Legal Gambling Age In Wisconsin

There’s a legal gambling age set by each individual state, pertaining to gambling in land-based casinos, as well as online establishments. The legal gambling age varies from one state to another. Generally speaking, you have to be at least 18 before you can spend your money at a casino. What is the legal gambling age for players in Wisconsin? The legal playing age for charity games and lottery is 18 years, while for casinos it is 21 years. Is betting on greyhound dog races allowed? It is legal, but there have been no active tracks since 2009. Is horse racing legal in Wisconsin?

Legal Gambling in Wisconsin is more than you think with several Wisconsin online gambling sites available. It’s not just the brick and mortar establishments that most people think of when they think of gambling. You can do so much more than that. You can bet on sports, play slot machines, play poker, play the lottery, and so much more. The team here at USAOnlineGambling has you covered with all the information you need.

Each of these styles of gambling in Wisconsin are regulated in different ways. Some of these are state-sanctioned online gambling activities, and some are located outside of the state but are still accessible to Wisconsin residents via Wisconsin online gambling sites. Gambling is popular, and when the state doesn’t offer something to fill that need, plenty of other actors show up to make sure that need is filled.

The most important thing you can focus on is safety and reliability. That’s why we take pride in recommending only the best Wisconsin online gambling websites to our readers. We take a lot of time to find these websites, and we put a lot of effort into our reviews of them, so please do take the time to check them out.

Population5.822 Million

Number Of Land Based Casinos22

State Licensed DFSYes

Land Based Poker Rooms10

Mobile Betting OptionsDaily Fantasy

Best Wisconsin Gambling Sites

When it comes to finding the best Wisconsin gambling sites, one thing stands alone as the single most important thing to focus on when finding a website - licensing. Licensing means that the website in question is licensed by a government, whether that be the United States government or otherwise. This is important because licensing means that the website is subject to rules and regulations, which allow you to trust what it is doing more.

Another thing that can build trust in a website is a good reputation. It is important to us that we recommend only the best of the best USA gambling sites, and that means that we must recommend websites that have good reputations. We trust the wisdom of crowds - people use the websites that have been good to them. This means that the websites we focus on have excellent reputations for customer service and good gambling experiences so that you can trust them with your money and enjoy your time there.

How We Pick The Best Wisconsin Gambling Sites

Once we have established the reputation and licensing as good, we have a couple more factors that we think are very important when it comes to finding the best Wisconsin gambling sites. The first one we look at after those is the bonus options for the website. Basically, sportsbooks and casinos tend to offer bonuses to get players to play at their website. This is good for the player because it tends to involve free money or free plays. We want our readers to get the most bang for their buck, so we recommend websites that have a lot of good bonuses, especially on signup.

The next thing we look at that we think is very important is the customer service options available at each of the websites. We view customer service as a crucial step when it comes to online gambling websites anywhere, not just in Wisconsin. When you’re trusting a company with your money, it is very important that they are responsive and available if you have any questions at all. Thus, all the websites that USAOnlineGambling.com recommends have robust customer service programs, with multiple methods of contact available to players.

• We do our research - checking every option
• We make sure the website in question has a license
• We check for bonuses to help you make money
• We look to make sure the website has good deposit and withdrawal options
• We examine the terms and conditions to make sure the website plays fair

Different Types Of Online Gambling In Wisconsin

Online gambling takes a lot of different forms when it comes to the state of Wisconsin. It can mean online sports betting and online poker with live dealer casinos, but it’s also so much more than that. Online gambling in Wisconsin can range from daily fantasy sports to bingo to horse racing, and everything in between. No matter what type of gambling you want, they are all available to the discerning Wisconsin bettor.

Wisconsin Online Casinos

Online casinos are some of the most interesting websites on the planet. Basically, they are full service, fully usable casinos that are available to most players around the globe. The way they work is that they offer casino games such as poker and blackjack as well as slot machines and sports betting - the full casino experience - from offshore locations to players in the United States of America.

