Michigan state Rep. Matt Hall, an election denier and now House minority leader, placed more than $2,200 in bets a day on an online gambling website, according to a new report.
A Democratic source provided Rolling Stone with screenshots showing the Republican legislator's account on the Action Network sports gambling website, where he placed roughly $73,000 in bets for a net loss of $9,000, with most of that activity happening within his first month of opening the account in January 2018.
The amount Hall wagered in those 33 days is more than the entire yearly salary of a state legislator, which at that time was $71,685. The bets were made eight months before he was elected and nearly two years before Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legalized gambling into law in December 2019.
“This accusation, stemming from before Leader Hall was even in the Legislature, is blatantly untrue,” said Greg Manz, spokesman for the Michigan House Republican Campaign Committee.
“Sadly, Rolling Stone would rather employ tabloid tactics, act as liberal activists, and do the bidding of feckless House Democrats, than practice journalistic integrity," the spokesman added. "Michigan House Democrats, who fielded their weakest recruitment class in decades, reek of desperation because come January 2025 when Leader Hall is Speaker Hall, they will no longer be able to dole out corporate welfare, raise taxes on working families, and keep low-income students trapped in failing schools.”
Hall's gambling habits have been previously reported after his then-girlfriend called 911 in September 2019 to report that he was driving dangerously fast in a rush to place bets across the state line in Indiana.
“Maybe you shouldn’t gamble so much,” the girlfriend said in a recording she made of the incident, and Hall reportedly told her to "shut up."
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Hall initially refused to take his girlfriend home, saying his gambling was more important, and after he eventually dropped her off police recommended charging him with domestic assault, malicious destruction of property, and interfering with a 911 call for damaging her phone, but he was never arrested.
The state legislator said that getting legalized sports gambling passed was one of the main reasons he had run for office, but shortly after he was elected he invited Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to testify about false election fraud conspiracy theories in a lengthy hearing lampooned on "Saturday Night Live."
Hall's gambling history was revealed after a data breach at the Action Network site he used to track his bets across five separate sports books.
