Coin dealer Burton’s trial set for February 10 for gambling away customer’s money

By Pat Maurer
Correspondent

Matthew Joseph Burton, 52, a coin dealer and business owner in Isabella, Clare and Bay Coun-ties, is facing a “settlement conference” January 24 and a trial beginning February 10 in Isabella County for “false pretenses.”
The owner of Jack of All Trades and Collectables in Mt. Pleasant, now closed, and other stores formerly in Clare, Bay City and Evart, is charged with taking customer’s money meant to buy pre-cious metals and gambling it all away, reportedly to the tune of more than $5 million dollars.
Following a lengthy investigation by the Michigan State Police, he was charged with multiple fel-ony counts of false pretenses in October, including:
*False pretenses of $100,000 or more, a 20-year felony;
*False pretenses of $20,000 to $50,000, a 15-year felony; and
*False Pretenses of $1,000 to $20,000, a five-year felony.
The State Police began an investigation into the allegations in October of 2023.
According to multiple articles published last fall, Investigators learned that in January of 2023, Burton allegedly took $127,000 from one customer to purchase gold and silver, but eventually left the state without providing the metals.
When a state trooper contacted Burton, he reportedly said the gold market was “tight” and that he was waiting for his supplier to provide the gold, records said. The trooper investigating the matter found that the gold supply at the time was high and the long wait was “unreasonable.”
Burton was also under investigation by Mt. Pleasant Police and the Isabella County Sheriff’s Of-fice while the State Police investigated complaints.
The Mt. Pleasant City Police reported that an alleged victim took 77 coins to Burton’s Mt. Pleasant business last January to sell 77 coins. He was given a check for $1,432 by an employee who veri-fied the transaction with Burton. The check bounced, leading to the False Pretenses of $1,000 to $20,000 felony charge.
The ICSO investigation concerned a complaint that Burton, back in July 2022, allegedly took $70,337 from a customer to buy gold coins but only provided him with $10,000 worth of coins, telling the customer that the rest of the gold coins would arrive in several weeks, according to court records. The coins were not delivered.
The MSP investigation revealed that Burton may have been gambling with his customers’ money for several years, and by checking his Casino Player’s Card at Soaring Eagle, discovered that he allegedly had been using money from the businesses to gamble, records said.
In fact, in October of 2023, the Casino records show that he was at the Soaring Eagle every day except two in that month, where he reportedly spent between $5,000 and $100,000 in slot ma-chines.
The Casino records proved that was true, showing that Burton spent $5,188.046.04 on slot ma-chines, cashing out $4,235,304.96, and losing almost $1 million dollars.
An October, 2024 article, posted on “Casino.org,” said he was charged October 28th with “sever-al counts of felony, false pretenses related to his failure to honor purchase agreements with custom-ers at his two businesses, Flying Eagle Coins in Bay City and Jack of All Trades in Mt. Pleasant.” His Evart business was not mentioned. He opened the Jack of All Trades in Evart in August of 2014.
That article, posted October 29, said the Michigan State Police began investigating Burton in Jan-uary of 2023, launching the investigation that month after receiving a report from a 72-year-old man who said he had given Burton $20,000 for gold and silver and only received $9,665 in gold and silver with a promise that the rest would be paid to him in silver. Months later, despite efforts to contact Burton, he still hadn’t received anything except excuses, like blaming a Covid illness for example, although the customer said Burton made Facebook posts while he was in a suite at the Lions game…”living large on my dime,” the 72-year-old told police.
On the same day that Burton was given $20,000 by the 72-year-old, records show he put $33,000 in the slot machines at Soaring Eagle.
Several other customers at Burton’s businesses have claimed they are owed between $1,400 to $60,000 and were given checks by Burton, which bounced.
In December of 2023 a lawsuit against Burton by Lionheart Funding was filed, alleging “breach of contract.”
Burton, a Clare native, and two partners first opened Jack of All Trades in downtown Clare in April 2012. The business was renamed Last Life Games and Main Street Cable & Satellite and moved next door to Woods household in June, 2013.
In 2015, Burton sold his partnership in the business and opened Jack of All Trades in Mt. Pleas-ant.
Burton and his wife were also the owners of Gateway Lanes in Clare for a few years, purchasing the long-time Clare Business from the Gross family in June of 2017. The landmark business in Clare was destroyed by fire December 3, 2023. It had been closed for some time, and had just been renovated and reopened by the Gross family when it burned.