These USA online casinos have been servicing the needs of Wisconsinites for decades. The brick and mortar legal casinos in Wisconsin are tribal casinos, and those do not have online casino play. In other words, if you want to play at an online casino in the state of Wisconsin, these gambling websites are going to be your best bet.

Benefits of Wisconsin Online Casinos:

• Signup bonuses keep players profitable
• Membership comes with loyalty perks
• Significant wagering limits means lots of betting
• A large variety of games and available bets
• Easily accessible on mobile devices

Wisconsin Online Sportsbooks

Online sportsbooks are very similar to online casinos and are often part of online casino play. For example, Bovada is an online casino but is probably more famous as one of the biggest USA online sportsbook, where its lines are often cited by gamblers and sports commentators. Online sportsbooks are generally some of the more well known of the online websites, for precisely this reason.

All of the online sports betting sites are different, but they are similar in that they mostly provide bets on the same type of thing. Of course they do, they’re sportsbooks! You can place straight bets, you can parlay bets together, you can do whatever you want. One advantage of these websites is that they can offer bets on a lot of different things that aren’t necessarily sports, from political events to even the weather.

Benefits of Wisconsin Sportbooks:

• Can shop lines at different sportsbooks
• Can optimize to find the best odds
• Lots of different odds and bets
• Bonuses when you sign up
• Deposit and withdraw using many common methods

Wisconsin Online Poker Sites

Online poker is a common pastime, as is poker itself. Poker is one of the great table games of all time, a truly stellar game that has a lot of variants that are played in different locations around the world. In a way, poker is the father of table games, or at least the biggest one worldwide.

Online poker tends to take the form of USA poker sites that are located outside of the state of Wisconsin. Since Wisconsin makes hosting online poker illegal, but not playing it, the websites are located outside of the state and outside of the country. This means that people within the state can reach it on the internet, but it is not subject to the laws prohibiting the establishment of online poker websites.

Benefits of Wisconsin Online Poker:

• Play a lot of games at once
• Play with a live dealer
• Games are always available
• Many different variants, from Texas Hold ‘Em to Five Card Stud
• No need to leave your house to play online poker

Wisconsin Online DFS

Daily fantasy sports is a fairly self explanatory concept. Basically, each person gets a budget with which to draft a team. Good players cost more, worse players cost less. Using this budget, they build a fantasy team out of players in whatever league is in question. This team is then entered into a larger contest, where they compete to score the most points total. The team with the most points wins the contest and the prize. Daily Fantasy sports are available in Wisconsin from all of the major providers.

Benefits of Wisconsin Online DFS:

• Adds excitement watching sports
• Play DFS with sports from baseball to soccer
• Entry costs are relatively low
• Time investment is relatively low
• Prize support is very high - big contests pay out huge

Wisconsin Online Bingo

Bingo is probably best known as the game that old people play in retirement homes, but it’s so much more than that now with online bingo. If you’re interested in that slow type of bingo play, you can do that online. If you’re interested in a more fast paced type of bingo play, you can do that online too, as you can play multiple cards at once and treat it more like scratch offs than bingo. No matter your preference, you can find it online at the many online bingo sites on the internet.

Benefits of Wisconsin Online Bingo:

• Signup and reload bonuses give you free money
• Get emailed free cards with special offers
• Bingo tournaments add larger competition to the game
• You can play a lot of bingo in one sitting
• Bingo is a relatively inexpensive habit

Wisconsin Online Lottery

Wisconsin, unfortunately, does not allow you to purchase lottery tickets online in any form. In order to play the lottery in Wisconsin, you have to use a brick and mortar lottery retailer. Many online casinos offer Keno, however, which is a lottery style game, so if that’s what you’re looking for, you can find it at many of the online offshore casinos. Keno is just a smaller scale lottery with a different prize structure, so it shouldn’t be too different.

