Michigan Radio & TV Buzzboard

The Jobbie Nooner is held on Gull Island, just barely inside the US border, with easy access to Canada by boat.

Is this a tactic to avoid enforcement of various laws?

Are there many islands that can accomodate it?
They need an unpopulated island, one large enough to hold a ton of people, and one where tresspassing laws are not heavily enforced.
It would seem like very few islands check all the boxes.

It didn't start out there. It started in one of the bays and then a few years later migrated to the island. Until recently when the DHS put a camera up there, no one really cared about the island and it was far from population so they weren't bothering any neighbors.

There is PLENTY of LEO presence when this is going on. The USCG anchors a ship and large barge in the river right there that all the different LEO agencies use as a base. You have MC Sheriff, SCC Sheriff, USCG, DHS (both Border Patrol (green stripe) and Border Protection (blue stripe)) all keeping an eye on the place.

Although it is on the border, you have a H*** unpopulated island (Seaway) and the whole Walpole Nation between Gull and 'the rest of' Canada.

The island really doens't function as anything other than a location. Most of the folks are walking in the water between all the boats, just like at the Raft Off later in the year.