"Michigan has 17 casinos, including three in Detroit, several in the Upper Peninsula and a string of them up and down the west side of the state. There are casinos just about everywhere in Michigan except the Thumb.

More casinos are on their way. A look:

• This week, a $160 million casino is scheduled to open at New Buffalo in the extreme southwest corner of the state. The state's 18th casino, owned by the Pokagon band of the Potawatomi tribe, is creating 3,500 jobs. The 124,000-square-foot gaming hall reportedly includes 3,000 slot machines, 85 table games and a poker room with 19 tables. The development off Exit 1 of Interstate 94 also features a 160-room hotel and six restaurants.

• Last week, the Legislature gave preliminary approval to Gov. Jennifer Granholm's deal with the Gun Lake band, another branch of the Potawatomi nation. Plans call for a 198,000-square-foot casino with 2,500 slots and 80 table games in Wayland Township, about 20 miles south of Grand Rapids. It is expected to create 1,800 jobs.

Meanwhile, efforts to bring a casino to Port Huron plod on.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, and Rep. Candice Miller, R-Port Huron, introduced a bill in early May seeking congressional approval of a deal struck five years ago between former Gov. John Engler and the Bay Mills Chippewa.

The Stupak-Miller bill was sent to the House Natural Resources Committee, where it has the support of the panel's Democratic chairman, Nick Rahall of West Virginia, and the senior Republican, Don Young of Alaska.

Usually, if a committee's leaders support a bill, its prospects are excellent. Not so in this case, where it appears someone has bottled up the Port Huron measure.

I have been told that's the work of Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, who in the past has received generous support from the Saginaw Chippewa, owners of the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant."

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Mike Connell: Casinos, casinos - everywhere except Port Huron (The Port Huron Times-Herald 7/29)