Brown County Taxpayers v. Evers

Thirty-three years after Wisconsin voters amended the Constitution to prevent future gambling expansions, lawmakers enacted Act 247 without another voter-approved constitutional amendment. With Governor Evers preparing to negotiate tribal gaming compact amendments, the lawsuit seeks to stop the law before statewide mobile sports betting launches. A recent Marquette University Law School Poll found that 64% of Wisconsinites oppose legalizing online sports betting.

Wisconsin’s Constitution plainly states that “the legislature may not authorize gambling in any form” except for a handful of approved exceptions listed in the Constitution, including the state lottery, bingo and raffles, and pari-mutuel betting. Mobile sports betting is not one of them.

Rather than asking voters to amend the Constitution, the Legislature passed Act 247 in 2026 to legalize betting on mobile devices statewide through tribal gaming compacts. The Constitution prohibits the Legislature from accomplishing indirectly what it cannot do directly.

Governor Evers also lacks authority to negotiate compact amendments and that Act 247 unlawfully grants an exclusive statewide sports betting privilege based on race through tribal membership, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.