MI Business Owner Charged With Swindling Up To $5M To Gamble

Matthew Joseph Burton, 52, a coin, jewelry, and precious metals dealer from Bay City, Michigan, is accused of defrauding money from his customers and gambling it away to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

In other Michigan-related news, the state recently sent cease and desist notices to other offshore casinos. 

More on Burton

On Monday, Burton was charged with several counts of felony false pretenses for failing to honor purchase agreements with customers at his businesses. 

Burton owns Flying Eagle Coins in Bay City and Jack of All Trades in Mt. Pleasant. 

There were multiple instances of Burton taking money from his customers in exchange for metals but never giving the customers what they wanted. 

According to court documents, he gambled nearly $5 million at Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant. 

When Police Started Investigating

The investigation into Burton began in January 2023 after he allegedly took $127k from a customer for metals. According to prosecutors, he left the state for over a year and still didn’t fulfill the orders. 

The Bay County Sheriff’s Office started investigating him after a 72-year-old man reported paying Burton $20k for gold and silver. The man did get $9,655 worth of gold and silver and was promised the rest would be paid in silver. 

The man never received the silver. 

“There is always an excuse,” the man told police. “He was saying they were closed because he had COVID or something … On Facebook, Matt is posting pictures in a suite at the Lions game, so he’s living large on my dime.”

Police then learned that Burton regularly visited Soaring Eagle. They pulled his Player’s Club reward card to see his gambling history. 

Burton Gambled Plenty

After reading his reward card, he played slots to the tune of $5,188,046.04, cashing out $4,235,304.96. He lost about $1 million. On the same day, he got $20k from the 72-year-old man and spent $33k on slots. 

In October 2023, except for two, he visited the casino nearly every day. His daily spending ranged from $5k to $100k per police. 

“A look into Matthew Burton’s Soaring Eagle Casino Player’s Card suggests that Matthew is using the money from the pawn shop gold sales to gamble with,” authorities said.

Numerous other customers are ranging from as low as $1,400 to $60k. According to court records, Burton gave them checks that bounced. 

Burton will appear for preliminary hearings in Isabella and Bay counties’ district courts on November 8 and 22, respectively. 

The charge of false pretenses of $100k or more carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.