Wisconsin Online Horse Racing

Horse racing is one of the oldest types of gambling around. It is classified as pari-mutuel gambling, which means “gambling amongst yourselves”. What that means is that you are effectively buying stock in a horse when you bet on it, and that “stock” costs two dollars. All you need to know is that horse betting tends to be normalized to a 2 dollar amount. Wisconsin offers regulated online horse betting sites through Twinspires and BetAmerica, and many online racebooks will offer races from around that world that you can access in the state of Wisconsin.

Benefits of Wisconsin Online Horse Racing:

• There are significant signup bonuses
• Horse betting is a pedigreed form of betting - it has a lot of prestige
• Racebooks broadcast live horse races
• You can win big money on parlays
• Easy to understand the concepts of horse race betting

Best Wisconsin Online Casinos

Is It Legal To Use Bovada In Wisconsin?

Bovada tends to exist in a gray area, legally speaking, in most states in the country. Basically, the way state laws are written, they target the providers of online gambling, and not the people who use online gambling websites. For this reason, presumably, we know of nobody who has been arrested or prosecuted for online gambling at an online casino in the state of Wisconsin. As far as the risk of a website like Bovada being shut down, that is minimal, due to the fact that they are located internationally, and outside of the jurisdiction of the United States.

Wisconsin Online Slots

Everyone loves slot machines. The thrill of pulling that lever or pressing that button and seeing those triple 7’s is very hard to replicate. However, if you want that thrill but don’t want to leave your house, it’s possible to find it at many of the online slot machine websites. Some websites are focused on slots, and some that view it as a part of a larger casino, so you get to pick what kind of experience you would like to have. Overall, online slots are a fairly good replacement for the offline version.

Benefits of Wisconsin Online Slots:

• You can play slot tournaments for competition
• Games are always available
• Flexible spin cost lets you customize your slots
• Easy to pick up and start playing
• Big jackpots mean big excitement

Mobile Gambling In Wisconsin

There are a couple of different ways mobile gambling works. For horse betting, the state sanctioned horse betting websites will have apps you can use to bet online. For the other types of betting, you’ll generally be using the online offshore websites, and they prefer to use mobile versions of themselves as opposed to apps. What that means is that you will navigate to the online sportsbook or casino of your choice, and then when you visit it on a mobile device, you will see a whole new type of page, one that looks and feels like an app, and is built for touchscreens. This page is how you bet or visit a casino on mobile devices.

Mobile Sports Betting Apps

Mobile sports betting apps are a very similar story. Basically, the way the online websites tend to work is that they prefer using the mobile versions of their website to any actual apps. That way, prospective sports bettors aren’t forced to download anything, and they are safe from any nasty things like that. All they have to do is visit the website of the online sportsbook in their mobile browser, and they will see a version of that website that is built for touchscreen devices as opposed to desktop devices. From there, betting is simple as a touch!

Mobile Casinos Apps

Mobile casinos work in much the same way. The offshore ones prefer to use their websites instead of using any apps. The way this works is that they spent a lot of time working on their websites for touchscreen devices. If you want to use them on mobile, all you have to do is visit them in the mobile browser of your smartphone or tablet device. When you do that, you’ll see a mobile version of the website, built for those devices. From there, all you have to do is find the casino section and the game you want to play, and you’re golden!

Real Money Online Gambling Sites In Wisconsin

It’s almost funny that we have to write this section. Yes, of course, you can gamble real money online in Wisconsin. That’s what this whole page has been about. All of the websites we recommend use real money. That’s sort of the whole point of, and thrill of, gambling. Most of them take a large variety of deposit and withdrawal options, from courier’s checks to cryptocurrency to VISA gift cards, and there are a lot of customer service options should there be any problems with your money.

