One Step Forward, Two Steps Back for Online Gaming in Michigan

Even though it almost looked like the US state of Michigan was getting closer to legalizing online gaming…

…it turns out the bill is actually going backward.

Legislative committees have approved the potential legislation of online gambling in the past, but the Michigan Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, keeps on rejecting each and every bill that comes her way.

More Details on the Bill

Just last week, Michigan online gaming bill was the main topic of a discussion in the Ways and Means Committee.

Although the committee didn’t reject the bill…

…everyone knew that the Governor would reject it if it doesn’t get rewritten.

As it is allegedly stated in the bill, the revenue that goes to the state wallet from gambling activities should be cut back.

“As the bill is written—given the tax rate, the distribution of the additional new online gaming revenue to the state, as well as the potential impact to the state lottery—even under an optimistic scenario, Treasury estimates that there would be a potential reduction in overall state revenue,” Bethany Wicksall with Michigan’s State Budget Office revealed about the bill in the official statement.

The More Probable Reason

But, it looks like the bill actually doesn’t want to cut back the revenue. It is the state Lottery that is afraid that online gaming might take away from its revenue.

According to the bill, part of the revenue should go to the Michigan state programs like School Aid Funds (SAF)…

…while only 10% of the revenue from online gambling should go to the treasure (of which only 5% would go to the SAF).

“It is iLottery that we think would be in most direct competition with iGaming. That substitution between iLottery and iGaming, even at a very small level, has a fairly significant impact on state revenue,” Jeff Guilfoyle, Michigan’s chief deputy treasurer revealed.

The Destiny of the Bill

So, it seems like the sponsor of the bill, Representative, Brandt Iden, has to make some twitches and changes in the language of the bill…

…if he really wants his bill to the Governor’s approval.

Representative Iden has already been working on the legalization of gambling in this state during the past several years.

At the end of 2018, he made a huge success with his bill proposition, but at the end of the day, the Governor has the final call.

Former Michigan Governor rejected his bill before leaving his spot to Gretchen Whitmer, even though the bill was approved by both the House and Senate. Now, we’ll have to see if Whitmer will sign the legislation after changing the language of the bill.

Source:

“One step forward, two steps back for online gaming in Michigan”, Erik Gibbs, calvinayre.com, May 6, 2019.