LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan businesses and the government are hauling in the green due to what some would call the bad habits of the residents of the state. Michigan’s marijuana industry has reported record revenues for July with more than $276 million in adult recreational and medical use cannabis sales and they expect $3 billion in revenue by the end of the year.
According to MJBizDaily, Michigan is projected to rank second only to the state of California for the year in terms of cannabis sales – and the more cannabis that is sold, the more money the state of Michigan takes in as well. In 2022, the state brought in $325 million in tax revenue from medical and recreational sales.
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But smoking weed isn’t the only habit that the Michigan government makes a profit from. They have also made billions from gambling – and more recently from the state’s online casinos. According to the Michigan Gaming Control Board, they have collected about $2.5 billion from Detroit casinos and internet gaming, internet sports betting and fantasy contest operators for Michigan’s School Aid Fund during since the agency came into existence in 1997.
Just for the month of June alone, the online casinos made a whopping $151 million. According to PlayMichigan.com, June’s numbers have put Michigan’s all-time online casino revenue past $3.6 billion dollars. They say it also pushes the lifetime tax revenue dollars from online gambling revenue over $930 million.
Even though Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer was not a fan of legalizing online sports bettering and casinos, she eventually signed off to the legislation at the end of 2019 and is probably happy she did. At the time, she had said, “My top priority in signing this legislation was protecting and investing in the School Aid Fund, because our students deserve leaders who put their education first.”
Back in September of 2019, when Michigan’s Brandt Iden was pushing the gambling proposal as a Michigan Representative, he predicted that an amount like $151 million would be the gross revenue for an entire year, not just one month. The financial windfall for the state is thanks to the increase in internet casino revenue which is growing by leaps and bounds compared to sports betting which has only increased by about 8%. WLNS-TV6 also reports that while the big three casinos in Detroit are down in their foot traffic, the losses are offset by the revenue gains from the internet.
Of course, when we’re talking about sin taxes and the money being made off the habits of Michiganders, we certainly can’t overlook cigarettes.
The excise tax on cigarettes is $2 per pack of 20 cigarettes in Michigan (or 10¢ per individual cigarette). Plus the 6% sales tax that is acquired from smokers.
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With Michigan having a high amount of smokers in what Truth Initiative, a nonprofit health organization, calls “Tobacco Nation,” it looks like the money will continue coming into the state coffers as well as from Michiganders who enjoy spending their time with a blunt and a casino app on their phone.
