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Whitmer has yet to announce a reopening date for the Detroit casinos. Some tribal casinos within Michigan have already reopened. Only MotorCity flung open its doors to one and all Wednesday at 10 a.m., and eager gamblers from southeast Michigan flocked to the property. Cars lined up outside Detroit’s MotorCity Casino on the first day of reopening. Michigamblers excited to resume normal betting lives. DETROIT (FOX 2) - For nearly five months, the normally-packed Motor City Casino has sat empty because of COVID-19. Now employees are getting tested and precautions are in place as the casino gets.

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A line of cars wrapped around the block Wednesday morning in Detroit, from the entrance to the MotorCity Casino Hotel on Temple Street to three-quarters of the way down the next block on Grand River Avenue.

For the first time since March 16, a Detroit casino was open to the public. Two miles away, at the Greektown Casino, a security guard said he heard the queue of vehicles at MotorCity stretched “all the way to New York.”

Motor City Casino Reopening

MotorCity, Greektown, and the MGM Grand Detroit all reopened to differing degrees on Wednesday, after an executive order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer permitted the city’s three commercial casinos to welcome guests, following a months-long shutdown meant to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

MGM restricted access to invite-only VIP customers for its first two days of operation and will begin admitting the general public Friday at 10 a.m. Greektown opened Wednesday morning to VIP gold-card holders and to the public at 2 p.m. Only MotorCity flung open its doors to one and all Wednesday at 10 a.m., and eager gamblers from southeast Michigan flocked to the property.

Michigamblers excited to resume normal betting lives

“It’s about time,” said Jean Manz, from St. Clair Shores, who explained that she was relieved she no longer had to travel to the Hollywood Casino in nearby northwest Ohio. “We’ve been driving to Toledo.”

For Detroit residents without access to private vehicles, however, the option of driving an hour south to Toledo or two hours west to the FireKeepers Casino in Battle Creek wasn’t an option. “If I knew how to get down there, I would’ve been there,” said Sandra Bell. “I couldn’t go anywhere else.”

And after months of locked down storefronts and social distancing, Bell said she was dying to return to the casino, sit down at the penny slots, and kibbitz with fellow bettors and casino employees. “Just being around people,” Bell said. “To sit around, have a good time — I missed it so much.”

Although mobile casino gaming and sports betting was approved by the Michigan legislature last December, online gambling remains unavailable, while the state waits for the Michigan Gaming Control Board to finalize implementation rules and grant approval to individual operators. The rollout is expected late this year or early next, but Bell said she would have welcomed the opportunity to play legal, online casino games during the brick-and-mortar casinos’ hiatus. “As long as if I win, I can get paid!” Bell said.

Limited capacity, health protocols in effect

“We have invested considerable time and effort to prepare for an opening with our highest priority being the health and safety of our employees and guests,” said MotorCity Casino President Bruce Dall in a statement released shortly after Whitmer signed last week’s executive order.

Those preparations were obvious, given the considerable time and effort it took for MotorCity guests to get into the casino Wednesday morning. One reason for the line of cars snaked around the block outside the casino was that guests had to pass a drive-through temperature check and mask inspection to gain access to the self-parking lot. Once visitors had parked, they had to line up at the casino entrance for a second mask check and to flash their IDs. For many who arrived Wednesday around the 10 a.m. opening time, the entire process took close to 30 minutes.

Inside, safety protocols included hand sanitizer stations set up throughout the casino floor, plexiglass partitions between slot machines, and limited seating at table games, with plexiglass barriers separating players at blackjack and baccarat tables from each other and from the dealers. For now, smoking is prohibited on the casino floor, and more cocktail waitresses appeared to be wearing face shields than not.

Motor City Casino Poker Room Reopening

A few feet away from the roulette tables, a MotorCity pit boss could be overheard reinforcing the safety regulations for her craps dealers: “If someone walks up to your table wanting to play, the first thing they have to do is use hand sanitizer.”

