“I truly don’t want this to happen to someone else,” she said. “I don’t think it should have been possible to lose that much in such a short amount of time. It doesn’t make sense for the state to make money in this way off its own people. Just makes me sad.”
A Michigan woman has warned against Ohio legalizing online casinos, admitting she lost $2 million over six months playing blackjack online.
The woman, who did not disclose her name, divulged her huge losses in an interview to WEWS News 5 Cleveland.
She said that she started gambling online to offset the costs of her construction company.
“I owned a very large construction company and our lumber costs skyrocketed from COVID-19,” she said. “I had ten homes going and I thought, ‘Wow, online gambling. I’ll give it a try and maybe it will help.'”
However, the gambling quickly spiralled out of control. “Within six months, I lost $2 million – our home, my business, our cars, our retirement,” she said.
Online Casinos Kept Her Playing With Rewards
The woman blamed the ease of betting on mobile casino apps and also the encouragement of platforms to continue playing despite her losses.
“You can do it driving down the road, you can do it in the bathroom,” she said. “We would go to a [brick and mortar] casino every now and then, and it wouldn’t be a problem. But once this started, it was extremely difficult to stop.”
Some platforms followed responsible gambling measures and stopped her betting, but others encouraged it by giving her rewards and bonuses, which kept her playing.
“Two casinos cut me off immediately within a month,” she explained. “But two kept feeding me thousands of dollars every week to keep me going. If I missed days, they would send me money – thousands of dollars.”
She did not give the names of any of the platforms where she was gambling. Michigan’s Gaming Control Board (MGCB) promotes responsible gambling, and players can register with its self-exclusion database, but it does not appear that the woman took up this option.
Michigan Online Casinos Generating Record Revenue
Michigan online casinos generated $2.4 billion in gross gaming revenue (GGR) last year, a 27% increase from the $1.9 billion generated in 2023. This year looks set to surpass that figure, with March setting a record high for iGaming GGR at $260.5 million. May was not far behind at $251.5 million, which was the second-highest to date and a 26.6% rise from May 2024.
The state collected $388.5 million of this revenue in taxes last year, compared to just $12.9 million from sports betting. The woman warned that the casino games are addictive and that states should not be blinded by the extra tax revenue legal online casinos generate.
The woman did not mention whether she was playing at the state’s licensed online casinos, but the assumption is that she was. Regulators, however, tend to focus efforts on unregulated platforms, citing the lack of player protection they offer.
This week, the MGCB issued 19 cease-and-desist letters to unlicensed online casinos operating in the state. The board’s Executive Director, Henry Williams, commented, “Illegal gambling operators threaten the safety of our citizens and the integrity of our gaming industry.”
“When companies offer games without proper licensing, Michigan players are left without the critical protections they deserve. That’s unacceptable, and we’re taking strong action to stop it.”
Whether the board is ensuring that regulated platforms are offering these “critical protections” remains to be seen.
Ohio Lawmakers Should Heed Warning
The Cleveland local news network used this woman’s story to send a warning to lawmakers who are considering legalizing online casinos in Ohio.
“Just so everybody understands, this would be 24/7,” Governor Mike DeWine told the network last month. “Anybody who’s got an iPhone could basically have a casino there. And the potential for addiction is just massive.”
Trevor Hayes, Vice President of Government Relations at Caesars Entertainment, however, made the argument that legalization will bring in tax revenue and reduce illegal gambling.
In a hearing debating a bill to legalize online casinos in the state in May, Hayes said, “This has a chance to produce a lot more tax revenue for your state, protect the citizens of your state and make sure you get some tax dollars in the process,”
“This is a chance to bring this out of the shadows and to be regulated and protected and to make sure minors aren’t betting, to make sure we know where the money is coming from and where it’s going.”
Despite having legal online casinos, it is estimated that unregulated platforms generated over $1 billion in Michigan last year, but with the MGCB’s efforts, this may be reduced. In Ohio, unlicensed casino operators generated $3.7 billion, more than both regulated and unregulated combined in Michigan.
In addition to legalizing online casinos, a bill under consideration in Ohio also proposes to ban sweepstakes casinos, which could see a reduction in the huge amounts the platforms are making in the state.
Adam Roarty
Adam is an experienced writer with years of experience in the gambling industry. He has worked as a content writer and editor for five years on sites such as Oddschecker, CoinTelegraph and Gambling Industry News, bringing excellent knowledge of the world of sports betting and online gambling. Adam focuses on emerging stories in the ever changing landscape of betting in the US. Read the latest on prediction markets, changing legislation, and sweepstakes.
