left Behind

Already, many states around Wisconsin have legalized sports betting. Illinois, Iowa and Indiana have all legalized betting in one form or another, and already, Minnesota and Michigan legislators are rushing to draft up legislation to allow sports betting to take place within state borders. Due to the fact that punters from Wisconsin can easily travel to any of these states – with a minimum degree of effort – it’s clear that they could be losing out on potential business – something Vorpagel is keen to stop.

In fact, Vorpagel has openly stated that he wants to close this loophole as soon as possible, as he really does believe that Wisconsin is missing out on a significant amount of revenue that would be raised through legal sports betting channels.

However, Vorpagel is no idiot – and he realizes that any move to legalize sports betting will take time. There are two main obstacles which legislators will need to overcome. The first of these is to actually get a bill passed through the House – and this requires two consecutive sessions. Once this initial step is completed, a statewide referendum would need to be held, in order to give the public the chance to voice their opinion. If things looked good at this point, then the state’s constitution would be able to be changed.

However, even once that’s out the way, it’s not all clear sailing. Legislators would then need to negotiate with tribal casinos, with tribes currently running 26 casinos within the state. However, none of these casinos are currently allowed to offer sports betting – although it’s highly likely they would want to cash-in, if it did indeed become legal.