As Minnesota ponders legalizing sports betting, the executive director of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association said tribal casinos there and across the nation where sports betting isn’t legal are under threat from those operators and are fighting back.
Andy Platto spoke to CDC Gaming after participating in the Indian Gaming Association Mid-Year Conference at Mystic Lake Casino south of Minneapolis. The conference brought together tribal gaming executives and leaders from across the country.
“Tribes are under threat from tons of illegal gambling products and at this conference, tribes took notice and started fighting back,” Platto said, adding he’s speaking for himself and not the state’s tribes. “I’m very concerned. Prediction markets are taking sports bets and sweepstakes are icasinos in another name, and icasinos are illegal in Minnesota.”
Sports betting has failed to advance in Minnesota so far, but the legislature will take it up when the new session starts in February. Platto cited some stakeholder agreements with the charitable gambling and horse racing industries, sports teams, veterans groups, and DFS providers. The bill allows Minnesota’s 11 tribal nations to be exclusive mobile-license holders and tribes could enter the market with their own product or with a market-access provider like DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and others.
Prediction markets offering sports wagering hit Minnesota with the opening of the NFL season when Underdog started taking bets online, Platto said.
“This is the first time a sports betting provider has a legal product for Minnesotans to bet on the line and spread and totals,” Platto said. “They’re is picking off the states that don’t have legal sports betting markets. No one wants to use prediction markets when there’s a legal sports betting product. That’s why the legislature needs to pass the bill — to get rid of this illegal market and have a legal regulated market with gaming protections and resources for the state.”
Platto said tribes need a national strategy to deal with prediction markets. Sweepstakes issues can be handled by each state through legislatures and their attorneys general and he hopes to have some state enforcement action soon in Minnesota to enforce gaming laws. When it comes to prediction markets, however, they need a strong federal effort.
“Many states will point to the guidance from the CTFC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and say the state has no regulatory role and that we can’t even shut them down,” Platto said. “But the feds could do something and that’s where we have to do the work. Many hours were spent at the conference by people trying to figure out how to do that. It’s a combination of advocacy and legal work.”
If sports betting is legalized in Minnesota, it’s expected to bring in about $88 million a year in revenue to the state based on a 22% tax rate, Platto said. If gamblers have access to prediction markets, Platto fears they’ll lose advocates among them to get it passed.
Gene Johnson, senior vice president of Victor Strategies, believes the conference raised awareness of what’s happening with illegal interactive wagering on sweepstakes, prediction markets, and daily fantasy 2.0.
“Everybody has been hearing about it, but outside of our little world that reads updates every day, all of this has gone on under the radar,” Johnson said. “Not until recently has the industry picked up on it and commercial and tribal gaming, regulators, and attorney generals are fighting back. We helped raise awareness of what’s going on nationally and bring that awareness to Minnesota and the Midwest. There were tribes from Michigan and North Dakota there along with Wisconsin.”
Minnesota has been trying to get sports betting for six years and Minnesotan James Klas, founder and principal with KlasRobinson Q.E.D., who appeared on a sports betting panel, said, “It’s right on the cusp of getting approved. It failed last session less on its merits and more on the fact our legislature is so divided that it’s hard to get anything done other than the basics and fundamentals,” Klas said. “There are people on both sides of the aisle for and against it. It could squeak by next session, but it also may require another election in 2026 and some shift in who’s in charge before they have the bandwidth for what they consider a side issue compared to bonding bills and budgets.”
The conference dealt with the recent tariffs and their impact on tribal costs, along with federal cutbacks that affect tribal budgets.
IGA Conference Chair Victor Rocha called it a productive conference. He cited the disruption in the tribal gaming industry, “the existential threat” of illegal gambling, the impact of tariffs, doing business in an uncertain economic climate and a potential government shutdown at the end of the month.
“The message I was trying to get across is that we’re in uncertain times, but we’ve been through the pandemic and the housing crisis,” Rocha said. “Strap on your boots and save your money and keep your powder dry. We’re in a fight. This new world with online gaming and tariffs means you can’t wait. It must be done tomorrow, because others aren’t waiting for us to make these decisions. They’re trying to take our markets away.”
IGA will go to the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas in October with the same message about sweepstakes, prediction markets, and uncertainty in the industry, Rocha said. The goal is to continue to unite tribes.
Klas said beyond illegal gambling, the takeaway for tribes is caution over the economy and funding from Congress, but also the opportunity that financial markets are open for business to help pay for expansion. KlasRobinson is a consulting firm that provides feasibility studies and economic analyses for tribal development and helps secure financing.
“The markets are still interested in projects happening,” Klas said. “But more effort has to go into the costing side and building contingencies into the projects.”
While some commercial casinos have delayed projects due to tariffs, Klas said so far that hasn’t happened in Indian Country at his company’s work level. He said, however, they’re currently far away from shovels going in the ground that it’s possible projects will get delayed in the future.
“I would say the industry is still fairly active,” Klas said. “You have an underlying physical issue, whether or not there are tariffs. A lot of these properties were built 20, 25, 30 years ago. They’re old and need renovation. In some places, it’s replacing things that have worn out and in others, it’s functional obsolescence: room sizes and what’s in them, air handling, the power to accommodate machines that are now much bigger than they used to be.
“There’s some lingering repositioning post-COVID. A lot of tribes got rid of their buffets and now that you have this space, what do you do with it and how do you supplement food with guests? There are a lot of room renovations and possibly new towers. A lot has changed and that’s driving tribes to do some things, whether or not the interest rates and material costs are where they want them.”
Klas said it’s not the time in most cases for tribes to “swing for the fences, but the game has to keep going. “It was a good conference. There’s concern and reason to be vigilant, but people are in good spirits and forward looking and not hunkered down.”
