After working with various stakeholders, Michigan state Rep. Brandt Iden recently announced he has completed a draft of a stand-alone sports betting bill to accompany his existing online gambling legislation, introduced in March. That measure has been held up in the House Ways and Means Committee, which Iden chairs, due to concerns expressed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Iden’s measure would authorize both mobile and land-based wagering at the state’s 23 tribal and three commercial casinos, allowing single-game bets, teaser bets, parlays, over-under, moneyline, pools, exchange betting, in-game betting, in-play bets, proposition bets and straight bets. The bill would establish a Division of Sports Betting and a state Sports Betting Fund. Initial licenses would cost $200,000, renewable for $100,000 annually; suppliers licenses would cost $50,000 annually.
Sports betting revenue would be taxed at 8 percent. More than half the funds would go to the State Sports Betting Fund, which would direct $1 million annually into a Compulsive Gaming Prevention Fund; about one-third would go to the host casino city; and the remainder would split between the Michigan Transportation Fund and the Michigan Agriculture Equine Industry Development Fund.
One area of contention requires official league data to be used for in-play wagers. However, Iden’s draft does not include an integrity fee payable to leagues or any limitations on collegiate betting.
Iden said he anticipates some changes to the final language of the bill between now and its introduction.
