Michigan Woman Step Closer To Collecting Disputed $3.2 Million From BetMGM

A Michigan online casino player has won a major battle against BetMGM at the Michigan Supreme Court.

Jacqueline Davis won a 7-0 decision in her efforts to collect $3.2 million from playing the casino’s Luck O’ the Roulette game.

Davis said she spun the wheel over a period of five days, at one point getting up $11 million. She lost a good chunk of it back but stopped while up the $3.2 million.

She then swung by MGM’s Grand Detroit casino to pick up her winnings, was given $100,000, and claims she was more or less told to get lost as the casino asserted that her winnings were the result of a malfunction in the game.

“They say it malfunctioned, but they really don’t have much evidence as to what actually happened,” said attorney Mark Granzotto, who represented Davis in the appeals portion of her lawsuit, according to a Detroit News article.

Days later, BetMGM reported the alleged malfunction to the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB), and it found the company to be in violation of a pair of state regulations. BetMGM failed to notify the MGCB immediately of the issue, and it didn’t notify Davis of her rights to submit a complaint to the board.

Lawsuit unsuccessful at first

Davis sued and saw her case dismissed in Wayne County Circuit Court in 2022. She lost at the state’s Court of Appeals by a 2-1 margin a year later.

The state Supreme Court, with its ruling, sends the case back to the Wayne County Circuit Court.

“In gambler’s parlance, plaintiff went on a ‘heater’ of epic magnitude,” wrote Michigan Supreme Court Justice Brian Zahra in the court’s 26-page opinion. 

According to the Detroit News article, BetMGM argued the courts lack the jurisdiction to rule on the case and that all such disputes can only be handled by the MGCB.

“The rules and [Davis’] contract [with BetMGM] make abundantly clear that a malfunction will void all winnings,” BetMGM lawyer Norman Ankers argued in April before the state Supreme Court, according to the News, “and therefore, her remedy is to go before the MGCB to determine whether, in fact, there was a malfunction.”

To get to the Supreme Court, Davis’ attorneys argued that she had no legal way to challenge BetMGM.

“She has no remedy,” according to the appeal application. “The casinos in Michigan, both online and in person, can commit fraud against a patron with impunity. This could not possibly have been intended by LIGA (the state’s Lawful Internet Gaming Act). This could not possibly be the law in Michigan.”