Forty percent of Detroit casino sold for $100M

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A retired Michigan banker opening a Detroit-area horse track in July says he will pay 0 million for 40 percent of the Greektown casino in Detroit. The owners need the cash to meet overdue income-to-debt ratios set by the Michigan Gaming Control Board.

Jerry Campbell’s offer was in fact announced days after the April 30 deadline GCB had set for the Sault Ste. Marie tribe to raise at least $79 million to match the board’s 2007 income benchmarks for the tribe’s commercial casino. GCB, which had threatened a forced sale of the casino if the tribe failed, was due to consider the proposal and needed approvals at a meeting last month.

The payment from Campbell’s Entertainment Interests Group LLC in Bloomfield Hills will include $21 million “to pay off former stakeholders,” one report said. Several small investors hold about 10 percent of the property.

But the proposed purchase was thrown into question in May when the Michigan Gaming Control Board gave Greektown a mid-June deadline to complete the sale.    

Greektown is the last of Detroit’s three casinos to be building permanent facilities state law requires. While some observers note that it is having cash-flow problems, they say it is profitable.