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Legalized gambling in Michigan has a long and winding history. This puts it in the company of, well, nearly every other state in the country. Thanks, maybe due to its location in the central Midwest, this state took a conservative and restrictive approach to the subject for many years.
Only in 2014 did a conversation around Michigan's very conservative gambling laws even begin. We've come a long way. But how far exactly?
What difference has this made? Read on to learn more about how the last 10 years have completely changed the world of gambling in Michigan.
Gambling in Michigan Overview
To begin with, the history of gambling in Michigan is not exactly linear. In the 1930s, like many other states, it did legalize pari-mutuel betting on horse racing. Pari-mutuel betting is a system where all bets are pooled together and payouts are determined by dividing the total pool among winners after the house takes its cut.
This creates odds that fluctuate based on how much money is bet on each horse. Find more information here: https://www.youbet.com/states/michigan/
Why? Well, it was largely to do with the Great Depression. People were out of work, money was tight basically everywhere in the country. And what is horse racing if not an excellent source of both tax revenue and employment?
Most people view the track as a source of entertainment, but for thousands of people all around the world, it's a place to work.
For many years, the state of Michigan decided to stick with only horse racing as a legalized gambling option. It wasn't even hosting a state lottery until the 1970s.
This was only as a method of generating tax dollars for public schools. Interestingly enough, casinos would find their way into the state through the back door in the 1980s by way of tribal considerations.
Tribal communities, also in the hopes of generating money, tested the waters slowly at first by developing bingo operations. No, not the kind you come across at the local VFW with dollar beers and 50/50 raffles. These were large-scale casino-like bingo games that would pave the way for larger things to come.
Throughout the eighties and nineties, there were a series of legal victories that culminated in the normalization of casinos in Michigan, albeit even if only on tribal land. Around that same point, however, Detroit was hard at work trying to carve out a slice of the gambling action for itself.
In 1996, a law was passed that would allow for the eventual development of 3 casinos in Detroit.
Online Betting Finds Its Way In
And that's how things remained for the next almost 20 years. But then something special happened in 2018. After decades of giving legalized gambling ventures more than a little bit of a hard time, the Supreme Court struck down nationwide bans on sports betting.
States all across the country immediately began to legalize sports betting. It became a sort of legislative arms race with lawmakers in many states recognizing a simple fact. If people living in rural America or middle America aren't placing bets within state-sanctioned services, they'll simply choose an out-of-state option and take their money with them.
In 2019, sports betting and online gambling were legalized in Michigan. In 2021, a wide range of apps were launched within the state.
Aftermath
So, how did Michigan's final and deepest foray into gambling go? Well, let's take a look at the numbers. Since virtual gaming was legalized within the state, they've produced several billion dollars in revenue every year.
Gambling dollars are also growing at a continuous pace of around 20%. What does this mean? Obviously, not every dollar spent on gaming goes to the state. But like most governments love to do, they certainly take a taste.
Maybe just as importantly, Michigan's more permissive stance on virtual and physical gaming has led to fewer tax dollars leaving from across the border. One of the most important things to keep in mind is that gambling regulations rarely keep consenting adults from doing what they want to do.
During the prohibition era, people still drank and danced and gambled and partied. They just did it with gangsters instead of in legally sanctioned and regulated environments. Al Capone, you might remember, did not pay taxes.
In the age of online gambling, stakes are a little bit different. People don't need to consort with bad company to play online. They just need a different VPN. Instead of letting Michigan money go to Indiana or Pennsylvania or Minnesota, lawmakers wisely paved the way for rules that would ensure the money went into the right ledger.
