Gambling at online live dealer casinos in Michigan is now legal!
Players residing in Michigan are now able to play some of the best live casino games online, with a real live dealer hosting and running the live table games.
Live table games such as Blackjack, Roulette and Baccarat are offered, soon to be joined by a range of single-handed poker games, like Three Card Poker and Ultimate Texas Hold’em poker.
The latest online live entertainment games, such as the wheel of fortune based Dream Catcher, Crazy Time and Adventures Beyond Wonderland will follow after that.
In this article I’m going to explain:
Finally, I’ll cover some FAQ’s, that will answer all your remaining questions.
The great news is playing Live Dealer table games online in Michigan is now legal.
Before online gambling was legalised in Michigan on the 21st January 2021, it was possible for MI residents to gamble online. However, this wasn’t strictly legal, required the use of an off-shore illegal casino to play and the game options were limited and not of great quality.
Legalisation introduced by the Michigan Gaming Control Board in 2021 has changed all that. It requires online casinos who want to make their services available to Michigan residents to be licenced.
Suppliers, such as Slots and Live Dealer game suppliers also needed to be licensed as do advertisers and marketers. All to ensure the environment in which gambling takes place is controlled, monitored, safe, trustworthy and taxed!
The terms of the licenses ensure online casino operators only offer their games to Michigan residents over the age of 21, that support is available for problem gamblers and responsible gambling controls exist to help protect players.
With this oversight comes some additional administration on the player’s behalf. So players have to prove their identity and age before being able to play.
While this may feel like being an onerous step, it’s actually there to help players and ultimately provide a better overall playing experience.
Overall this means players in Michigan will get to play the best live casino games the industry has to offer – which is great news!
Online live dealer games were first developed as a real-time, live alternative to online table games that use a Random Number Generator (RNG) to determine the result of a game.
A real table, roulette wheel and decks of playing cards are used to play the games online. Images of the table are streamed in real-time to players using a desktop, tablet or mobile device. A croupier deals the cards or spins the roulette wheel while players place bets and choose the playing actions they want to make until the results are known.
Players correctly predicting the outcome win, and are paid at the prevailing odds for the bets they have placed.
The tables are normally located in a specially built studio. In the case of live dealer games in Michigan, the studios are local to the state (which is one of the licensing requirements) and have been built in Southfield.
The dealers are residents of the state, either trained specially for working in a studio or have previous experience working as a dealer in one of the local land-based casinos.
The live games normally run on a 24-hour basis, with the dealers interchanging tables every 30 minutes, getting a rest break every two hours.
To be able to access the games a player needs to have an account with an online casino and will need to make a deposit before being able to place a bet on one of the tables.
Online live dealer games in Michigan include:
There is also a newer range of live dealer games that will be available to Michigan players.
Entertainment games have been developed that offer more than a basic gambling game. Dream Catcher, while very similar to a wheel of Fortune, has multipliers, which can vastly increase the payouts.
Lightning Roulette is a roulette game that has win multipliers up to 500x and is one of the most population variations of roulette in Europe.
Auto Roulette uses a real wheel, that is controlled by compressed air. This option is live and does not require a dealer. It is a game built for speed for those that like to play quickly.
Note: All of the table games use the same set of playing rules that you’ll find in the land-based casinos.
As of July 2021, nine online casinos have that have registered and been granted a license to provide online casino games in Michigan, have access to the new Evolution games.
Of those nine, there are six I would recommend.
In my experience, the best MI live casinos all exhibit the same positive characteristics:
The live dealer games will be provided by two Live Casino providers. Playtech and Evolution.
As luck would have it, these two suppliers are the best in the world. They are also the only two live casino suppliers big enough to be able to build dedicated studios in Michigan.
This is one of the licensing requirements for live dealer operators in Michigan.
I’ll quickly summarise each of the suppliers so you can get an idea of the games they offer.
Note: The playing experience and games will be almost identical between the suppliers. The main difference is the variation of games and also the type of Entertainment games they can offer to MI players.
Evolution began building its studio in Michigan in 2020 and it opened for business on the 22nd July 2021. Its exact location hasn’t been revealed, but this is quite normal for security reasons.
Evolution is the leading supplier of Live Casino games in the world. They have studios throughout Europe and in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where they are already providing their games to residents in those two states.
The quality of their games is second to none.
In addition to the standard casino games of Blackjack, Roulette and Baccarat, Evolution also have Three Card Poker, Casino Hold’em, Ultimate Texas Holdem, Caribbean Stud Poker, Dream Catcher, Monopoly Dream Catcher, Crazy Time, Sic Bo, Lightning Dice, Deal or No Deal, Side Bet City, Mega Ball, Craps, Football Studio, Dragon Tiger and Gonzo’s Treasure Hunt.
They have also produced variants of some of the games, including Speed options and different types of Blackjack (Power, Infinite, Speed) and Roulette (lightning with its 500x multipliers).
They also have a range of RNG equivalent games, like FPG Lightning Roulette and FPG Dream Catcher, which are likely to be launched at the same time as the live tables.
Of the games listed above, Blackjack (Seven Seat and Infinite Blackjack), Roulette and Auto Roulette and Baccarat are the first games to go live.
