Less than four months after Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill legalizing sports betting, the state’s commercial and tribal casinos hope to accept their first bets in time for March Madness. The Michigan Gaming Control Board will oversee the implementation of the state’s sportsbooks.
For Michigan State students looking to place bets, the two casinos closest to East Lansing are FireKeepers in Battle Creek, and Soaring Eagle in Mt. Pleasant, both tribal.
“We are still hashing out the specifics, but we hope to be up and running very soon,” Dustin Ploehn, FireKeepers Rewards Club manager who oversees the sportsbook, told WKAR at Michigan State.
The application and licensing process is extensive.
“Right now, we are in the process of vetting applications,” said Mary Kay Bean, a spokeswoman for the gaming board.
Bean said that each casino will have the freedom to develop its own apps for mobile sports betting.
“The casinos will be able to kind of do their own thing when it comes to mobile,” Bean said. “Of course, all of the software will have to be approved, but each casino will be a little different.”
The tax rate is 8.4 percent for in-person bets made in casinos. For online betting, the rate fluctuates between 20 and 28 percent, depending on the adjusted gross receipts. The tax revenue generated will go to a variety of places. In the Detroit casinos, 30 percent will be earmarked for the city, 65 percent will go to the Lawful Sports Betting Fund, which appropriates a minimum $500,000 per year to the Compulsive Gaming Prevention Fund. Another $2 million will annually go to the First Responders Presumed Coverage Fund, and the remaining tax revenue will go to the State School Aid Fund.
The tribal casino tax revenue will be similarly allocated, with 90 percent of in-person betting money going to the Lawful Sports Betting Fund and 10 percent to the Michigan Strategic Fund. Seventy percent of online betting tax revenue in tribal casinos will go to the State Internet Gaming Fund, 20 percent will go to the local jurisdiction governing body for services, and 10 percent will go the Michigan Strategic Fund.
