Detroit Casinos Help State Coffers

On September 11th, 2007, the Rev. Kevin M. Turman from the Second Baptist Church has come to accept the presence of the Greektown Casino facility in their neighborhood. Turman said that he believes that the casino will have a bad effect on the morality of the residents in the area. But the casino is paying out taxes that are a great help for their community.

While the casino is not the final solution to the city's problems, it has helped the city on its time of need. After, the first temporary casino facility opened almost eight years ago, the crime rate in the downtown area decrease about 1,000 incidents over the past five years while economic development in the area increase tremendously.

A spokesperson for the Mayor commented that the casinos were never intended to jumpstart the economy but they are happy with the ongoing development right now in the region. Next month, the 1st three of the luxury hotel facilities will open their doors as part of the casino's $1.5 billion investment to build a permanent complex.

The MGM Grand Detroit casino, the Greektown Casino and the MotorCity Casino will construct 1,200 additional rooms to the downtown casino and feature more than 220 gaming tables and about 8,000 slot machines.

American Gaming Association spokesperson Holly Thomsen said that the casinos have a lot of potential to attract more visitors if the casinos became a casino/resort style tourist destination.

Detroit placed 5th in the casino industry in terms of yearly profit at $1.3 billion. The Las Vegas strip casino market placed 1st in the casino market at $6.6 billion in yearly profits followed by Atlantic City in 2nd place at $5.5 billion. The Las Vegas strip hosts more than 274 casino facilities and Atlantic City hosts more than 11 casinos.

Since the opening of the casinos in Detroit, it has contributed over $1 billion to the state's treasury and made 7,000 jobs which helped keep the unemployment rate in the state from soaring up. The Detroit unemployment rate was 8.4% last month still above the statewide percentage of 7.2%.

19 September 2007
News Submitted by:
Jack Silverman

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