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Michigan regulators recently searched a Muskegon bar. They seized three suspected illegal slot machines and $5,074 combined in cash and gift cards tied to unlicensed gambling payouts.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board executed the warrant at DJ’s Pub, 2064 Henry St. It worked alongside the Michigan Attorney General’s Office and the Muskegon Police Department.
Investigators also took the bar’s business records. No arrests have been made. The investigation remains open.
How the tip turned into a warrant
A tip reached the MGCB in January. It alleged DJ’s Pub was running unlicensed gaming machines and paying out winnings in cash and gift cards.
Agents visited the bar multiple times over the following months. They witnessed the machines operating to build a case solid enough to take to a judge.
DJ’s Pub is operated by Star 8, Inc. This is not the business’s first run-in with state regulators. The Michigan Liquor Control Commission cited the bar in 2021 for violating the state’s liquor control code over illegal gambling on the premises. That case did not involve a search warrant or the Attorney General’s Office.
Part of a bigger push
The Muskegon case lands in the middle of a statewide crackdown that has picked up speed this summer. MGCB agents raided a game room in Adrian in June, seizing 52 machines and $8,715 in cash and 20 gift cards.
That same month, agents searched the Red Horse Bar in Saginaw Township. The two co-owners there now face felony charges that carry up to 10 years in prison.
DJ’s Pub has not been charged with anything. The Muskegon seizure is smaller than either of those cases. But the pattern behind it – a tip, months of surveillance, then a joint warrant with state and local police – is the same one that led to charges in Saginaw Township, said MGCB Executive Director Henry Williams.
“Illegal gambling machines operate with no oversight, no consumer protections, and no accountability. When we receive credible information that a business is running unlicensed gaming devices, we act on it.”
Anyone with information about suspected illegal gambling in Michigan can call the MGCB’s tip line at 1-888-314-2682. Tips can also go to MIGamblingTip@michigan.gov, though that inbox is not anonymous unless the sender says so in the email. A separate online form takes anonymous written tips.
The state has several retail casinos and also has a vibrant Michigan online casino industry.
