Michigan gambling regulators discuss temporary casinos in Detroit

The Michigan Gaming Control Board made that clear Thursday, suggesting the issue requires research that could take months.

"The statute is silent about temporary casinos - it says nothing about them," gaming board chairman Thomas Denomme said during the regulatory panel's meeting in Detroit. "We only stress that the licensing process is going to take time - how much, we don't know."

While suggesting the gaming board appeared amenable to licensing temporary casinos in Detroit, Denomme cautioned that developers already building interim sites without state approval "do so at their own risk."

"It's a business decision they're electing to take," he said.

MGM Grand has plans for a temporary casino in a former Internal Revenue Service building. Atwater/Circus Circus wants to put one in a former Wonder Bread plant, while the Greektown/Chippewa Indians group wants to use Trapper's Alley in Greektown.

Each of those developers has submitted to Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer their proposals for temporary casinos, which ultimately must be endorsed by the City Council before being considered for state licensing.

But Denomme said the council has imposed an all-or-nothing caveat: Unless each of the proposals for the makeshift sites pass the city's muster, none of them advance for state licensing consideration.

Each developer last month won city approval to build permanent casinos near the Detroit River, when - and if - they meet the gaming board's licensing requirements.

Each prospective licensee must undergo state background investigations, including checks for felony convictions or other disqualifiers, in seeking permits both for temporary and permanent casinos.

On Thursday, Denomme said the gaming board's paramount concerns include ensuring that any would-be temporary casinos are indeed temporary.

"We do not want to have permanent temporary casinos," he said. "We want to move through the temporary phase as fast as we can and get to the permanent casinos, which is what the voters approved."

To that end, the gaming board's Paula Blanchard suggested the regulators draft restrictions on how long temporary casinos may operate.

Regardless, Thomas Wilson Jr. of Detroit told the board that any Detroit casino could stem "the giant sucking sound" of traffic heading to casinos in neighboring Windsor, Ontario.

"We are not even getting crumbs," he said. "All we're getting is gas fumes from cars backed up at the (Detroit-to-Windsor) tunnel."

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