At What Age Can I Gamble in Michigan?

• 21 years of age for the Downtown Detroit Casinos (Greektown, MGM, and Motor City) [Michigan Gaming Control and Revenue Act]
• 18 to 21 years of age for the Indian Casinos across Michigan [the age requirement varies by casino see American Casino Guide’s breakdown by casino]
• 18 years of age for the last remaining horse race track in the state Northville Downs [Michigan Horse Racing Law]
• 18 years of age to purchase a Bingo ticket [Michigan Bingo Act]
• 18 years of age to play the Michigan Lottery [Michigan Lottery Act].

The Michigan Lottery is not your grandfather’s lottery anymore 🙂  In addition to making draw game purchases (Mega Millions, Powerball, …) you can play all kinds of instant games from your smartphone.  It’s really the only legal online gaming option available across Michigan.

Start playing in minutes – our complete startup guide (contains a link to the maximum startup bonus).

Can You Buy Lottery Tickets with a Debit Card in Michigan?

Yes, you can.  If you are 18+ years old and a Michigan Resident located within Michigan, you can purchase lottery tickets online through the Michigan Lottery’s website.

Debit Cards Supported

The Michigan Lottery supports deposits for ticket purchases from Visa, Mastercard, and Discover Debit Cards.

• Generally the first deposit needs to come from a bank issued debit card, but readers have reported being able to use prepaid debit cards on future purchases (especially after registering the card online).
• A bank issued debit card not in your name may require additional verification that you are authorized to use the payment source.

Full List of Supported Deposit Types

To see a full list of all supported deposit methods see our quick start guide.

Use a Debit Card in Store?

Sometimes.  Some Michigan Retailers will allow you to use a debit card to purchase Michigan Lottery tickets in store.

The Michigan Lottery used to indicate which retailers accepted debit cards with an icon within their retail locator tool.  I think this functionality may be coming soon after the recent website upgrade.

Looking for a fun Michigan Lottery Online Instant game to try out?

Of course fun is fairly subjective but we thought we would give it a try because it might be a helpful starting point when looking for a new game.

We maintain an up to date list on our games page, within the Exotics table, sortable by the Fun column.

As of June 2018:

The Most Fun Michigan Lottery Online Games

The above is a sample, the full set of Fun Score 3 Games currently includes 20 games.  See the Games Page for the full set.

Scoring System

This is our Fun Scoring system:

• +1 Baseline Instant Online Game
• +1 Extra Fun Theme
• +1 Multiplier
• +1 Bonus Games
• +1 Complex Game Interaction
• +/-1 Arbitrary Fun Point (plus or minus one)

Perhaps this system reminds you of the scene from Dead Poets Society, NEIL: “… Question 1 rates the poem’s perfection; question 2 rates its importance … then calculating the total area of the poem yields the measure of its greatness.”  KEATING: “Excrement … Rip out the entire page”

But perhaps this scoring system might help you find games with elements that you enjoy playing.

We’ll soon ask for reader feedback on the most fun Michigan Lottery Online Instant Games.

Best of Luck!

If you enjoy Sports Gambling, have you ever considering playing the Michigan Lottery Online?

Perhaps the connection isn’t that strong 🙂

But the title follows in our post series:

• From Bingo to the Michigan Lottery?
• From Horse Racing to the Michigan Lottery?
• From Slots to the Michigan Lottery?

with Slots probably the most like the online instant games currently offered by the Michigan Lottery (and with Bingo quite similar to the Keno games offered).

The lottery does offer sports themed online instant games: Home Run Riches, Instant Football Payout, and Slapshot, but these games are quite different from traditional sports gambling.

With the recent Supreme Court decision allowing states the opportunity to legalize sports gaming, could sports gambling be coming to Michigan?  And might the Michigan Lottery help regulate it?  If that works out it could be quite fun to make a wager on your favorite team from the convenience of your Online Michigan Lottery Account.

How Many Tickets Can I Play at a Time on Michigan Lottery Online Instant Games?

Looking for max action – the ability to play the most tickets per click (per round)?

We built and maintain an up to date list on our games page, within the Exotics table, sortable by the Max Tkts column.