Playtech has been creating Live Casino Games since 2003 and was the first operator to offer a viable live dealer solution.
Their largest studio is based in Riga, Latvia, with other large studios in Romania and the Philippines. They have a range of smaller studios, which have been built to satisfy local regulations.
The studio in Michigan is located in Southfield and will be the most technically advanced studio Playtech has.
In terms of live casino games, Playtech has a vast catalogue. Unlike Evolution, Playtech does not stream any roulette tables from land-based casinos, but I don’t think this will be an option for players in Michigan anyway.
Games currently on offer by Playtech include Blackjack, Baccarat, Roulette, Casino Hold’em, 3 Card Brag, Hi-Lo, Casino Stud Poker, Adventures Beyond Wonderland, Deal or No Deal The Big Draw, The Money Drop Live, Spin A Win, plus lots of variations of roulette.
Leading games like Quantum Roulette and Quantum Blackjack and Fire Blaze Roulette all have win multipliers.
It’s not clear whether these will be available initially to Michigan players.
Blackjack, Roulette and Baccarat are the three live casino table games that have been made available to Michigan players.
As we’ve seen in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, some of the more specialist games will take a while to be added. This is often because they do not conform to standard land-based games, and need testing and certification before being passed for playing online in Michigan.
The second phase of games is likely to include the Wheel of fortune games, like Dream Catcher and Spin & Win, which both offer multipliers and maybe Quantum and Lightning Roulette, both of which offer 500x payouts on straight-up numbers.
For the moment let’s examine the playing rules for the three games that will initially launch online in Michigan.
Live Dealer Blackjack in Michigan comes in two playing formats:
The main version of roulette will be Double Zero roulette, which is the most popular.
Hopefully, Michigan players will get the option of playing European Roulette with its single zero, which has a vastly superior RTP of 97.30%.
Live Dealer roulette will come in two formats:
The same playing interface is normally used for both games.
The game rounds take 60 seconds to complete.
Live Baccarat in Michigan, is much like the game you’ll see in the land-based casinos. The tables are normally tucked away, reserved in the main for High Rollers and players, who like games that have that sense of tradition and grandeur.
Essentially a fairly simple game to understand and play, Baccarat has a long tradition of being a favourite with Asian players.
Baccarat is played with an eight-deck shoe, and while some of the online versions allow the cards to be squeezed, the version launched in Michigan will not.
Baccarat Roadmaps are provided in the playing interface, so there is no need to record the results using paper and pencil.
Commission of 5% is taken from Banker wins, which pay 0.95:1. The Player position pays 1:1, while Ties are paid at 8:1.
Yes, all of the live casino games are played live.
There is too much interaction between players and the dealers and the components of the game for them to operate in any other way.
Some studios go as far as having TV screens showing the news channels, or have telephone numbers you can text that show up your phone number on screen while you’re playing.
To do anything else would be really difficult.
All of the live dealer games being streamed in Michigan have to go through rigorous testing before they are licensed. This includes the fairness of the games, the Return to Player statistics as well as the operation of the games.
This includes how the cards and roulette balls are handled as well as the maintenance schedules for all of the operating equipment.
This ensures the games are delivered in a consistent manner while preventing tells, and bias that could be abused by players and operators.
All games are recorded as well as the studios and building premises. Trust me, nothing goes unnoticed!
Yes.
The Michigan Gambling Control Board has written a set of standards that live casino operators will need to adhere to.
That includes the specific rules games should be played to and the payouts that are given.
This means that all the suppliers of live casino games will be providing games to those standards.
In theory, these should be the same as you play in the land-based casinos.
The Best Michigan Online Casinos will have live dealer games.
Live Dealer games are such an integral part of playing table games online, that any operator not including them will likely lose a lot of players to ones that do.
All the best live dealer casinos in Michigan I recommend have live casino games.
You need to be 21 years of age to gamble online in Michigan.
There will be checks when you sign up at online casinos to verify your age and address.
Some of those will be performed automatically, whilst some may require you to send in electronic versions of your id as proof.
If you try to gamble online while you’re outside of Michigan, it’s most likely you’ll be blocked by the casino.
Most casinos will have in place IP address blocking, so if it detects you’re not in Michigan, you will be blocked from access.
However, if you are visiting elsewhere in the state, let’s say in Detriot you’ll still be able to place online wagers.
Yes. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has a service to support problem gamblers.
You can also contact the Michigan Gaming Control Board to permanently ban you from the Licensed Detroit Casinos. For an application form click here.
The ban can be reversed after 5 years by filling out this form.
There are two aspects of responsible gambling in Michigan that I’d like to discuss.
Remember Gambling is meant to be fun and for Entertainment only. Winning is nice, but that shouldn’t be the sole reason for playing.
These are the telltale signs that you may have a problem. Identifying them early and doing something about them will help you avoid getting into major problems.
If you exhibit any of the above or feel that your gambling is out of control, or you just want to talk to some about gambling The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has a toll free gambling helpline 1-800-270-7117.
Visit the MDHHS website to review the responsible Gambling Support or Take the Online Quiz to see whether you have a problem.