Casino Stalker | Opinion

Column: Developer confident on Bay Mills off-reservation casino

Monday, November 22, 2010

"As I wrote a week ago, Bay Mills chairman Jeff Parker and Mike Malik, a casino developer from Detroit, are confident their 17-year effort to open a Port Huron facility will succeed this time around.

Austin, the executive vice president of Acheson Ventures, seems upbeat, too.

"Jeff has this new legal theory, and I haven't heard anyone say he's wrong except for (Washington lobbyist Larry) Rosenthal and a few others who have been against Port Huron all along," he says. "Their opposition is predictable, but if they have anything to back it up, we're still waiting to hear it."

In June 2008, a deal between Bay Mills and Gov. Jennifer Granholm unraveled on Capitol Hill, where the House rejected a casino for Port Huron on a vote of 298 to 121.

This time, Bay Mills isn't seeking congressional approval. Instead, it is testing its legal theory with the opening of a mini-casino in Vanderbilt, a village on Interstate 75 north of Gaylord.

There are reasons to believe Bay Mills might be on sound footing. In New York state, for example, Gov. David Paterson has recruited a tribe from Wisconsin to build a $560 million casino in the Catskills, about 90 miles from New York City.

Two Michigan governors -- John Engler and Granholm -- signed off on a deal settling a 19th century land dispute in the Upper Peninsula. Bay Mills surrendered its 150-year-old claim on the land in exchange for a casino reservation in Port Huron."

Get the Story:
Mike Connell: Acheson's commitment remains strong (The Port Huron Times Herald 11/21)

Another Opinion:
Joseph J. St. John: Border town Port Huron ought to have a casino (The Port Huron Times Herald 11/21)