A number of US states made efforts during the course of 2016 to bring about online gambling regulation – some more than others. Joining California, New York and Pennsylvania, the state of Michigan was forced to admit defeat recently that its efforts to create an active and legalized online poker industry were not successful in 2016. However, the state hopes to revive its efforts in 2017.
In June 2016, the Senate Regulatory Reform Committee approved legislation that would legalize and regulate online gambling in the state, and the next step would have been to send the bill to the Senate for a vote. Unfortunately, the bill did not reach this stage this year.
Michigan took one step back in its efforts recently when the state’s Attorney General was one of 10 AG’s to sign a penned letter to Donald Trump, insisting that a nationwide ban be placed on internet casino games.
Online gambling proponents are keen to tap into Michigan’s gambling market which has remained primarily stagnant. There are three land-casinos in the Detroit region who manage to win around $1.4 billion each year. There are also over 20 tribal casinos who win $1.5 billion combined on an annual basis. It is believed that online gambling could bolster the gaming industry.
Opponents of the online gambling bill, on the other hand, say that they fear the cannibalization of the land casino industry. The Michigan lobbying firm, McAlvey Merchant Associates commissioned a report on the ‘Potential Impact of Online Gambling on Commercial Casino Revenue’ on behalf of unnamed parties. What is interesting is that the report quotes research done by Kahlil Philander that was undertaken before online gambling was legalized in any state. It is also strange that the report does not include updated research carried out by Philander in 2015, where he shows that online gambling, if anything, has been beneficial to the land casino industries of states where igaming was legalized, namely Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey.
