Michigan Lottery Review

Is the Michigan Lottery Trustworthy?

The Michigan Lottery stands out as one of the few governmental organizations that is also an online casino. While we ordinarily review casinos that are licensed by governments to show their legitimacy, we have a different task when it comes to our Michigan Lottery review. Essentially, the lottery is as trustworthy as the state is. Unless there is a significant legislative overhaul, this casino is not going anywhere and is backed by the full faith and credit of the state of Michigan.

Is the Michigan Lottery Licensed and Certified in the USA?

Yes, the Michigan Lottery is chartered by the state of Michigan as a governmental organization. The online casino is run by the same group that oversees the traditional state lottery. It does not have any third-party security certifications.

When Was the Michigan Lottery Online Casino Launched?

In 2014, the Michigan Lottery launched its online site. Although the state legislature chartered the lottery itself, lottery management has a great deal of leeway regarding the kind of games it can run. Therefore, despite several legislators objecting to the move, the agency was able to open an online casino.

Does the Michigan Lottery Have a Good Reputation?

Some players have complaints about the Michigan Lottery’s online presence. The most serious claim is that the random number generation is not sufficiently random. This complaint could be chalked up to bad luck on the part of those who complain, but the lottery has not opted for third-party reviews to ensure that the random number generation is legitimate. To a degree, then, players much take it on faith that the lottery is trustworthy. Beyond online games, players can also buy tickets for live drawings such as Michigan Powerball and Michigan Megamillions.

How Popular Is the Michigan Lottery?

The site is fairly popular, ranking 14,040 in the United States. Considering that only players located in Michigan can use the site, this is a strong ranking. However, many people access the site to review recent Michigan lottery results rather than playing online.

Is the Michigan Lottery a Listed Company?

No, the Michigan State Lottery is a governmental organization managed by public sector employees and chartered by the legislature of the state.

Brands Associated with the Michigan Lottery

There are no other brands associated with the lottery. Nevertheless, as a state governmental body, it carries the legitimacy of the state treasury.

The Michigan Lottery’s Responsible Gaming Policies

As you may expect from a government agency, the Michigan Lottery provides numerous resources to promote responsible gambling. The largest tab on the main menu bar leads you to their responsible gambling resources, which include a list of trouble signs, another list of the tools that players have at their disposal, tips for how to gamble responsibly, and a list of myths vs facts. Additionally, the bottom of the main page includes a link to a responsible gambling helpline and email contact information.

Creating an Account with the Michigan Lottery Online Casino

The lottery has a simple, 4-step process to sign up. The website makes it simple and straightforward to sign up, so it shouldn’t take new players more than a couple of minutes to start gambling. There are some limitations when it comes to withdrawing your funds, and in some cases, the process can get involved. Nevertheless, you’ll be able to start with the Michigan Lottery with just a few clicks.

Information You’ll Need to Sign Up

The Michigan Lottery only requires basic information to sign up. To fill out the registration forms, you will need to submit:

• First and last name
• Email address
• A password
• Gender
• Birthdate
• Address
• Last 4 digits of Social Security number
• Phone number

Once you have completed the registration form, you can log into your account and play demo games or complete your first deposit.

Do I Need to Provide Any Documents to Withdraw Earnings from the Michigan Lottery?

Any withdrawals you make must be verified by entering both the account and routing number of your bank account. Also, you must enter the entirety of your driver’s license number each time you make a withdrawal request to verify your identity. Otherwise, the lottery does not require any new documentation to complete a bank withdrawal.

How Easy Is It to Create a Michigan Lottery Account?

It is easy to create an account. You can do so from the main page of the site when using either desktop or mobile, as the registration option appears on the main menu. Once you click the “Register” button, the site takes you to the information entry page. Enter your email address (which functions as your username) and choose a password in the first section. If you have a promo code, enter it now.

On the next screen, you can enter the rest of the information listed above. Afterwards, you can opt in to receive updates and bonus opportunities via email, text, or both. As soon as you submit the final information, the website will confirm your account, and you can deposit money or begin playing demo games.

How the Michigan Lottery Verifies Your Documents

The Michigan Lottery has stricter requirements than many private online casinos regarding its documentation. While it does not require that you submit those documents during signup, you will need to submit additional proof of identity when you win more than $600. For each such prize, you must complete a tax claim form and provide one of the following types of ID by scanning and uploading the image:

• Driver’s license
• State ID
• Carry-concealed weapons license
• Military ID
• Passport
• Passport card
• Permanent resident card
• Veterans’ Health ID

You may also need to verify your Social Security number, which requires a scanned image of your physical card.

If you win a prize bigger than $50,000, you’ll need to physically visit the lottery headquarters at 101 E. Hillside, Lansing, MI 48933. Otherwise, you will not be able to claim the prize.

How Quickly Can I Start Playing with Real Cash?

You can begin playing immediately after you have created your account. You can choose a major credit card, ACH transfer, or PayPal to deposit funds with minimal processing time. As soon as the lottery receives your funds, it will credit your account, process any applicable deposit bonus, and you can begin gambling.

