Licensing Jurisdiction
Before 1996, gambling in Michigan was mostly illegal and only possible at tribal casinos. The local Native American tribes are considered to be sovereign nations and, as such, the state of Michigan does not have general regulatory authority over Indian casinos. Governor Gretchen Whitmer played a leading role in the legalization of online casinos and sports betting in late 2019. On 20 December of that year, a new bill was signed to authorize sports betting and online gaming at the three casinos in Detroit and all tribal casinos located in the state. However, it took until 22 January 2021 before the first online casinos and betting apps finally went live. Provisional licenses were issued to some well-known brand names, such as William Hill, DraftKings, PokerStars Casino, MGM Grand Detroit, and the Wynn Casino. However, the official license holders are mostly Native American tribes.
The Main Focus of the Michigan Gaming Control Board
As online gambling was outlawed in the majority of states in the US, many players turned to the black market and played at foreign-based online casinos. As a result, a considerable amount of money was drained from the state and the government had no control over the safety of the players. The Michigan Gaming Control Board realized this and started working on a legal framework for online gambling in the state.
The focus of the operation is to create a transparent monetary flow to prevent money laundering and tax evasion, as well as to support the local economy. Furthermore, the gambling authority in Michigan is now in charge of all regulations and contributes to the development of safe and legal local solutions. Players can now place more of their trust in the casino operators and can be sure that all fair gaming and responsible gambling standards are met according to the rules.
Security at Online Casinos Licensed by the Michigan Gaming Control Board
All online casinos and sports betting sites licensed by the Michigan Gaming Control Board are run by well-established companies with an immaculate reputation. Therefore, the level of service is far superior to any foreign-based online casinos that operate under a different jurisdiction. Now the government can hold the licensees accountable and local laws can be applied in case of a dispute between the casino and a player or if the online casino is in breach of local gambling regulations. This leads to incredibly high-security standards for players. The operators have to abide by local data protection laws and must treat customer data strictly confidential. Casino sites can only be hosted on local servers to increase the security even further. On top of that, it is required to provide adequate protection through SSL data encryption.
As online gambling was only introduced in early 2021, this is still a work in progress and additional improvements to the current system will be implemented shortly. The exact details regarding future developments are still unknown at this point but we will update this article as soon as more official information is available.
