Last month, two of the three online payday loan companies opened in May by the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa in Vilas County, Wisconsin went live, along with the precursor of an online casino. Chippewa President Tom Maulson said, the tribe “could just flip a switch” and transform the online casinos play-money games into games that take bets using real money.
In response to critics who say gambling as well as payday loans prey on the poor, Maulson commented, “It’s legal to do and we’re doing it legally.” The Milwaukee Journal Times editorial board noted, “To take someone with a gambling problem—or, more dangerously, the person who has a gambling problem but has yet to realize it—away from the human contact of the casino and into a situation where they can all too easily get cash fast without serious consideration of the terms and conditions of that loan is a step too far for us. Before any steps to legalize online gambling in Wisconsin, the legislature should require that online gambling companies cannot also be in the business of online lending.”