As of June 2018:

Michigan Lottery Online Instant Games with the Most Tickets Per Round

Best of Luck!

Now that the Michigan Lottery has five Cash Buster Games:

• Cash Buster
• Super Cash Buster
• Cash Buster Towers
• Cash Buster Extreme
• Cash Buster Bonus

in the popular Cash Buster Family/Franchise of Games, we thought it might be fun to compare the games.

The Metrics

We pulled the following numbers from our games page.

The Basics

Super Cash Buster is definitely the winner on top prize, while Cash Buster Extreme has the lowest per round cost.

The Numbers

A slight edge in payback goes to Cash Buster Extreme, while a slight edge in winning percentage is held by Cash Buster.

Cash Buster Bonus has the lowest standard deviation which should result in the smoothest ride (consistent smaller prizes), while Super Cash Buster might be best for going big.

The Exotics

Super Cash Buster has the highest multiplier rating (MFx), while Cash Buster Extreme contains the most bonus games.

And here’s a table of the number of rolls per Cash Buster game:

Game	Rolls
Cash Buster	8
Super Cash Buster	7
Cash Buster Bonus	6
Cash Buster Towers	5
Cash Buster Extreme	1

Beyond the Numbers

One unusual element of Cash Buster Bonus is that it has no opportunity to win a free roll (while the four other Cash Buster games do).

Earlier Cash Buster games only busted within a zone, while later generations tend to take the full board into account.

Final Words

I don’t think we can pick a Cash Buster winner.  Each game is great in its own way!

What Michigan Lottery Online Instant Games Have the Most Ways to Win?

As of June 2018 here is a sampling of Michigan Lottery Online Instant Games that have at least 3 ways to win:

Up to Date Data

Our games page has up to date data on all the current Michigan Lottery Online Instant Games.

The latest Ways to Win data is available within the Exotics table and is sortable by the Ways to Win column.

Scoring Criteria

You could count the number of ways to win in a whole lot of ways, we counted by the number of winning forms:

• +1 Main Winning Method (Number Match, Symbol Match, Line Form, …)
• +1 For Each Subgame
• +1 If Bonus Game(s) Exist
• +1 If Instant Win Symbol(s) Exist

Good Luck!

Looking for an easy game for some quick play or perhaps a more advanced game?  We have scored all the Michigan Lottery Online Instant Games based on how easy they are to learn to play.

We maintain an up to date list on our games page, within the Exotics table, sortable by the Complex column.

As of June 2018:

Easiest Michigan Lottery Online Games to Learn

Most Advanced Michigan Lottery Online Games

Scoring Criteria

Complexity can be subjective – this is our scoring system:

• +1 Baseline Instant Online Game
• +1 Multiple Ways to Win (not including bonus games) [because of the need to track multiple winning conditions]
• +1 If Bonus Game(s) Exists [because of the need to learn multiple games]
• +1 Complex Line Builder Game
• +1 Complex Configuration Interface

We believe higher scoring games may take a little bit longer to get comfortable with, but no need to avoid them as the game will lead you through all the action.  And more complex games can be more fun!

What Michigan Lottery Online Instant Games Have Bonus Rounds?

A lot of Michigan Lottery Players enjoy bonus rounds – bonus games that get unlocked during main game play.

So we built and maintain an up to date list on our games page, within the Exotics table, sortable by the Bonus Games column.

As of May 2018 this is a list of Michigan Lottery Online Instant Games that have at least 2 bonus games.

What Michigan Lottery Online Games Have the Smallest Variability?

For the stat heads out there we recently added standard deviations for all the Michigan Lottery Online Games to our up to date game page.

Simply sort The Numbers table by the Std Dev column by clicking on the Std Dev column heading.

Here are the five games with the lowest standard deviations (as of May 2018):

What Michigan Lottery Online Games Have the Largest Variability?

Clicking on the Std Dev column again will sort the column in a descending order.

Here are the five games with the biggest standard deviations (as of May 2018):

The Standard Deviation metric does appears to be greatly influenced by the top prizes, so we plan to add another metric in the future.  But perhaps these metrics may offer some value value to you.

Note: These rankings currently exclude the Online Keno games (where variability varies by the number of numbers selected).  Standard Deviation calculated at the $1 ticket level.