Free Online Gambling In Wisconsin

There are a few good reasons why someone might want to play casino games for free and get no money for doing so. The big one is practice - it’s logical to spend time learning a game before playing it for real stakes. If you want to play some casino games for free, some online casinos offer this. Of course, there will be no prizes for this, but you can find free games at many online casinos.

Is Online Gambling Legal In Wisconsin?

Online gambling is legal in Wisconsin, but that can take different forms. A lot of Wisconsin’s online gambling is done via websites that are not located in Wisconsin or even the United States at all. Before we start, we just want to say that this is a general overview and that if you are worried about breaking the law, contacting a lawyer is your best bet. That said, here’s how that works:

Many states criminalize the act of running an online gambling website, but not the act of using it. So, the solution that online gamblers came up with was running the websites from outside of the United States. For example, many online sportsbooks are located in Costa Rica. This location allows them to provide gambling opportunities to the internet, and since there are only a few states with laws against individual gamblers gambling in states, – and Wisconsin is not one of them – these websites are accessible and usable on the internet for Wisconsin bettors.

Online Gambling Laws In Wisconsin

Online gambling in Wisconsin has an interesting history. Basically, Wisconsin has a fair amount of legal land-based gambling, with multiple tribal casinos, as well as a history of horse race betting, although the racetracks in the state have closed. Online gambling has not been a focus of the Wisconsin state legislature as of now. The state has not managed to sanction and regulate any further online gambling, and doesn’t even offer their lottery online.

Legal Gambling Age In Wisconsin

The legal gambling ages in Wisconsin will vary depending on what type of gambling you are trying to do. Below, you can find a list of various types of gambling and what the legal ages for each of them are in Wisconsin

• Lottery: 18
• Parimutuel: 18
• Casinos: 21
• Bingo: 18
• Online Poker: 18
• DFS: 21
• Sports Betting: 21

Where Are Wisconsin Gambling Sites Regulated?

The vast majority of them are regulated offshore, due to the reasons we discussed earlier in this page. To give a brief refresher course, many online gambling websites are regulated offshore due to the way US laws tend to criminalize the act of running a gambling institution, but not the act of using one. By being offshore, they are not breaking that law within US borders, and the people using them are not breaking the law either.

Who Can Play At Wisconsin Online Gambling Sites?

Because of their locations, players in most US states can use the online gambling websites that we are discussing, for the most part. These sites are not limited to Wisconsin residents. This is good, it removes biases towards teams like the Green Bay Packers, for example, and makes the lines that people will be offered more fair because they have to get a larger, more diverse group of people on the opposite sides of bets.

Taxes On Gambling Winnings In Wisconsin

When it comes to taxes on gambling winnings, it is important to know the laws in your state, but one thing is clear - pay your taxes! Gambling winnings are income, and you must file your income taxes and declare them as such, or you might become subject to an IRS audit. Please avoid this - nobody wants the IRS at their door.

Gambling Revenue In Wisconsin

Well, there isn’t as much gambling revenue in Wisconsin as there could be if they were able to legalize and regulate more types of gambling, especially online, but there is some. The primary driver of gambling income in the state is the state lottery, which raises a ton of money every year. The money raised by the state lottery goes to improving the education of children in the K-12 school system.

Future Of Wisconsin Online Gambling

The future of Wisconsin gambling is sort of up in the air. After the federal repeal of PASPA, the future of gambling in every state is bright, but Wisconsin lawmakers are less than responsive to the desire for gambling amongst their citizenry. There is some bipartisan support for legalizing things like sports betting, but there has not been any significant movement on that front in either legislative house. That said, so many states are legalizing that it could become the norm rather fast, and that is only a good thing. All in all, the future for Wisconsin sports betting could be very bright.

During the early days of Wisconsin’s gambling history, the gambling industry revolved around horse and dog races. Nowadays, legal gambling mainly focuses on tribal casinos with a few exceptions. The state is quite explicit about all forms of gambling and has strict laws for some of them, while other forms of gambling can pass unnoticed.

