GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A record 26 million Americans gambled on the Super Bowl Sunday, wagering $6.8 billion nationally, according to the American Gaming Association.
14 states have legalized sports betting and soon Michigan will be getting in on the action.
Back in December, Governor Whitmer signed sports betting into law, now the industry is working on getting up and running, which could happen in time for another huge sporting event.
“The expectation is that when they are ready to roll out sports betting, the state will be a hot bed for it,” Corporate Lawyer and Sports Attorney Michael Huff said.
“There is rapid expansion in the marketplace in terms of sports betting, people’s accessibility to it and their willingness to participate,” Huff added.
Sports attorney and gaming expert Huff says neighboring states like Indiana are seeing the dividends of legalized sports betting.
“They’ve seen revenue grow dramatically from the first month to the second month it grew about four times, when the sportsbooks came online. Into the third month of reporting data, we saw it grew 4 and half times from the first month,” Huff explained.
Michigan is next in line, there will likely be brick and mortar sportsbooks by the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament.
“All indications from the state is that by March madness we’ll have physical sports betting in the casinos in Michigan, online is going to be a little slower,”
It could be 2021 before that technology is in place, but other states saw online gaming about a month after physical betting locations.
With millions of dollars being wagered daily, when it’s all said and done tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue could be brought in.
“The revenue projections are pretty wide at this point I think what we know is that there is a lot of interest and we will see people getting involved pretty quickly,” Huff added.
Some projections say sports betting could bring in tens of millions of dollars for the Michigan school aid fund.
Other revenue will be given to firefighters, first responders and a fund to help people with gambling addictions.
If you think you have a gambling problem, you can call the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 800-522-4700 or the Michigan Association on Problem Gambling at 517-672-6904