The one aspect of Detroit’s reopening that differs from casino comebacks in other states and at Michigan’s tribal casinos is the strict 15% capacity limit imposed by Whitmer’s order — the lowest reported occupancy cap in the nation. When casinos reopened in Atlantic City, N.J., last month, they ran at 25% capacity. Meanwhile, Hollywood Casino in Toledo is operating at 50% capacity, and some of Michigan’s tribal casinos told the Detroit Free Press that they will admit up to 80%.

If the 15% limit remains in place for a long period of time, it could present business challenges to the Detroit casinos. Industry analysts, however, said they believe the capacity restrictions could be raised to something closer to 50% once the casinos can demonstrate their safety measures are effective.

“I think they’re all planning on a ramp to something far north of 15%,” said Alex Calderone, managing director of Calderone Advisory Group in Birmingham, Mich. “They’re in the baby-step mode right now, and the name of the game is, prove that they can open responsibly and without any significant outbreaks at 15%. Then, gradually move up from there.”

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Casino

DETROIT (WXYZ) — Until there is a COVID-19 vaccine, casinos in the city of Detroit will likely not fully re-open, according to Mayor Mike Duggan.

'I think we’re a long way away — six months or a year — from seeing it operate the way it used to,' Duggan said Wednesday at his daily press conference, following up on statements he made to the Detroit News' Nolan Finley Tuesday with regards to the city's gaming future.

RELATED: MGM Grand Detroit expects long-term layoffs due to COVID-19 crisis; 2,632 employees affected

Motor City Casino Detroit Mi Reopening

'It costs us $600,000 a day,' he continued. 'I haven’t complained about it a single day because the health of the community is more important than revenue coming in.'

In 2019, the city brought in $184 million in wagering taxes and development fees from the three casinos — nearly 20 percent of the city’s general fund.

Motor City Casino Reopening Date

To soften the blow, the city is turning to it's rainy day fund of $107 million. Additionally on Tuesday, City Council approved cuts to workforce, transit and blight-elimination spending, amounting in $348 million in savings.

This sort of budget shuffle is happening across the country, according to Michael Pollock, the managing director of Spectrum Gaming Group, a non-partisan research and analytic firm.

'There is an obvious sense that because most casinos are getting zero revenue at this point in time, it puts enormous pressure on the operators, the employees, as well as on state and local governments,' he said. 'Enormous pressure.'

While the economic pressure is obvious, Pollock brings up one major unknown. Even if casinos did safely re-open, would people go?

Motor City Casino Reopening

'The real unknown is going to be what is the demand going to be,' he said. 'There will be a small element of the gaming public — maybe a large element of the gaming public — that may not return until they feel confident to a point that a vaccine would take them.'

In the interim, Pollock said some states are considering tax relief for the gaming industry. While he concedes this may seem counter intuitive — especially when tax revenue is already being lost — it could help ensure success down the line.

'It may take some combination of factors including tax relief to return that normal time,' he said.

The casinos have been closed since March 15.

Greektown, which is owned by Penn National Gaming Inc., said it had to place a large majority of its employees on furlough April 1, but will continue giving health benefits thru June.

MGM Detroit is providing two weeks of pay for its furloughed full-time employees and part-time hourly employees, and maintaining health benefits thru August for those on its 'MGM Resort' health plan. The company also has an emergency grant fund with over $12.5 million.

'MGM Detroit looks forward to continuing to work with state and city government and health officials to implement a phased reopening at the appropriate time and in a manner that is consistent with Federal, state and local guidance,' Jocelyn Kelly a spokesperson with MGM Resorts wrote in a statement Wednesday.

Motor City Casino, owned by Marian Ilitch provided the following statement:

'We look forward to reopening MotorCity Casino and welcoming back our employees and guests in a safe and secure manner. An extensive and comprehensive reopening plan is being developed, which incorporates CDC, city, county and state guidelines. We remain in regular contact with city, state and gaming officials, and look forward to their continued direction, guidance and assistance.'