Casinos and studios

• Online casinos licensed in Michigan
• Slots available in Michigan
• Game studios available in Michigan

The MGCB keeps one page titled Authorized Online Gaming and Sports Betting Platform Providers in Michigan. It is a table of fifteen rows: a licensee on the left, a platform brand on the right, and the casino URL beneath. Twelve rows are tribes, from the Bay Mills Indian Community to the Pokagon Band, and three are the Detroit casinos. A second page, Legal vs. Illegal Gaming, repeats the brand names and, underneath them, prints the operators the board has ordered to stop — a list it says is not exhaustive.

So the test has two halves: the brand appears on the board's table, and the address you are using matches the one printed there. An operator may run at most two brands, one for poker and one for casino games, and each app has to show the licensee's name and proof of its licence. The pairings do change — bet365 took over the Odawa tribe's slot in April 2026 after PokerStars left — so the table is worth a fresh look when a new app appears. The casinos reviewed on this page are drawn from it, and each review names the tribe or Detroit casino behind the brand.

Age and place. No account opens until the site has verified that you are 21; an under-age player who opens or uses one commits a misdemeanour, and so does anyone who lets them. The geofence then runs for the length of every session, not only at log-in, and blocks the wager the moment the device leaves the state. Residence is beside the point: a visitor in Grand Rapids may play, a Michigander in Toledo may not, and the wager is treated by statute as placed at the licensee's own casino whatever town you are in.

Limits, offered three times. The rule calls for an easy and obvious way to cap deposits, wagers and time, and the site has to present it when the account is created, each time you deposit and each time you log in. A tighter limit applies at once; a looser one waits 24 hours. The site's own ceiling, if stricter, overrides yours, and a self-exclusion does not cancel a limit you set.

Three ways to stop. Any account can be suspended by its owner for a minimum of 72 hours. Each operator keeps its own self-exclusion list, joined from inside the app. Above both sits the MGCB's Responsible Gaming Database: a one- or five-year bar from every licensed online casino and sportsbook in the state, applied for in person at an MGCB office or by a notarised form, confirmed within 45 days, and lifted only when the chosen term runs out. The lifetime Disassociated Persons List is a different programme, for the Detroit casino floors.

Money and games. Your balance is covered by a reserve the operator keeps apart from its working funds and attests to the board monthly; nothing can take the account below zero. An account statement is yours on demand for six months of activity, a two-year summary on request. Every game needs the board's written approval and runs software that re-checks itself daily; a completed wager is voided only for a malfunction, and the terms say a malfunction voids all pays. Michigan sets no minimum or maximum stake and no rule against autoplay — those are each operator's choice.

The funding rule names credit and debit cards, cash at an approved cashiering location, a prepaid card carrying the player's own name, ACH, wire, promotional credit and winnings. In practice the Michigan cashiers lean on three: VIP Preferred, which drafts an e-check from a US checking account at no fee; PayPal, with withdrawals back to the wallet in a few hours at BetMGM; and Venmo, approved in seconds. Behind them come Play+, online banking, Apple Pay, a wire, PayNearMe for cash at a 7-Eleven counter — deposits only, between $5 and $500 in a day at Horseshoe — and the licensee's own cage: BetMGM credits a cash deposit at MGM Grand Detroit instantly from $10 and processes a cage withdrawal within 72 hours, paid in cash to you in person against ID. On the Caesars-run sites a digital deposit can be as small as $5 and a withdrawal as small as $1; a debit-card payout there often lands within an hour.

Credit cards are the moving part. The rule allows them, BetMGM still takes Visa and Mastercard credit, but Horseshoe and Caesars have dropped them and Play Gun Lake followed on 1 July 2026 — and even where accepted, your bank may decline the transaction as gaming. Two account rules are easy to miss: a balance in an account you have not opened for three years is closed and refunded or sent to the state as unclaimed property, and one operator's deposit limit can count what you deposited with the same brand in another state.

Michigan taxes individual income at a single rate — 4.25% for the 2026 tax year, confirmed by the Treasury each April — and gambling winnings are part of that income because they sit in your federal adjusted gross income. Until 2020 the state allowed no deduction for losses at all. Public Act 168 of 2021 changed that: a casual gambler may now subtract the losses they itemised on federal Schedule A for the same year, never more than the winnings, and only if they itemised rather than taking the standard deduction. A nonresident can subtract only losses placed through a Michigan casino. The deduction is a state one; it leaves city income tax untouched.

On the federal side a slot win of $2,000 or more in 2026 brings a Form W-2G, slot wins carry no automatic withholding, and all winnings are reported on Form 1040 whether a form arrived or not. Hold on to the account statement the site must give you: it is the record both returns rest on.

Michigan runs its own line: the Michigan Problem Gambling Helpline, 1-800-270-7117, staffed by trained counsellors around the clock for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, confidential and free, for state residents. Dialling 1-800-GAMBLER from Michigan reaches the same service. The administrative code requires every licensed app to print that number on its responsible gaming page, beside a link to the MGCB's problem-gambling resources. MDHHS also funds a statewide treatment programme that refers callers to trained providers, and the board's Responsible Gaming Section, 888-223-3044, handles self-exclusion applications on weekdays. Suspected illegal gambling goes to the MGCB tip line, 1-888-314-2682.

Lawful Internet Gaming Act, 2019 PA 152, MCL 432.301–432.322 (legislature.mi.gov); Mich. Admin. Code R 432.611–432.676 (LII mirror); MGCB pages: the platform-provider table for Michigan, Legal vs. Illegal Gaming, Responsible Gaming and its FAQ, Patron Disputes; MGCB releases of 14 April 2022, 12 February 2025, 3 April 2025, 7 April 2026 and 17 April 2026; MGCB FAQ on sports betting and internet gaming (2020) and the advertising Q&A reposted by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters (February 2021); Michigan Department of Treasury: 2026 income tax rate notice (15 April 2026), PA 168 wagering-loss notice (13 January 2022) and the gambling-loss subtraction FAQ; MDHHS, Get Help for Problem Gambling; IRS tax topic 419; Instructions for Form W-2G, 2026 edition; BetMGM Michigan help centre, Horseshoe Online Casino and Caesars Michigan payments pages. All read 8 October 2026.