State health authority campaigns against bill, along with local Detroit newspaper
Michigan Representative Brandt Iden’s proposal to permit licensed land casinos in the state to offer online gambling has run into trouble despite getting through the committee stage (see previous InfoPowa reports).
The bill has languished in recent months and has yet to get to a House floor vote, but Alia Lucas, who oversees gambling treatment programs for the State Department of Health and Human Services has comel out in oppostion, claiming that problem gamblers are going to have bigger problems, and there is no way to keep minors safe, despite ample practical evidence in New Jersey to the contrary.
The local Detroit News newspaper has also opposed the idea, claiming that online gambling constituites a new form of gambling and must therefore be approved by voters in terms of the state constitution.