A Waukesha County judge on Monday allowed eight Native American tribes to intervene to oppose a lawsuit brought against state officials over the expansion of legalized sports gambling in Wisconsin.
In August, the Brown County Taxpayers Association, of Green Bay, and Citizens Defending Liberty, based in Franklin, represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, filed the suit against Gov. Tony Evers, as well as state Secretary of Administration Kathy Blumenfeld, state Administrator of the Division of Gaming, and Jessie Dushek, audit director for the state office of Indian Gaming and Regulatory Compliance.
Their suit alleges that Wisconsin Act 247, which legalized online sports betting run through tribal casinos violates a 1993 constitutional amendment. The amendment prohibits the Legislature from authorizing gambling “in any form” except for bingo, raffles, pari-mutuel on-track betting, or a state lottery. Act 247, passed by the Legislature and signed by Evers
Evers last year, authorized mobile sports betting so long as people’s mobile devices are connected to servers run by Indian tribes that allow gambling under state compacts.
The law is “(c)ontrary to the People’s plain directive in the Constitution and their unchanged sentiments,” the complaint in the case said. It added that because the law would allow only Native American tribes to run the sports betting it violates constitutional equal protection clauses, as “the Act provides a benefit to some — not all — based on, at bottom, race,” the complaint said.
