With Michigan online casino gambling and sports betting slated to go live any day now, users are already being encouraged to sign up with operators in the state.
As usual, FanDuel, one of the biggest players in the domestic online gambling space, is offering MI players a couple of welcome promotions to get them started whenever their betting portal actually goes live.
And they are wimpy.
Seriously.
Here’s what one of America’s biggest Internet casinos and sportsbooks are offering to ring in the new year and to herald the new era of legal Michigan gambling: a $50 risk-free sports bet and $50 in casino credits with all the requisite rollover requirements you expect.
Got that?
There is, of course, another catch: You must be at least 21 years of age to play online casino games or bet on sports with local Michigan Internet operators.
This is a comically bad deal, folks.
Contrast this offering – which is getting huge buzz in the news – with the standard, everyday betting bonuses offered by the top international casinos and sportsbooks:
- Bovada: $3000 Casino Welcome Bonus, $250 Sports Welcome Bonus, 100% Poker Welcome Bonus
- Slots LV: $5000 Casino Welcome Bonus
- Café Casino: $1500 Match Welcome Bonus
- Ignition Casino: $1000 Casino Welcome Bonus, $1000 Poker Welcome Bonus
- BetOnline: $3000 Casino Welcome Bonus, $1000 Sports Welcome Bonus, $1000 Poker Welcome Bonus
- MyBookie: $750 Casino Sign-Up Bonus, $1000 Sports Sign-Up Bonus
- SportsBetting AG: $3000 Casino Welcome Bonus, $1000 Sports Welcome Bonus, $1000 Poker Welcome Bonus
- Xbet: $300 Casino Sign-Up Bonus, $500 Sports Sign-Up Bonus
Of course, there are plenty of other bonuses available, too.
You can claim refer-a-friend bonuses, account reload bonuses on fresh deposits for every market, and even enhanced Bitcoin betting bonuses that effectively double all of the above free-plays.
And, as the icing on the cake, you only have to be 18+ to access any of these reputable gaming and betting sites.
Back to the domestic scene, it seems that this half-hearted promo stuff is a growing trend in the emerging local gambling markets throughout the United States.
Players are sold on the idea that their domestic providers offer good deals, boast convenient and robust access, and are quite literally the only places to play.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
For starters, every single one of the international sites listed above have been serving MI resident gamblers for years, and they are all reputable and time-tested gaming operators.
The 18 and up online casinos we recommend have more games than domestic MI venues can ever hope to provide, all developed by the top names in the RNG casino gaming community.
Similarly, the 18+ online sportsbooks that many of these operators feature have more betting lines – on more sports – than any domestic Michigan bookmaker can provide.
For example, if you live in MI and want to bet on eSports, entertainment odds, politics, and other niche markets, the only place to play is offshore.
Plus, with MI’s massive sports presence, you’re going to get skewed odds that always overvalue and underpay on hometown or regional favorites when gambling with local operators.
Since 18 and up online sports betting sites based outside the US take action from all around the country, you don’t have to settle for subpar odds. You’ll literally make more money placing the exact same bets when you do so at an international sports betting site.
And if you want to play online poker with players from all over the USA, well, you’ve only got one option: offshore.
Look, we understand.
For people who are unaware that online casino gambling, sports betting, and 18+ poker have been legal for years with international operators, the fact that states like MI now have local options is certainly exciting.
But they’re really not the best options available.
You get comparatively miniscule promotions to choose from, you have to be at least 21 years old to sign up, you have to download and update dedicated apps for each individual device, you can’t use crypto like Bitcoin or Litecoin, and you can’t wager when you’re outside of state borders.
If you’re between 18 and 20 years old – or if you just want more freedom, more bonuses, more deposit options, more games, more betting odds, more poker tournaments, and more convenience – offshore browser-based gambling sites are the answer.
And they always will be.
Michigan – and every other state – is 20 years behind the times.
They may not step their game up, but you can certainly take yours to the next level by playing internationally.