Regulating Online Gambling in Wisconsin
Sports betting through apps on your phone is currently illegal in the Badger State. This may be surprising to you because it is already so easy to trick your phone into thinking that you live in a different state or to participate in sweepstakes/social gambling workarounds. I don’t know what percentage of our readership cares about sports, or gambling, but even if you don't, online betting still affects all of us.
I would encourage people reading this to see these apps in the context of our broader struggles with tech oligarchy and capitalism. Online gambling is predatory, we are drowning under an economic system seeped in this type of predation. These apps use bright colors and push notifications to flood our dopamine receptors, taking something human, like watching sports and using it to cause us harm. Gambling in general is integral to the modern “web 3.0” experiment. Cryptocurrency and NFTs are propped up by a community of gambling addicts similar to the stock market.
Honestly, the stock market doesn’t even register to me as gambling anymore, that is how normalized it has become, but what else could you call it? It should be a crime for gambling to be so central to our economy, and it should certainly be more regulated than it currently is! Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket have noticed the similarity to the stock market and have used those similarities to prop up their legitimacy in the courts.
Recently the Attorney General of Arizona filed a criminal lawsuit against online gambling app Kalshi, and even if it goes nowhere I am pleased to see them doing something. If we are going to have a government, they should exist to protect people from corporations. Donald Trump is someone who has benefited from the lack of regulation to enrich himself by at least $4 billion since becoming president and is positioning the federal government to keep these industries from regulation.
What About Wisconsin?
Last week the State Senate passed a bill that would legalize sports gambling in Wisconsin, and so far Governor Evers has not indicated if he will sign it. This story has been presented by WPR’s reporting as a Republican effort that some Democrats signed on to, but it is actually a bit less clear. Twelve Democrats and nine Republicans supported the measure, with the remaining three Democrats and nine Republicans opposing.
Republican Steve Nass was a “no” vote and iterated that support for this legislation is unpopular with Wisconsinites, citing a figure at 64% against. That number along with the votes show that this issue may be one of the few bipartisan pieces of legislation in 2026.
Senator Dora Drake supported the bill, claiming that it would help to regulate the industry that is already in Wisconsin. She also spoke to the revenue that the bill would bring to our state. Chris Larson, opposing the measure, highlighted the problems many in our state have with gambling addiction. That number is estimated to be between 300,000-350,000 people.
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein said in favor of the measure, “I’m not going to say that some of what my colleagues said is not true, and sometimes people do have gambling issues or possibly even addiction issues. But what this bill’s passage would do is start opening up those conversations.” I would submit that we can open up these conversations without passing legislation that may contribute to significant harm.
Thirty-Eight other states and Washington DC have already passed similar legislation to legalize sports betting in some capacity. Arizona currently has the record for the amount of tax revenue that they have accrued from the legalization and it sits at a paltry $140 million since 2018 (by comparison, their revenue from marijuana sales since 2021 are right at $1 billion.) Their governor has recently proposed a tax increase from 10% to 45% on these companies, though it likely will not pass. Here in Wisconsin, we have the opportunity to pass legislation that will create tax revenue to fund important things like education, but that needs to be a part of the negotiations as this bill passes.
Right now, there are no such provisions in the bill, but guardrails are expected to be created as a part of the compact negotiations. I am skeptical about equitable outcomes from the Evers administration as a rule, however the initial revenue sharing with Tribal governments is promising.
An Issue Reflecting The Times
I am amenable to the idea that legalizing something offers the opportunities to regulate and prevent harm, as Senator Drake is arguing. This is among the most unassailable justifications for legalizing drugs, sex work, and casinos as they have existed for so long. It is also interesting that the legislation is opposed by the Sports Betting Alliance (SBA), because 60% of their revenue would be given to Tribal governments, the only locations allowed to host gambling servers. The SBA represents bet365, BetMGM, DraftKings, Fanatics, and FanDuel, and their opposition to the legislation is what may have turned my opinion on the legislation around.
Over a year ago, I saw this video that sent me down the anti-online gambling rabbit hole. It is funny and informative and I encourage everyone to give it a watch. Online gambling has continued to expand since this video was released and now includes other avenues beyond sports betting and online slots through things like Polymarket.
If you are unfamiliar with Polymarket or other online prediction markets, they are a place where people can bet on the likelihood of any particular thing. These may be completely random, from review scores that a video game will receive, the outcome of political elections, or if the former leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be assassinated. Journalist Nick Devor has made the case that these high profile bets concerning things like political assassinations may be linked to insider trading. It may be a stretch to believe that something so heinous and destabilizing would be primarily motivated by a bet, but these perverse incentives exist. I think we are going to be hearing a lot more about Polymarket in the upcoming years.
It is the wild west for online gambling, and there are consequences. Since Murphy V. National Collegiate Athletic Association was decided by the Supreme Court in 2018, the amount of money legally wagered by Americans rose from less than $5 billion a year to $150 billion in 2024. Reported gambling addiction has increased, and even those who do not self-report as “addicted” are more likely to have financial, legal, and relationship problems – including a dangerous correlation between gambling problems and spousal abuse.
Gambling has always preyed on people who want to use it to solve their financial woes. Sports betting apps and prediction markets join the coalition of evil tech corporations that use our phones to turbo-charge that impulse for a profit. We need a radical empathy for people who are hurt by gambling addiction, which I understand is in short supply on this issue. It isn’t just a “personal accountability issue,” and it is not a moral failing, this is a systemic failure. Twitter user Lexis said it best: “Nobody is trying to fix the problems we have in this country. Everyone is trying to make enough money so the problems don’t apply to them anymore.”
As life keeps getting shittier and more expensive, gambling will offer itself as a way to make enough money that these problems affect winners less. The harm is self evident, but also feeds individualistic impulses that prevent people (and dogs – woof woof) from changing the conditions that lead to life becoming more expensive and shitty.