With the first Wisconsin statues from 1848, the state frowned upon gambling and deemed it illegal. After many years, in the 1970s, the citizens of Wisconsin voted to legalize charitable raffles and bingo. In 1987, the citizens voted to introduce the state lottery and pari-mutuel wagering into the state’s legal system.

Compacts with Indian tribes were signed in 1991 and 1992 and, with the Federal Indian Gaming Regulation Act of 1998, the negotiations with the state started. Tribal casinos offer class III games. However, there are no commercial casinos in the Badger State.

Top 3 Wisconsin Online Casinos

Gambling Laws in Wisconsin — The Law Overview

Gambling in the Badger State is defined as a “bargain in which parties agree, dependent upon chance even though accompanied by some skill, one stands to win or lose something of value specified in the agreement.”

Not included in this definition is bingo or raffles, pari-mutuel wagering, state lottery, bona fide business transactions, contracts for the future purchase or sale of securities, life insurance, and prizes for the participant in a contest of endurance or skill. Any games of skills are legal to be bet on in Wisconsin, including snowmobile racing.

Wisconsin judges should follow the law by doing a “predominance test” to determine whether a particular game is allowed by weighing the importance of skill against the influence of luck. If the game is determined to be illegal, the act is considered a misdemeanor. The site with the purpose to place a bet or the gambling establishment will be punished with up to $1,000 fine or up to 90 days in jail.

Wisconsin generally permits gambling, and it has government divisions or gaming commissions that control industry practices like licensing employees and regulating games. States with these regulations will provide strict zoning regulations to separate racetracks and casinos from schools and residential areas.

Horse and Dog Racing

Horse and greyhound dog pari-mutuel betting was legalized in 1987, even though races were held long before that. The first legal track opened in 1990 and, at one moment, there were five operating tracks in Wisconsin. However, interest in races dropped over time because of the growing popularity of tribal casinos and the last track, Dairyland Greyhound Park, closed in 2009.

Betting on horse and greyhound dog races is still legal in Wisconsin, as there are no laws that prohibit it. However, there are also no running tracks for placing a bet. Off-track betting is illegal. Betting on horse and dog races online is legal, and it is the only way to bet on races in Wisconsin.

Casinos

As previously mentioned, there are no commercial casinos in Wisconsin. However, there are eleven tribes in the Badger State and plenty of tribal casinos to visit. Most casinos offer class III games and a full-range of playing options. Table games are possible at casinos approved through local referendums.

Those games include craps, roulette, blackjack, Three Card Poker, Four Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em, Let it Ride, and Mississippi Stud. Live poker games are legal at any casino where table games are licensed. The legal gambling age for casinos is 21 years.

Charity Games

A charity organization that wishes to organize a charity gambling event must exist for three years and have proof of previous charitable causes before hosting a charity gambling event. Charities can organize bingos and raffles with the individual maximum prize of $500, and the total prizes must not exceed $2,500. The games cannot be held for more than five consecutive games. The minimum gambling age is 18 years old.

Lottery

The lottery in the Badger State became legal in 1988. The Wisconsin lottery includes scratch-off tickets, pull-tabs, and lotto drawings. It is entirely permissible and the minimum age to buy tickets is 18 years old. There are more than a thousand places to buy lottery tickets in Wisconsin, but it is not allowed to sell them over the web. The lottery may join multi-state jackpot drawings for lotto games.

Social Gaming

Social gaming is illegal in the state of Wisconsin. If you place a bet anywhere outside regulated areas, you are committing a crime. Private games at private properties are unlawful and are punishable with up to $1,000 and/or up to 90 days in jail.

