Sports Betting Is Wildly Unpopular in Michigan, So Why Is It Still Legal?

Legalized sports betting in Michigan coincided with the stringent Covid lockdowns, both signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer—but recent Cygnal polling commissioned by Michigan, and in conjunction with Beacon Research, shows that sports betting has become deeply unpopular across gender, political, and racial lines.

In fact, this appears to be one of very few bipartisan issues Michigan residents agree on.

Signed into law by Whitmer in 2019, it took over a full year for platform requirements and licensing to be birthed into existence. In-person sports betting went live officially in March 2020—the same month Michigan's pandemic lockdown was initiated. Online sports betting went live in January 2021, just as Michigan hit the apex of Covid fatigue.

According to our polling, 58% of Michigan residents have a negative view of legalized sports betting. More stunning: Only 15% of residents hold a positive view. Those numbers hold relatively stable for both Republicans and Democrats.

But a few outliers do exist deep within the statistics.

Adult males with no college education are twice as likely to have a positive view of sports gambling as males with a college education. Independent voters view the apps even more negatively at 68%.

One major outlier—really the one big eyebrow-raising divergence within the data—is that 82% of self-identified socialists hold a strongly negative view of online betting.

But I've never seen a strong rallying cry from this group against gambling. Free Palestine? Medicare for all? The dismantling of the Supreme Court and the U.S. Senate? Seizing the means of production? These are all standard messaging. But I've yet to see a DSA protest against sports betting.

But I wasn't looking close enough at the Marxist-Leninist ideals being trafficked by downwardly mobile rich kids, and I missed the obvious.

Sports betting, seen through the eyes of Western socialists, is yet another example of evil capitalism transferring wealth from the working class (or working poor) to the rich. It also pings the brains of socialists who envision a moneyless society where the capital to place a wager on sports doesn't even exist.

The polling data, however, stands in stark contrast with the remarkable normalization of online sports betting and the rise of the FanDuel Sports Normie and the unstoppable wave of gambling apps sponsoring sports broadcasts, podcasts, and content creators.

More problematic are the direct partnerships with sports leagues and specific teams, something that was hard to even imagine 10 years ago, given the Pete Rose gambling scandal.

FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM are now household name brands. Male sports fans specifically, who use Barstool and The Ringer as ambient noise during the workday, are inundated with ads.

Michigan's sports betting legalization was sugarcoated as a means to provide additional funding for public schools and healthcare for first responders, but the consequence was the further easing of laws around a predatory and addictive vice with devastating effects on Michigan residents, specifically working-class males and even teens who've found ways to game the age restrictions.

What seems apparent is the likelihood that most Michigan residents have identified sports betting as a predatory force on those caught within its grip, and even more destructive given our crisis levels of affordability.

The public also has become aware of how sports betting apps have used AI and carefully fine-tuned algorithms to keep regular losers hooked to their platforms while banning sharp bettors from their platforms.

The house doesn't just always win in the long term; it always wins constantly.

Though broadly unpopular today, sports betting garnered mass support in 2019 even after the Snyder administration poured cold water on it. It was voted into law with near-total bipartisan support. Only one member of the Michigan Senate, Republican Ed McBroom, spoke against it, with words that now seem prophetic:

"(Sports betting) preys on the most vulnerable in our society by promising something for nothing... The purpose of legalized and organized gambling is the industrialized mass extraction of people's money."

So what's being done about it?

Well, nothing. The gaming industry's political arm and dark-money PACs are making it rain in several key legislative races in Michigan, and they aren't playing games.

DK Crown Holdings LLC, which owns DraftKings, and FBG Enterprises, which is the holding company for Fanatics, have dropped $3 million on over 15 races. Democrats and Republicans are swimming in campaign donations, and they appear to be playing coy on the issue, suggesting they know it's growing unpopular with voters.

Given the unpopularity, no rollback legislation is looming. No sitting representative is even talking about the issue. Are the betting apps buying silence?