The primary form of gambling in Wisconsin is found in the seventeen casinos on eleven Native American reservations. The casino gambling was legally authorized in compacts between the tribes and the state, first negotiated in 1992 and then renewed in 1998.
The 1998 compacts permit machine gaming and blackjack table games as well as bingo, and the tribes agree to pay the state 3% of the revenues they win.
The largest gaming complex in the state is on the Oneida reservation near Green Bay. The complex, which includes a full-service Radisson Inn Hotel, a new casino, and a bingo hall as well as satellite gaming areas, has over 4,000 machines and 120 blackjack tables.
The development of casino gambling in Wisconsin fits the general scheme in the United States. It did not happen “on purpose”. It started in 1973 with a public referendum vote that approved a state constitutional amendment to allow bingo games for charities. In 1975, the legislature implemented the action of the voters by designing rules for charity bingo games. Using the status of a charity, the Oneidas offered a bingo game in September 1975. The voters also approved an amendment authorizing raffles in 1977.
For several years, Wisconsin tribes ran games according to the state’s legislated rules. Like other tribes with severe economic needs, however, they took notice when in 1978 a Seminole reservation in Hollywood, Florida, decided to gain an edge on its bingo non-Native American competition. The tribe began offering very large prizes, which violated the state’s rules. The large prizes immediately attracted large droves of customers, and profits increased. As with the Seminoles, the Wisconsin tribe’s actions were upheld as being legal.
During the 1980s, Wisconsin tribes experimented with a variety of games. The Menominees used a Ping Pong ball device to generate numbers for roulette games and also to indicate cards for blackjack games. But the real casino games came in 1987, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Cabazon ruling, handed down in February 1987.
In March 1987, the Menominees decided to offer regular blackjack games at their gaming facility. In April 1987, just two months after the Cabazon ruling, the voters were asked to amend the state constitution to remove the ban on lotteries and to authorize pari-mutuel betting on dog races. The legislature had put the question on the ballot. The public wanted a lottery to compete with lottery games in Illinois and Michigan and passed the measure by a 70% to 30% margin.
Based upon the lottery amendment, in 1989 the state Department of Justice indicated that the state could negotiate agreements (under provisions of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act) with the reservations permitting them to have casino games. Yet when the state did not follow through on negotiations, the tribes took the matter to federal courts, where they won a ruling forcing the state to negotiate. Soon after, the governor signed compacts.
In 1992, after the governor had concluded casino compacts for the other reservations, the Forest Potawatomis asked the governor if they could have casino games in Milwaukee. The governor and the tribe compromised on a plan that allows 200 machines at the bingo facility. At a later date, they were allowed to have 1,000 machines.
As the new century began, the tribes’ casinos were winning over a billion dollars a year, according to my investigations for several tribes. Several tribes were seeking new locations for casinos. The four dog tracks of the state were considered to be good casino sites. Some smaller tribes were denied the opportunity to complete a deal for a dog track in Hudson, Wisconsin, because of a decision made by the U.S. secretary of the interior, Bruce Babbitt. A federal special prosecutor then investigated Babbitt, as his political party (the Democrats) had taken large contributions from larger rival tribes that did not want competition from a new casino at the track. He was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Wisconsin represents not only a strong Native American casino venue, but also one in which rivalries among the tribal gambling operations are quite open and obvious.
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