Michigan Lottery’s Withdrawals and Deposits

The Michigan Lottery is very restrictive regarding the kinds of deposit and withdrawal methods it permits. Unlike the best online gambling sites in America, you don’t have much of an option when it comes to withdrawing funds. You may only withdraw them to your bank account through an ACH transfer that can take several days to process. Withdrawals for larger amounts of funds are even more restricted.

Michigan Lottery Online Casino Deposit Methods

The Michigan State Lottery only accepts a few deposit methods. You may use major credit cards, a bank account, or PayPal to deposit funds into your account.

How to Withdraw Your Earnings

The lottery is exceptionally restrictive about the ways that you can withdraw funds. Specifically, you may only withdraw using your bank account and must re-enter your account information and full driver’s license number before submitting the withdrawal request. Additionally, you may only withdraw winnings, so you must wager with the entirety of any deposits you make before you can withdraw those funds.

If you win a prize that’s larger than $600, you will also need to provide a tax form to claim the prize. Once they have accepted your completed form, the funds will be added to your account, and you can withdraw them as per usual. Please note that any prizes higher than $1,000 will first be applied to any outstanding debt you have to the Michigan state government.

If you win more than $50,000 in a single prize, then you will need to claim the prize at the lottery headquarters physically. This requirement also applies to any annuity prize, regardless of its size.

Do I Need to Prove my Source of Wealth?

No. Despite the additional scrutiny regarding withdrawals, you won’t need to provide a source of wealth.

Michigan Lottery Casino Bonuses and Campaigns

The Michigan Lottery does not have an extensive spread of bonus opportunities available to its players. This lack is mostly the result of a minimal selection of games, so there is no promotional incentive for the online casino to encourage players to try new games. Nevertheless, it does offer a series of bonuses and incentives.

If you would like to find the best casino bonuses, then you should browse through our selection of other casinos. Nevertheless, players in Michigan have very few options regarding the online casinos they can access, so if you can use the Michigan Lottery, you may not have many other options to play online.

Introducing the Michigan Lottery Bonuses

The Michigan Lottery offers all new players a welcome bonus: it will match 50% of your first deposit, up to $100. After that, you’ll have to take advantage of the periodic bonuses that the casino provides. You must unlock those with the Spin to Win game or sign up for the email or text bonus alerts. Once the casino has offered you a bonus opportunity, you can view the available bonuses by visiting your account and selecting “New Bonus Offers”.

Current Michigan Lottery Campaigns

One of the most common bonus campaigns that you’ll see is the Daily Spin to Win. This promotion rewards players for logging in. When you spin, you can earn coupons, bonus credit, or select entry into a more limited (and lucrative) giveaway. If you have opted in to receive email or text communications regarding bonuses, the lottery will alert you to periodic bonuses and opportunities for more free rewards.

FAQs on Michigan Lottery’s Bonuses

What Games Does the Michigan Lottery Offer?

One of the considerable limitations of the Michigan Lottery is that it lacks many of the games and betting options that other online casinos possess. This lack comes from the lottery’s function and legal requirements. As a result, you won’t find NBA betting or an option to bet on MLB games here but must instead visit our list of bookmakers to find the best bookmakers in the US.

The Michigan Lottery only provides some arcade games and digital versions of its scratch cards online. You may also purchase lottery tickets for the various drawings that the lottery hosts. Unfortunately, you can’t play roulette online here, so if you are interested in most styles of casino games, you can test our casino games for free or browse our other reviews to find an alternative online casino to play for money.

Which Casino Games Can I Play at Michigan Lottery?

The Michigan Lottery has minimal options. If you enjoy scratch games, the biggest advantage of playing online is that you can do so with ease. The website and app offer a digital version of nearly every physical game you’ll find at participating stores and banks. Additionally, you can buy tickets for the daily and weekly drawings games, including the very popular Michigan Mega Millions and Michigan Powerball games.

From Where Does the Michigan Lottery Source Its Games?

The Lottery seems to have commissioned the games independent of any of the primary sources. Several of the games are unique to the site while most of them are derived from the scratch card games that the lottery sells in physical stores. Unfortunately, this means that there is no third-party oversight to confirm that the random number generation used is legitimate, so you will have to rely on the trustworthiness of the state as an entity to vouch for the legitimacy of its games.

How Easy Is It to Use the Michigan Lottery Website?

The website easily satisfies many of our requirements for ease of use. It lacks in terms of its aesthetic components, but it is remarkably easy to find anything that you’re looking for when you browse through the site itself.

Most people will have a device that is compatible with the website. We include a list below of the officially-supported devices and browsers, but you may find that the site and games work with a different mobile device (such as a tablet) as long as it has a supported version of the software.

Michigan Lottery – Compatible Devices

The lottery is available to anyone in Michigan depending on their browser. As long as you are using the latest version of one of the following browser versions, all website features should work properly:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Windows 10 IE11
• Mozilla Firefox

Those with Apple computers can use the site but will need to download Chrome or Firefox rather than using Safari. There is also a Michigan Lottery App that is compatible with any of the following Android (software version 7 or later) and iOS (software version 10 or later) devices:

•  iPhone 7
• iPhone 8
• iPhone XS
• iPhone X
• Samsung Galaxy S8
• Samsung Galaxy S9

The app will most likely perform without issue on other Android devices, but these two models are the only ones that the site supports.

