Online gambling brings in more than $200 million in state tax revenue
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While it has brought in huge revenues for Michigan, reports show it has also led to an increase in gambling addictions.Michigan internet casinos and sports betting brought in $1.4billion dollars in revenue in 2021 and more $200 million dollars in tax revenue for the state."Online sports betting alone, there was almost $4 billion dollars wagered in the state of Michigan online," said Matt Schoch, an analyst with . "That was another 7 million dollars for state tax revenue."
Online casinos brought in more than $200 million dollars in state tax revenue.Schoch says the revenue brought it over the past year has been a huge boost for the state and he expects it to keep climbing."It's huge numbers. Michigan grew very quickly, over 500 million dollars has been wagered in December already," said Schoch.But with good, there is also bad."We have to watch the responsible gambling impacts of this. We know that when we introduce more forms of gambling, there will be issues with that," said Schoch.Michael Burke with the Michigan Association on Problem Gambling says it's great to see the state's revenue going up from online casinos and betting-- but with more gambling, comes a higher chance of more people becoming addicted to it.Burke says he hopes to see the state create more programs to help those people."I think they owe it to the small group of people, a large percent, but small number who will develop serious devastating problems and they have to have more programs in place for them and especially for their families," said Burke.The state of Michigan says they have seen more people reach out for help this year compared to those needing counseling support last year."We're up by 22 referrals from this time last year," said Alia Lucas, MDHHS Gambling Disorder Project Manager.Lucas says they have had plans in place to help even before the launch of online gambling and they want to do more."If were wanting to be able to provide Michigan public with a holistic approach to treating gambling disorders, then we have to be mindful that there may be individuals that are going to need help that exceeds the 12 outpatient treatment days we provide," said Lucas.The MDHHS says they're working on a new program in the Detroit area that will offer a longer term assistance option."With that the services made available are a 30-day residential stay for gambling disorder treatment services," said Lucas. "It would be with gambling trained clinicians, able to engage in individual and group therapy session to go through their recovery process."You can visit for a list of resources for your area or call the Michigan problem gambling hotline at 1-800-270-7117.
