Is Detroit showing the way?
Monday, Nov 19, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Tribune’s restaurant critic has a new piece that makes Detroit’s newest casino look pretty sweet…
Could this be the face of Chicago’s future?
Perhaps. The Illinois General Assembly has yet to grant Chicago a casino license, but the issue is on the front burner. And the MGM Grand Detroit, which opened Oct. 2 to oohs and aahs and a steady stream of gaming-hungry visitors, is precisely the sort of palace that casino advocates envision for Block 37, or any of a handful of other suggested Chicago sites.
Because the MGM Grand Detroit—note the absence of the word “casino” in the official name—is one impressive, $800 million piece of eye candy, loaded with appealing features. A 100,000-square-foot casino floor. An attached 400-room luxury hotel with a 20,000-square-foot spa. Five lounges and bars with tricked-out visual features. And, of course, acres of meeting space.
Most intriguing, at least from my perspective, the complex includes three high-end restaurants by Wolfgang Puck and Michael Mina, two critically acclaimed West Coast chefs who have made a lot of money by opening restaurants in casino resorts. (Puck has five restaurants in Las Vegas and one in Atlantic City; Mina four and one, respectively.)
And running Mina’s two MGM Detroit restaurants is executive chef Don Yamauchi, who has spent most of his career cooking in Chicago (Carlos’, Gordon, Le Francais).
When people think of putting a new casino in Chicago, they tend to think of those smallish riverboats that already dot the landscape here. But Detroit shows that a casino can be much more than a dingy gambling hall. It can be a centerpiece.
* Still, the Tribune editorial board urges caution in the quest for glitz…
We reiterate our approval of [House Speaker Michael Madigan’s] insistence that the integrity of Illinois gambling needs to be protected more aggressively. That’s a demand rarely voiced by most of a Springfield crowd that primarily sees gambling as a way for the state to print dollars by the bazillions.
The pluses or minuses of Madigan’s specific agenda will emerge in the final wording. But Illinois gambling thus far has avoided an industry-killing scandal only because of excellent vigilance by understaffed state regulators — and because of some very lucky breaks in uncovering the scandals that already are part of the public record.
Any expansion of Illinois gambling has to mean much more stringent oversight — and much less influence from this state’s pols.
If not, no deal.
Thoughts?
- Truthful James - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 10:05 am:
Detroit gambling benefits from traffic across the Canadian border for a significant amount of new money into the Detroit economy. I would like to see a car count of traffic on the bridges. Detroit’s airport is a mess. Need to get a passenger count as well. Otherwise, the casino sieves out disposable income from the rest of the surrounding economy.
Everything else in Detroit City is a function of the peripheral cities and towns.
- Levois - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 10:05 am:
Should there be a comparison between Chicago and Detroit for casinos. Detroit is struggling, I would dare say dead, there isn’t much going on there. Chicago is doing better and I would rather a casino not be in downtown Chicago. Even if that part of the city is easily accessible.
- Anonymous - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 10:16 am:
Given that Detroit is now the most dangerous city in America, I’m not sure we want to be emulating it too much.
- VanillaMan - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 10:41 am:
Remember why Chicago exists? It is here because of it’s central location to North America via shipping, railroads, trucking and air. Because of our location, every major US business moved here, and Chicago became home to most national food companies, catalog shipping houses, and major appliances manufacturers. That is why Chicago is here and why it was the second largest city in the United States.
But we stopped trying. Our infastructure didn’t keep up, reinvent itself, or even maintain itself properly. Our airports stopped becoming the vital hubs needed to accommodate 21st Century air traffic. We are still fighting over a third airport after 30 years of needing one. As often happens to successful cities, Chicago sat back and stopped trying, and instead of figuring out new ways to bring in wealth, focused on doling out the wealth it thought would always be there. Take a look at Chicago’s major employers - Chicago doesn’t “work” anymore, instead it consumes. No wonder it is broke.
Gambling is a political solution that solves nothing. It is a short term fix that aged communities reach out to when they have become too divided to unite to focus on long term solutions. Las Vegas knows that gambling is a short term fix too, and that is why it has spent the last thirty years building a city around those slot machines. Las Vegas is an exception, not the rule. Most gambling cities are all facade.
There is something valuable lost when cities like Chicago turn their eyes away from global business development and forget their killer aps. Gambling can be done anywhere - see Laughling Nevada. World-class global cities don’t fall for cheesy quick fixes. They invest in their future, not in casinos.
Chicago shouldn’t need gambling. The fact that it currently feels it must have it clearly demonstrates that our community leaders have far fewer ideas than our city’s forebearers and builders did. It shows not only a bankrupt fiscal situation that was avoidable, worse, it shows a bankrupsy of Chicago’s place among the world’s cities.
Look at the list of cities that depend on gambling and you will see a list of decaying has-beens. Why should we expect our community leaders and governments to invest and strive for improvements when it can get it’s monetary fix off of gambling’s crack pipe? A huge motivator for government investments is the fiscal return for those investments. Like many gambling addicts, we can become too comfortable with the dream of easy riches to stop dreaming.
