Both units of the state legislature, the Michigan Senate and the Michigan House of Representatives, have given their final approval to HB 4926 that seeks to create a lawful Internet gaming act. Generally, the bill includes provisions for the legalization of full real money online casino gaming in the USA state, as well as online sports betting. The bill will now have to be presented to the Governor of Michigan and may then be signed into law at the Governor’s discretion.

The preamble to the bill states that Michigan will create a regulatory authority for Internet gaming oversight. The powers and the duties of this regulatory authority will be defined. The regulatory body will be authorised to impose fees, taxes and other payment obligations on the conduct of licensed Internet gaming. The authority will prohibit certain undesirable acts in relation to online gaming and will prescribe penalties for those violations. Once the act is passed then detail rules will be framed. It is expected that one or more land based casino operators in Michigan with access to real money online gambling technology and supporting services will commence services in 2020. The bill also refers to the Wire Act and the UIGEA and states that its provisions are consistent with those legislation and other relevant ones.

Michigan is the sixth American state to legalise some form of intra-state online gambling. It has a population of 10.0 million. This will materially increase the number of Americans who will be permitted to play Internet casino games and bet on sports online. The pioneer states in online gaming in America were Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware. Pennsylvania is set to launch online gambling in the first half of 2019. The fifth state is West Virginia.

This announcement was publicly made by GAN, a leading B2B supplier of Internet gambling enterprise software-as-a-service solutions to the U.S. land-based casino industry. Dermot Smurfit, CEO of GAN said that Michigan legalising online gaming reinforces the belief that the regulatory cycle for Internet gambling in the US will now be rapid. GAN obviously hopes to be in the thick of Michigan online gaming. Smurfit added, “GAN is one of only two fully licensed B2B-only platform vendors in New Jersey, the largest casino in Pennsylvania as a client and one of the very few B2B-only technology vendors with the requisite technical expertise and ‘day one’ New Jersey experience to credibly serve Michigan’s land-based casinos.”