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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is ready to reject any gambling bill that might come across her desk. Her position appears to be almost identical to the former governor, Rick Snyder, who left his post on New Year’s Day.
On May 2, a bill targeting online gambling ran into opposition while being discussed in the Ways and Means Committee. The House committee itself didn’t reject the bill, but state officials made it clear that Governor Whitmer would veto the bill if it remains in its current form.
An executive from the State Budget Office, Bethany Wicksall, indicated that Whitmer’s administration is concerned about a potential reduction in state revenue.
“As the bill is written — given the tax rate, the distribution of the additional new online gaming revenue to the state, as well as the potential impact to the state lottery — even under an optimistic scenario, Treasury estimates that there would be a potential reduction in overall state revenue,” stated Wicksall.
Currently, Michigan is one of six US programs that sell lottery tickets online, a revenue stream that brought around $70 million in revenue to the state last year. More than a quarter out of every lottery dollar is allocated into Michigan’s School Aid Fund (SAF) and state officials believe SAF could face the most significant shortfall under a new bill.
Former Governor Rick Snyder, on his final days in the office, vetoed a similar online gaming bill last year, despite the legislation having been successfully approved by the House and Senate.
