When Walter Bohrer started Wisconsin Souvenir Milkcaps in the late 1990s, he was inspired by his childhood.

Wisconsin’s unofficial lottery seems here to stay. They’re available in all 72 counties and sold locally at numerous taverns, including the Ideal Bar, One Barrel, and the Caribou. That legality hinges on the 1990s game Pogs, and whether the cardboard pieces themselves, the ones ripped up and thrown away by the dozens every night at bars like the Ohio, have any value.Īlthough state officials gripe about the game, bar patrons around the state continue to play it every night. But Wisconsin courts have twice upheld pull tabs as legal under the same statute that allows McDonald’s to run Monopoly promotions. The state has blamed this unofficial lottery for siphoning off millions of dollars from legitimate lottery funds. We’re “inclined to agree” that pull tabs - technically known as Wisconsin Souvenir Milkcaps - are “a thinly veiled lottery,” the Milwaukee Circuit Court wrote in 2000. Even the satisfying resistance as you tear open a game piece seems engineered to please in a way only state-sponsored gambling could manufacture.īut the lottery doesn’t do IOUs. The cardboard pieces are decorated with iconic slot machine images and spell out your (meager) odds.

The Ohio’s pull tabs look like an official lottery. “It was actually a friend of mine, so we were able to pay him a couple days later,” says Josh Swentzel, the owner of the Ohio. Pull tabs are supposed to be paid out on the spot, in cash. Problem was, the new business hadn’t even made $250 in sales yet. When the Ohio Tavern reopened as a taco lounge in the fall of 2016, the pull tab machine hanging up on the wall spit out a rare $250 winner - the maximum payout. Although the games look official, they’re not part of the Wisconsin Lottery. The top payout for a Wisconsin Sourvenir Milkcaps card is $250.

Pull tabs gambling