- Ghost - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 10:53 am:
It is still gambling. it will increase crime and tends to destory lives. it is making money off the vice and addictions of others, and tends to severly impact those with little money to loses. In Peoria, the States Attorney reported increased embezllment and theft as poeple got in over thier heads.
Rewite the image as a drug house or brothel, with giant parlors and wonderful restraunts. Why not open the largest crack house and meth shop in the State. We can have a luxury hotel, fancy food and wine etc. There is a fundamental flaw of dressing up vice in a pretty package. Under the silk we still have a sows ear.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 10:58 am:
Ghost, try to remember that one person’s “vice” is another’s “entertainment.” And I’m not sure an equation of gambling with meth addiction is valid. Gambling at casinos is already legal in Illinois, as is gambling via the state lottery. Meth is illegal in all forms and forums.
- Truthful James - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 11:18 am:
Vanilla Man –
A marvelous comment, sir. The state of the city and the state of the State depend not on the talent of its school leavers who are ill prepared to face a 21sth Century world. It depends upon the continuing circulation of money among the several constituencies to keep each satiated and unquestioning of the political leadership.
Getting reelected is the short term be all and end all of the political class. That is why gambling — a short term fix — is popular. The bulk of the gambling profits come from the bets placed by those without much disposable income — just as with the lottery.
No wonder the Governor wants to pay the health insurance through the middle class, instead of having it use their own money.
Bread and circuses is what the political leadership at all levels of government offers the residents of this country. The governing classes including elected officials and special interest groups prosper. The remainder of us are losing our collective will. Serfdom extends now into the middle class.
- Wumpus - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 11:19 am:
Sweet, The Rod Blagojavich House of Meth!
As much crap as I give CHicago, they get things done (who cares if it is 5x-10x the expense of budget and some of the mayors friends get richer). Theyre is no way that Chicago should get out done by Detroit.
A real casino (or Brothel, house of Meth) could bouy the convention business.
- Greg - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 11:24 am:
Why the objection to gambling? If it’s a vice, it’s also a tax on vice. Gambling, like all entertainment, has a cost for the user.
It’s laughable that state-run lotteries with 40% expected losses are legal, but blackjack tables with 5% expected losses aren’t. Worse, political futures (my bag) with zero expected loss and real economic purpose, are fully illegal.
Perhaps we should make it illegal for people to waste money in general. That may reduce drug use.
- Truthful James - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 11:38 am:
Let me think. Our competition comes from Las Vegas and Orlando. A Casino here will not buoy against Las Vegas. Orlando has year around entertainment outdoor and indoor, although our Mickey Mouse politicians in Illinois compete well against the sites in Disney World, don’t they?
The fact of the matter is that for the present, the City of Chicago and the Authority have a ton of bonds to pay off for the McCormick, etc., and are having to dig into general revenues to do it. The City, its bankers and its revenue forecasters overestimated the tax take from the special district and the special sales taxes.
The economy is not doing its ability to help.
A dedicated revenue stream from a casino will help Chicago out of its hole and help pay the freight, provided that prosperity returns.
Is not the mud getting thicker on the City’s books?
- Fan of the Game - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 11:52 am:
VanillMan brings up many valid reasons why gambling should not be a major revenue stream for neither the city of Chicago nor the state. However, gambling can be a part of that revenue stream.
- Anonymous - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 12:31 pm:
I wonder if there is a correlation between Detroit being the most dangerous city in the United States and their booming casino industry. Funny that Gary is the 17th most dangerous city in the country as well as general location of most Chicago-area casinos. I know these city’s problems predate the casinos but it is hard to argue that any good has come from in those particular cases.
- Truthful James - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 12:40 pm:
I am not a defender of gambling in Detroit, but he danger was ramping up long ago. If you did any business there, after the small downtown, dark after sunset, and the RenCen, there were blocks of burnt out buildings from Devils Night celebrations among other things. GM has kept its headquarters close aboard, but there has been a lot of disinvestment there. So it isn’t gambling’s fault.
It would be interesting to see the tax split which enabled the MGM Grand to build out. Land was probably zero cost. Uniquely, there are two Casino entrances, one from the Hotel and one from the street and the parking. That is probably the only way that guest security can be maintained.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 12:59 pm:
The last time I was in Detroit, the downtown casino (not the new one) was bringing in a bunch of business. The locals told me (not a scientific survey) that gaming has helped revive downtown.
Detroit is not Chicago (thankfully). Chicago already has lots of people downtown during non-business hours (a drastic change from a decade ago), but the theater district people seem to think a casino would do wonders for their business. Take it for what it’s worth.
- Angry Chicagoan - Monday, Nov 19, 07 @ 2:10 pm:
What RIch said. Plus to emphasize, Detroit is such a pit that anything would improve it, especially a casino hotel with three good restaurants. And they can cater to all those gambling-deprived Canadians too, and that is one particular opportunity Chicago really doesn’t have.
Then again, there are success stories with casinos adding in a more or less positive way to already functional downtowns. Duluth, Minnesota comes to mind. But can you translate from a Native American-run casino in a city of 85,000 to a loosely regulated Illinois one in a city of 3 million?