Wisconsin Gives Tribes 60% of Mobile Betting; Ohio GOP Backs Online Ban

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed legislation that allocates 60% of mobile sports-betting revenue to the state’s 11 federally recognized tribes and requires mobile betting apps to route wagering through servers physically located on tribal land. The law creates a hub-and-spoke system under which tribal lands serve as the technical and contractual gateway for mobile wagers.

All 11 tribes eventually endorsed the hub-and-spoke structure. Brooks Boyd, chairman of the Forest County Potawatomi Community, praised the legislation: ‘This bipartisan legislation respects tribal sovereignty and keeps the economic benefits of mobile sports betting in Wisconsin.’

The server-location requirement and revenue split could affect national operators that run centralized platforms. The law gives tribal governments control over which operators can connect to tribal servers, and will shape licensing and partnership agreements between tribes and sportsbook companies.

Tribes and potential operator partners must complete licensing, identify on-reservation server sites, and negotiate contracts that permit mobile apps to connect through tribal hubs. State regulators are expected to issue rules and timelines to implement the statute and oversee technical and security standards.

In Ohio, state representatives Riordan McClain (R-Upper Sandusky), Gary Click (R-Vickery) and Johnathan Newman (R-Troy) announced plans to file legislation that would remove the online wagering option established under current law and limit legal sports betting to four licensed brick-and-mortar casinos. Governor Mike DeWine previously expressed regret about legalizing sports betting.

The Ohio proposal, as described by the lawmakers, would reverse the expansion of mobile wagering in the state and confine legal betting to casino floors. The bill’s sponsors have not released a timeline for introduction, nor have they provided details on how existing online accounts, open wagers or operator contracts would transition if the proposal advances.

Any change in Ohio would require committee consideration and floor votes in the state legislature before it could take effect. In Wisconsin the new statutory framework will move into a regulatory phase as tribes, operators and state agencies complete the steps needed to begin tribal-hub mobile wagering.