Michigan Woman Can Sue BetMGM Over $3M Roulette ‘Glitch’

• Supreme Court says Davis can sue BetMGM for winnings
• Lower courts and Gaming Board dismissed her claim initially
• Alleged $3M win came from capped fixed-odds roulette game

A Detroit woman who believes BetMGM owes her $3 million from a five-day winning streak in 2021 will have her day in court.

A panel of Michigan Supreme Court judges determined unanimously (7-0) that Davis should be permitted to sue BetMGM in the circuit court.

Previously, she had found herself stuck in legal limbo when the lower court and state court of appeals both said she should take her complaint to the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) instead.

But the MGCB argued it didn’t have the authority or resources to settle civil disputes between players and casinos, it merely regulated gaming and issued disciplinary penalties, which it declined to do in this case.

Astronomically Improbable

Davis claims at one point she was up around $11 million during her one-woman roulette-a-thon on BetMGM’s “Luck O’ Roulette” fixed-odds game in March 2021. By the time she had dropped down to $3 million, she figured it was time to quit while she was still a multimillionaire.

The problem was, Luck O’ Roulette is a game with modest limits, 10 cents to $25 bets, with winnings capped at 100x the bet. To be up $11 million, she would have to hit the max payout at least 4,400 times, while almost never losing. While not mathematically impossible, this is astronomically improbable.

Davis claimed that she went to the MGM Grand in Detroit to get a $100K advance on her winnings, which she received in cash.

MGM later said Davis could keep the $100K if she signed a confidentiality agreement to not talk about the glitch, according to court documents. If news of the glitch ever got out, she would have to return the money, according to filings. Davis sued for fraud and breach of contract.

Legal Pathway

Davis claims BetMGM has produced little concrete evidence of a glitch, and argues that even if one had occurred, it would not be a valid defense.

The operator is required to check its games every 24 hours as a condition of its licensing. Since Davis played for five days straight, there was ample opportunity to fix any technical issues, but they weren’t acted on, she argues.

Justice Brian Zahra, writing for the court, said that online gambling is a relatively new legal frontier in Michigan and that the common law must evolve to address the rights and responsibilities it creates.

“We would be remiss not to acknowledge that this shift in public policy may give rise to new rights under the law,” he wrote.