Michigan regulators say they are just days away from giving launch authorization for legal online gambling and online sports betting.

Even though more than a year has passed since the Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer legalized internet gambling and sports wagering in December 2019, regulators have needed time to create rules and ways to monitor and license the new virtual platforms.

Some lawmakers initially thought that online betting could go live as early as last March, but that didn’t happen. In-person sports betting did begin in Michigan just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but quickly went dark.