Oh no! Say it ain't so... Detroit ain't gonna make without Casino money?

[401don]

The quickest and surest way for Greektown Casino to be profitable now and into the future is to dump the Hotel.

A lot of Casinos have overbuilt and this is one of them.

Greektown Hotel probably has the highest occupancy of any downtown property. Have you checked their rates on summer weekends lately? It's location next to the ballparks and in the safest, walkable area for visitors has made it very successful.

[That Great Guy]

I wonder how many dollars worth of economic return the People Mover has generated compared to its cost?

Present day transportation tax proposals in Detroit are a sure Win for the I-94 and I-75 Multi Billion dollar freeway expansions.

I don't think Detroit should Gamble with them. They should be protested.

[Dan Wesson]

Greektown Hotel probably has the highest occupancy of any downtown property. Have you checked their rates on summer weekends lately? It's location next to the ballparks and in the safest, walkable area for visitors has made it very successful.

Occupancy Rates may be great but that is no guarantee that the Hotel stand alone costs are covered.

Hotels are the least profitable side of Casino based resorts and the cost of maintaining them increase as they get older.

There is a reason that Las Vegas tears them down and start over it's more cost effective for a whole lot of reasons you would never fathom.

Many times the Resort as a part of Gaming is for prestige as well as a destination attraction.

It's the slots that bring in the profits.

[downtownguy]

The quickest and surest way for Greektown Casino to be profitable now and into the future is to dump the Hotel.

A lot of Casinos have overbuilt and this is one of them.

I'm not sure they can do that. As part of getting a casino franchise, they each had to agree to build 800 room hotels. When Kilpatrick negotiated them off the riverfront, he also allowed them to scale their hotel requirement down to 400 rooms. I'm not sure, per the agreement, if they can "spin off" a hotel to another entity.

[Zacha341]

Precisely! Gambling is down from what I have read and hear from the folks I know who used to gamble heavy or moderately, who admit to it. I visited two Detroit casinos about two weeks ago and I could see the change from when I used to play [[pay). Thankfully, I have given up gambling as I witnessed the construct depreciate on every level [[payouts, food quality, perks, rewards card benefits) etc.

Aside from the card games, the gaming commission has turned down the percentages of payout on the digital slots and other controllable gambling devices. This is allowable within gaming law I understand. BOTTOM LINE: CASINO GAMBLING is a loosing game [[sic), with little gain for any municipality directly involved or downstream hoping to receive any residual profits which are clearly dwindling.

Welcome to Atlantic City's pain.

[Zacha341]

Well in a way we have a 'synergy' of sorts: A synergism of increased poverty and dissipation as an outworking of several factors [[reckless gambling, dwindling economy, sub-prime lending, drugs, crime, declining population, etc.).

Forward thinking back during the early debate re. the 'salvation' factor, I knew casino gaming [[government enshrined gambling) would be a disaster for the city of Detroit, if not quickly, incrementally. I voted NO at every instance I could only to fall into the trap of gambling myself [[recovered casino gambler 5+ years and counting).

My own [[thankfully short) dissipation into casino gambling only reaffirmed IMO why casinos are buckets of smoke - the chasing therein. Able in some case to capture people who'd have never considered said behaviors otherwise. Gambling - the lure of easy money - initially seems so reasonable and workable: so promising.

I got out before doing any major fiscal harm to myself or my family.

Now how does the city of Detroit get out?

No, no, there has to be some sort of a mistake.
I was promised that the 3 casinos would be the savior of this fair city. This promise came complete with space age renderings on the front page both major papers of what these wonderful casinos would look like.
Archer swore it.
He even used the word "synergy". Many, many times.
So, obviously there is some mistake.

[Zacha341]

You present a wonderfully pragmatic point. So, yep, let us go on down this road and see how that plays out in about three to five years.

Can we start this eh' 'district' your neighborhood first......?

If the market is indeed saturated, which I wouldn't doubt for a minute, then we all know the next step:

Amsterdam.

Red Light district, legalized prostitution and all. Weed cafe's, edibles, hash, you name it. Tax the hell out of all of it. Someone else is gonna do it eventually, we might as well capitalize on it first.

[Zacha341]

Heaven help us from such traditional types and their pals...... But I digress.

To your larger point [[I think and hope - smile), yeah, how's about starting those red light 'districts' in satellite areas thru out the tri-counties. Could not other cities and counties benefit from an infusion of fast money?

I recall years back asking a suburban co-worker why casinos need only be in Detroit. His response was "Well, Detroit's already a 'dump' so why not?!"

Now we're really ready [[dumpier?) for ANYTHING to generate revenue? GREAT!

I'd support it, but you'd have the local religious class and "traditional" civil-rights types campaigning against it, since no one is proposing this for [[fill in the blank: bloomfield, grosse pointes, etc.)