Online Gambling

When gambling laws in Wisconsin were written, they did not include online gambling, so this is a bit of a grey area. The State of Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau referenced it as “An area of growing concern for state and federal law enforcement authorities is wagering via computer over the Internet. Operators, who often are based in foreign countries where the activities are legal, have set up “virtual casinos” that take bets on sporting events, conduct lotteries, and permit on-line customers to play simulated casino-type games. There is no guarantee that the sites are being managed honestly. Officials warn of increased social problems if every computer potentially can serve as a mini-casino, especially if children have access to gambling opportunities. The National Association of Attorneys General has urged the federal government to ban all on-line gambling because regulation is impractical. Wisconsin Attorney General Doyle has filed lawsuits against Internet gambling operators.”

Therefore, online gambling in Wisconsin is considered illegal, and it is safer not to do it. Offshore gambling should not be done within the state’s borders as well. However, there are low chances of getting caught while you play an online game at your home since authorities prefer to focus on capturing illegal gambling operations.

Daily Fantasy Sports

Daily Fantasy Sports are technically not legal in the state of Wisconsin. Most people can play FanDuel, DraftKings, Yahoo!, and Fantasy Draft without the fear of being caught since authorities do not find it a priority to arrest these acts of violations. Wisconsin is debating whether DFS are games of chance or skill. Games of chance are illegal in the state, so legislators are pushing the bill on legalizing DFS as a game of skill.

Where to Gamble in Wisconsin?

There are plenty of tribal casinos to choose from for Wisconsin residents and visitors. We have selected a few of them that you can choose depending on your interest.

Potawatomi Hotel and Casino

The casino is owned by the Forest County Potawatomi Community and located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The casino opened in 1991 while offering several entertainment acts and 20 poker rooms, among other things. The location had two renovations in 2008 and 2017.

The casino floor is big enough for 2,500 players, and it offers over 3,000 slot machines and more than 100 poker and table games. The hotel has more than 500 rooms and suites to provide its guests, along with a spa, theatre, meeting rooms, and more. There is a 24/7 poker room with a mix of games such as Limit and No-Limit Texas Hold ’Em, Seven Card Stud, and Pot-Limit Omaha.

Ho-Chunk Casino

The casino is owned by the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and located in the Town of Delton, Wisconsin. The casino floor offers more than 300 rooms for playing with table games such as BlackJack, Craps, Roulette, and EZ Baccarat, and carnival games like Mississippi Stud, Three-Card Poker, and Four-Card Poker.

They also offer a resort section with more than 300 hotel rooms and suites, an RV park, a convention center, a ballroom, and more. They also provide a supervised children’s entertainment facility with childcare. The location has multiple restaurants so that you can choose meals from a classy steak to a buffet.

Mole Lake Casino

The Mole Lake casino advertises itself as a complete entertainment destination. It is located near Crandon, Wisconsin. The location offers a lodge with 75 rooms and suites, restaurants, a conference center, a swimming pool, and a fitness center.

The casino floor offers modern slot machines, fast-paced bingo games, and table games. There are not a lot of table games, and they only provide BlackJack and 21 War BlackJack games. Hence, if you are strictly a BlackJack player, this is the right option for you. Moreover, they offer plenty of promotions like chances to win cash prizes. Additionally, they have special events for seniors and multiple bingo games.

FAQ

Is online gambling allowed in Wisconsin?

What Is The Legal Gambling Age In Wisconsin

Technically, it is illegal, and it is safer not to place any online bets.

What is the legal gambling age for players in Wisconsin?

Legal Gambling Age In Wisconsin For Casinos

The legal playing age for charity games and lottery is 18 years, while for casinos it is 21 years.

Is betting on greyhound dog races allowed?

It is legal, but there have been no active tracks since 2009.

Is horse racing legal in Wisconsin?

Yes, it is, but there are no active tracks for horse racing.

Are Daily Fantasy Sports legal in Wisconsin?

They are still not legal, but DFS games are active in the state.

Legal Gambling Age In Wisconsin

What games can you gamble on in Wisconsin?

You can bet on charity games such as bingo and raffles, the state lottery, table games in tribal casinos, and horse and greyhound dog races.