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Gambling addiction on the rise. Michigan does less than most states to help

The ease of access to online sports betting has made it easier to get hooked, advocates say. Photo credit: Miles MacClure for Bridge Michigan.

Editor note: This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan (bridgemi.com), a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from Bridge Michigan, sign up for a free Bridge Michigan newsletter .” 

by Miles MacClure for Bridge Michigan

As online betting becomes increasingly popular, Michigan does less than other states to help people with gambling addictions.

Michigan, which from an advocacy group for its efforts to protect gamblers, pulled in $624.6 million off online gambling last year, including $27.1 million in taxes and fees from sports betting. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer meant to bring in even more.

But little of that money goes toward preventing the addiction that comes from easy access to wagers. This year, the state allocated $9.5 million to gambling addiction services.

Other states with online betting such as Iowa, Massachusetts, and Tennessee do things like prohibit the use of credit cards on sports betting apps. Michigan, however, allows online gaming platforms to offer bets even to people exhibiting addictive behaviors, according to the Center for Addiction Science, Policy, and Research, which gave Michigan an F- for its addiction protections.

Without additional guardrails implemented by the state to prevent significant financial loss or mechanisms to curb gambling and sports betting addiction, problem gambling will likely continue to rise, said Karley Abramson, a research associate at the Citizens Research Council of Michigan.

“ We have no reason to think that this will just be solved on its own,” she said.

Legalized online gambling ignited a flood of betting in Michigan — $3.8 billion in 2025, including $671.3 million on online sports betting, a nearly 30% increase from 2024, according to state records.

With that gambling has come a rise in gambling addiction and the financial struggles that come with it. Thousands of calls come in every year to the state gambling addiction helpline and bankruptcy attorneys say an increasing number of their cases are linked to online gaming.

Detroit attorney Walter Metzen said one of his clients racked up nearly $200,000 in debt from online sports betting, while another wagered $20,000 on single football games.

“Just in the last couple years, at least a dozen guys I can think of told me they were at the end of their rope,” said Metzen. “They had burned their friendships by borrowing money from friends to feed their addiction.”

‘Readily available, limitless’

It all started in 2018, when the US Supreme Court the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, a 1992 federal law that prohibited gambling on sports.

Since then, sports betting has become legalized in states across the country and a wave of uncouth behavior has followed. Professional athletes have reported harassment from fans who lost money gambling on games, including reported by The Athletic.

Previously, gambling in Michigan was confined to select casinos throughout the state, but the legalization of online gambling has granted anyone with a smartphone round-the-clock access to virtual blackjack tables and sportsbooks.

“Part of the problem is that the ease of access to online sports betting is unlike the access to any other kind of vice or entertainment product that can lead to addictive behavior,” Abramson, of the Citizens Research Council, said. “It’s just on our phones, readily available, limitless.”

For some gamblers, that immediate access to gambling has proven financially catastrophic.

“At first they exhaust their savings, they might raid their 401(k), they start borrowing from friends and family, they use online loans, credit cards, until that pyramid collapses and they can’t borrow anymore,” said Metzen, the Detroit bankruptcy attorney.

Last year, researchers at Southern Methodist University that calls to gambling helplines nationwide increased 75% after the legalization of online sports betting. The same group of researchers reported that rates of irresponsible gambling (defined as spending more than 1% of one income on gambling) increased the most among low-income individuals.

Last year, the state fielded 3,393 gambling-related calls to its Gambling Disorder Helpline, according to a public records request filed with the department.

Matthew Frey, a bankruptcy attorney in Saginaw, said some bankruptcy cases have failed because debtors have continued gambling during the bankruptcy.

“ They can’t make their monthly plan payment when they’re gambling all their money,” Frey said. “They complain they have no money to eat on and we ask them, ‘Well, where’s it going?’ And it’s, it’s going to DraftKings.  It sneaks up on people how much money it’s sucking out of them, and they just don’t see it until it’s too late.”

Paul Bare, a bankruptcy attorney in Traverse City, said it typical to see a gambling-related bankruptcy in which a debtor owes around $70,000 in gambling debt.

“But where it finally ends is that you can no longer make the payments on the cards without using the other cards to live on, and that’s where the cycle ends,” said Bare.

A failing grade

Michigan has some programs to help people with a gambling problem.

When Michigan legalized online gambling, for example, the Michigan Gaming Control Board implemented a new program called the Responsible Gaming Database. The program allows individuals to add their name to a list of people who cannot create online gambling accounts.

Since that program was implemented in 2021, the number of individuals who have self-excluded has risen each year. In 2021, 78 people self-excluded from online gambling. In 2025, 1,644 were on the self-exclusion list for online gambling.

A similar program exists for the three Detroit casinos, called the Disassociated Persons List. Those on that list can be arrested for criminal trespassing if they enter any of the Detroit casinos. Since that list began in 2001, 4,244 people have self-excluded from in-person gambling at the Detroit casinos.

Still, advocates say far more is needed.

In March, the Center for Addiction Science, Policy, and Research ranked Michigan 49 out of 52 states and territories — an F- grade — for online gambling protections. CASPR gave Michigan a lowly ranking in part because of its lack of mechanisms to prevent addiction or bankruptcy, particularly the ability for sportsbook operators to offer bets to individuals exhibiting signs of gambling addiction.

The ranking also noted Michigan “unusually low” tax on online gambling.

CASPR that would prevent gamblers from using credit cards on gambling apps and require a “mandatory cool-off” period for gamblers who have lost more than $500 within a 30-day period.

Several of the largest sportsbooks have recently banned credit card payments on their apps. DraftKings stopped accepting credit cards in August 2025, FanDuel stopped accepting credit cards , and BetMGM it would begin phasing out credit card payments on March 31.

In November, state Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor, two bills that would place stricter regulations on advertisements for sports gambling and internet gambling in Michigan, including a ban on targeted gambling advertisements to individuals younger than 21.

“The surge of sports betting and online gambling has led to a steep uptick in marketing campaigns that often glamorize gambling, downplay the dangers of addiction, and have reached impressionable audiences who are far too young to legally participate,” Geiss wrote in an email to Bridge Michigan. “The design of bright lights, flashing colors, catchy slogans, and celebrity endorsements mirror the tactics that cigarette companies used to make their product seem cool and appeal to underage people, leading to countless adverse outcomes and addicted customers that lasted generations.”

The Citizens Research Council has barring prop bets, as well as prohibiting sports betting companies from using algorithms to offer customized bets to users based on their betting history.

Metzen, the bankruptcy attorney, whose son attends Michigan State University, said his son friends have taken up sports betting, some of whom claim to have made thousands from longshot parlays.

“ I guarantee you he placed a hundred bets before he hit that parlay, you know?” Metzen said. “He not telling you about the money he lost.”

Problem with gambling? Get help

Those with a gambling problem or their loved ones can get free help by calling 800-270-7117 or visiting .

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and a founder of the Manchester Mirror.