What We Think about the Feel of the Michigan Lottery Website

The site overall provides a pared-down, simple experience. Although many of the lottery and arcade games have a similar feeling to the conventional versions produced by Microgaming and other software companies, the rest of the site is not flashy at all. Even the screens during signup have an older look and feel.

As a result, nothing is confusing about the site design, and it’s straightforward to navigate through it to find what you need. The games are simply laid out and easily available to any player. You can quickly get to the demo games before signing up so that you can try them out. Despite its simplicity and outdated appearance, the site receives positive marks for how easy it is to use and explore.

Michigan Lottery Customer Support Services

Despite the common jokes and stereotypes about government employees not being engaged or responsive, Michigan Lottery employees tend to respond to requests for additional customer support. You can access customer support in several ways and can also find answers to most questions you’ll have by visiting the well-organized FAQ.

How Can I Reach Out to the Michigan Lottery?

Although customer service is only available from 7:45 am to 4:45 pm EST, you can contact them with minimal wait during this time by using the casino’s live chat support. Alternatively, you can call them for swift resolutions to your questions. If you are not in a rush, you can submit a contact form or email the support team. You can access each of these methods below:

• FAQ: https://michiganlottery.desk.com/
• Live Chat: https://michiganlottery.desk.com/
• Phone: 844-887-6836
• Contact Form: https://michiganlottery.desk.com/customer/portal/emails/new
• Email: onlinehelp@michiganlottery.com

What Features Make Michigan Lottery Unique?

The Michigan Lottery stands out among online casinos, but it’s not necessarily because it provides an exceptional experience. It is rare in that it’s a government-sponsored online site and available to players in a part of the world that lacks access to other online casinos. However, its actual functionality is not revolutionary, nor does it have an extensive array of gaming options.

How Is the Michigan Lottery Different to Other Online Casinos?

The governmental seal of approval adds a degree of legitimacy to the casino that you can’t find elsewhere. The fact that you can buy Powerball and Mega Millions tickets online is also exceedingly rare (only one other casino that we’ve reviewed lets you do that, and the process there is rather convoluted).

Nevertheless, the overall feel to the site is somewhat generic. Customer service is responsive, but there aren’t that many games in the selection. You don’t get to interact with other players during any of the games, so there is no social aspect to the lottery.

Is the Michigan Lottery a Good Choice for US Players?

Ultimately, that depends on whether you live in Michigan or not. For residents, the online lottery is the only game in town. For non-residents, you cannot sign up and play.

Michigan Lottery – Our Verdict

The Michigan Lottery has a captive audience, but it still puts in more effort than we suspect other organizations may do in similar positions. While we often look to competition to prompt casinos to improve, we have to wonder how its governmental origins limit the Michigan Lottery. Perhaps it could open up to new kinds of games or a sportsbook if the state legislature amended its charter. Nevertheless, the lottery’s online outlet is designed to encourage more residents to play the lottery from the comfort of their home, and the data supports that this goal has been met.

Five Things We Love About the Michigan Lottery

While there are several features that we enjoy about the site, our custom is to highlight the five that stand out the most:

• Governmental Origins
  Very few governments provide their own digital outlets for online gambling. We suspect that more may attempt it in the future, but we appreciate the Michigan Lottery’s online presence as a sign of governments loosening up on gambling restrictions.
• Draw Games
  Very few other casinos let you buy tickets for physical draw games, so the fact that you can do so at the Michigan Lottery is a significant benefit.
• Ease of Use
  The layout is simple, and the design is dated, but that works to create a website that is easy to use and navigate.
• Integrated Taxes
  If you live in Michigan, you’ll need to pay taxes on your winnings anyway. The fact that the lottery incorporates the tax form into claiming your winnings online simplifies the paperwork and makes the whole process easier.
• Support for Responsible Gaming
  The Michigan Lottery clearly and openly supports responsible gaming. The simple act of including a link to a responsible gaming hotline at the bottom of the page within a colored box brings extra attention to the resource.

How the Michigan Lottery Could Improve

Ordinarily, this section is about features, but in this case, it may be more accurately called “How the Michigan Legislature Could Update Its Lottery Charter”:

• Allow Non-residents to Play
  There are many players in other states and even other countries who would enjoy the opportunity to buy tickets for the Michigan Powerball and Michigan Mega Millions.
• New Types of Games
  Allow sports betting and online poker. Especially with the latter, the Lottery could start to build more of a community among its players.
• Withdrawal Methods
  At least add in credit cards and PayPal as withdrawal options, since players can deposit using those methods.

Our Michigan Lottery Review Rating

Considering everything, from the limited eligibility and withdrawal methods to the opportunity to play draw games and more, we feel that the Michigan Lottery earns a 3/5 rating. It is trustworthy but very limited. Unfortunately for Michigan residents, there are no other options for online gambling, so it’s still worth signing up if you live in the state and want to find a game to play.