Online Gambling in Michigan Stalled By FBI Due To New Demands
- Michigan began accepting online gaming licenses from suppliers in May as online gambling was progressing.
- The FBI is now holding up the progression due to the fingerprinting of applicants for licenses.
- Michigan Gaming Control Board executive director Richard Kalm still expects online gambling to launch in 2020.
LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) has announced that online gambling in Michigan, which was set to launch in 2020, has been put on hold due to the FBI.
The FBI’s grievances are that the fingerprinting process for issuing out gambling licenses is not up to the Bureau’s standards.
Despite the stalling, MGCB Executive Director Richard Kalm still expects online gambling to launch by the end of 2020.
FBI Stalls iGaming
The launch of online gambling in Michigan has been underway since May of 2020 when the Great Lakes state began accepting online gaming supplier licensing forms.
“We’ve taken another step toward the launch of online gaming by beginning the licensing process,” said Kalm back in May. “The MGCB encourages suppliers to file applications soon so we can conduct investigations and issue provisional licenses, which are allowed under state law.”
Prior to this current hiccup caused by the FBI, Michigan online gambling was moving at a steady pace for a 2020 launch.
Michigan passed laws for both regulated online gambling and regulated sports betting. Both mobile and online casinos and sportsbooks plan to launch in the Great Lakes State by year-end. Land-based sportsbooks have already launched in March.
The MGCB has been using the FBI in order to run fingerprints across their vast database for some time now. However, the FBI has stated that it can no longer assist in the matter due to the MGCB not including this process in the board statute.
The MGCB needs to update its statute, present the new forms with the updated language to the FBI in order to continue the process.
Despite the MGCB’s optimism, it is far more likely that online gambling will be pushed back to a 2021 launch.
This story shows some of the many cogs that are involved with the launch of legal gambling in the USA. Michigan is only the sixth state in the nation to legalize online gambling and one of the first to take this sort of precautionary measure.