Wisconsin Faces Lawsuit Over Newly Passed Online Sports Betting Law

Conservative groups are asking the courts to tear up Wisconsin’s new online sports betting framework, arguing lawmakers stepped beyond what the state constitution allows.

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Their lawsuit targets the March law that redefined a “bet” so that wagers on sporting events are treated differently when the servers handling those bets sit on federally recognized tribal land.

Filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on behalf of the Brown County Taxpayers Association and Citizens Defending Liberty, the complaint says the 1993 constitutional amendment drew a hard line on gambling expansion.

Voters at the time limited legal gambling to bingo, raffles and state‑run lotteries, and the suit, according to local news outlet Wisconsin Public Radio, claims that change stripped legislators of any power to authorize new forms of wagering, including online sports betting, no matter how the statute is structured or where the servers are placed.

Tribes supported law while major books and groups opposed

Wisconsin’s tribal nations backed the online sports betting law, seeing it as a way to bring existing wagering into a regulated framework tied to servers on tribal land. Big national operators like DraftKings and FanDuel pushed hard against the measure, but WILL attorney Lucas Vebber said none of those companies are involved in the current lawsuit. 

The bill itself moved through on a narrow path. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu worked with Democrats to get it across the line, with supporters arguing that online betting was already happening and the law simply gave the state and tribes a say in how it runs.

In their challenge, WILL and its partner groups say the law crosses both state and federal lines by creating benefits only for members of Wisconsin’s 11 federally recognized tribes.

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“So, by just changing the definition, they’ve made certain things lawful that were not lawful previously, and that itself is a form of authorization that’s not allowed under the constitution,” Veber told WPR.

Casino gaming in Wisconsin might feel heat from fresh legal battle

The new lawsuit doesn’t directly ask the court to tear up existing gaming compacts, but some of WILL’s own messaging hints at wider stakes.

Earlier this year, attorney Dan Lennington wrote that a challenge to the sports betting law “will likely call into question all gaming in Wisconsin, not just online sports betting,” adding, “The casinos are on shaky legal ground already.”

In the filing itself, WILL narrows its focus to the statute that opened the door to online sports betting, asking a Waukesha County judge to declare that law unconstitutional and to block any future effort to fold sports wagering into tribal compacts.

Governor Tony Evers’ office pushed back hard on X, with spokesperson Britt Cudaback calling WILL “a radical, right-wing entity that is actively working to undermine the sovereignty of the Tribal Nations in Wisconsin,” and vowing that “Evers will fight that effort every step of the way.” 

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