Are you planning on wagering your money on your favorite football team in the form of a legal bet at the Oneida Nation Casino in the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center in Ashwaubenon?
Tribal leaders hope the casino will be ready to host sports betting not long after the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs completes its review of the agreement between the Oneida tribe and this state of Wisconsin.
The agreement signed last week gives the office 45 days to review the deal, which will allow the tribe to take on sports betting at the casino and other Oneida-owned businesses in the Green Bay area.
The duration of the review will affect when the tribe can accept sports betting at the casino. Tribal officials also recently said they plan to change the former sports bar section of Lombardi’s store to better accommodate weather before opening it for sports betting.
Some other things you would like to know:
What can i bet on?
First you have to be an adult; Minors cannot play legally. And betting will be limited to professional sports. As much as you want to spend money on your love for the Badgers or the Milwaukee Panthers or UWGB Phoenix, you can’t bet on Wisconsin College athletics at the casino.
Additionally, “the tribe has a wide discretion over the types of events that may be offered for non-sport betting,” said Tatyana Warrick, speaking for the State Department of Administration. She said the casino could accept bets on nationally televised awards such as the Oscars and Grammys, as well as professional sports events.
Betting could be allowed in other Oneida hotels besides the casino in the future, but bettors would have to visit the casino to claim winnings.
CONNECTED:Oneida Nation would be the first in Wisconsin to offer legal sports betting
What is not allowed?
Badgers, soccer, basketball, and other games are taboo under an agreement between the state and the tribe. Also taboo: events where the majority of the participants are 18 years or younger.
What happens next?
As mentioned earlier, the BIA has 45 days to review the agreement. The BIA did not respond to questions from the USA Today Network-Wisconsin on Wednesday. But when the agreement was announced last week, neither the state nor the tribe expressed concern that the permit would not be granted.
Once the BIA has decided, or 45 days have passed, the tribe plans to set up a designated area of their casino property for sports betting.
The casino doesn’t have a specific start date, but officials hope it will be operational before the National Football League regular season begins. That would mean September 9th when the Dallas Cowboys visit the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Green Bay Packers have three preseason games in August.
They will open the regular season on September 12th against the Saints in New Orleans.
This is the first place where sports betting is legal in Wisconsin. What does the state get out of it?
Revenue – particularly revenue that would be lost to nearby Midwestern states that have also started allowing legal sports betting.
The state and the Oneidas amended their agreement “to attract additional customers and expand the offering, not to meet a specific sales target,” Warrick wrote in an email. “Sports betting, in particular, is a relatively low-margin undertaking compared to other types of gambling. However, if event bets are successful, we can assume that government revenues will also increase.”
The tribe will pay the state 4.5% to 5% of its income from sports betting, Warrick said, just as it pays from traditional casino winnings.
Neither Oneida Chairman Tehassi Hill nor Governor Tony Evers gave an estimate in US dollars of how much revenue it will generate when the agreement was announced last week.
Special subscription offers
Contact Doug Schneider at (920) 431-8333 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @PGDougSchneider
Comments are closed.