Regulator facts
- Regulator
- Michigan Gaming Control Board
- Official site
- www.michigan.gov
- Operator list
- Legal vs. Illegal Gaming page, with the Board's list of licensed internet gaming and sports betting operators
- Operators
- 15 (stated in the Board's news release of August 18, 2026 (15 commercial and tribal operators authorized as of July 2026); we did not count them from the list, because the Board's site did not answer our client)
- Read by us
- Not read. The Board's site (michigan.gov) answered our client with an access denied error on November 11, 2026, including its robots.txt file, so we treated it as blocked and read the Board's news releases from its public bulletin service instead.
What the Board does
The Board describes its own job in one sentence at the foot of every news release: it "shall ensure the conduct of fair and honest gaming to protect the interests of Michigan citizens." In practice that covers three licensed activities that matter to a resident who plays online: internet casino gaming, internet sports betting, and internet poker. The Board's releases also report on the three commercial casinos in Detroit, such as the wagering taxes they reported for the period covered by the August 2026 release.
According to the Board's release of August 18, 2026, 15 commercial and tribal operators were authorized as of July 2026 to offer internet gaming, online sports betting or both. All 15 offer internet gaming and 13 of them offer online sports betting. Monthly figures by operator are published on the Board's website, and the same release gives July 2026 combined gross receipts from internet gaming and online sports betting as $346.13 million.
Legal basis
The Board's own releases name the statutes it enforces against unlicensed sites: the Lawful Internet Gaming Act, the Michigan Gaming Control and Revenue Act, and sections of the Michigan Penal Code. The Legislature's own site did not answer our client on November 11, 2026, so we did not read the statute text itself, so the framework is described only as far as the Board's releases describe it.
Multi-state poker
Internet poker in Michigan is run through licensed operators too. In a release dated April 1, 2026, the Board announced that FanDuel was approved to offer multi-state internet poker between Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with a Detroit casino named as the Michigan operator partner. The same release says Michigan joined the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement in 2022, and lists Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia as the other member states. Before joining, Michigan players could only play against others located in the state.
What the Board publishes
Several kinds of document come from the Board, and each answers a different question.
- The licensed operator list. The Board's "Legal vs. Illegal Gaming" page is described in three of its own releases as the place that lists the internet gaming and internet sports betting operators it has licensed.
- The cease-and-desist list. The same page carries a list of unlicensed sites that were sent letters. The releases we read do not say whether that list is complete, and industry trackers describe it as not exhaustive, so a site missing from it is not automatically licensed.
- News releases. Enforcement rounds, new platform approvals, board meeting notices and monthly revenue reports are distributed through a public bulletin service run for the Board, which answered our client where the Board's own site did not.
- A tip line. Residents who find a suspicious site can phone 1-888-314-2682 or write to MIGamblingTip@michigan.gov, according to the Board's 2025 releases.
How to check a license, step by step
- Open the Board's Legal vs. Illegal Gaming page at michigan.gov/mgcb.
- Find the list of licensed internet gaming and sports betting operators.
- Look for the exact brand name shown on the site or app, not only the company name in the footer. The list is organized around licensed operators and their platform providers.
- If the brand is absent, check the cease-and-desist list on the same page, and note that a site on neither list is not shown as licensed, since the Board says only operators it has licensed may lawfully offer internet gaming in Michigan.
Our client was refused by michigan.gov on November 11, 2026, with an access denied page for its robots.txt file, so we could not open the list ourselves and do not reproduce it. The facts box above says what we could and could not count.
Recent actions
The Board has carried out repeated enforcement rounds. The titles of its own news items show these dates:
| Date | Action reported by the Board |
|---|---|
| April 7, 2026 | Cease-and-desist orders to 45 offshore gambling operators |
| October 8, 2026 | 33 cease-and-desist letters |
| October 24, 2025 | Letters to eight online casinos, ordering them to stop taking wagers from anyone in Michigan |
| September 23, 2025 | Cease-and-desist letters to eight unlicensed online gambling operators |
The 2025 releases we opened say the Board works with the Michigan Department of Attorney General, and that repeat or willful violations could lead to further enforcement. We could not open the pages behind the two 2026 entries, so we know them only from the titles and dates that appeared in search results.
Unlicensed and sweepstakes sites
The Board's position, repeated in its releases, is "If it's not licensed in Michigan, it's not legal in Michigan." Unlicensed sites do not owe players independent game testing, dispute channels or access to the state's self-exclusion tools, the releases add. The sweepstakes position is covered on the sweepstakes casinos in Michigan page.
Help for residents
The Board's releases point residents to the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-GAMBLER and to its own Responsible Gaming page, which describes the Disassociated Persons List and a responsible gaming database for internet gaming and sports betting. For the legal framework in plain language, see legal online casinos in Michigan.