Michigan was going to legalize online gambling through a bill that was passed by the state house. Lawmakers voted 68-40 on this bill on Tuesday. This was on two main bill that would create a lawful Internet Gaming Act that was going to regulate online versions of the licensed online games. 

This legistlation came to be last year and was introduced by stet Rep. Brandt Iden. This would bring a Division of Internet Gaming within the existing Michigan Gaming Control Board. This new division would be tasked with issuance of internet gambling licenses and this would allow casinos to get wagers online and this would include sports bets. It is expected that the board was going to legalize sports bets in the wake of the recent Supreme Court Ruling. 

If you wanted to place an online wager, this would only be possible through the current existing land based casinos that are licensed by the new division. This also includes any tribal casino that’s working with the state to take up this new technology. For websites that are accepting the wagers, they are supposed to include measures that will make sure that punters are at least 21 years old. 

Rep. Iden stated that people of Michigan are already gambling online but their are doing this in websites that are illegal and not regulated. He added that the websites that will be regulated by Michigan will have strict regulations to meet which is something that is not available with the illegal websites. The Michigan regulated sites will be required to have strict security systems. These systems will protect financial and personal information of the punters; this is something that is also mandatory for the Australian online casinos. 

Casinos who apply for this need to part with $100,000 as application fees to acquire an online gambling license. After approval, they will be required to pay $200,000 for the initial license and will be subjected to paying $100,000 every year. These license holders will also be required to pay 8% tax on gross gaming revenues. From the tax collected, 5% will be allocated for schools, 5% will go to state transportation fun and 55% will go to the city where the casino operates from. The money allocated to the city will be used in hiring street patrol officers, road repairs, anti-gang programs and down-town economic development among other programs. This will in a great way improve the quality of life of the cities. The 35% that remains will be directed to new Internet Gaming Fund for regulating and enforcing the new legislation. This fund will in turn allocate $1M to assist people struggling with gambling addiction. 

Cities like Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada already allow online gambling. There are other states like New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Illinois, West Virginia and Louisiana are considering legalizing online gambling this year. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2018 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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