Within a year, 300 new slot machines might illuminate the banks of the Grand River in downtown Lansing if the city’s mayor, Virg Bernero, has his way.
The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, hailing from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., has been in negotiations with the city of Lansing for the past four months to open a casino in downtown Lansing,
sources with knowledge of the negotiations said Friday.
The Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians could not be reached for comment.
Advocates both inside and outside Lansing’s city government are pushing for a temporary casino with 300 slot machines to be located in downtown Lansing within a year, said Ted O’Dell, chairman of the Lansing Jobs Coalition, who has been receiving weekly updates from the city since he headed a petition drive for the casino last spring.
He said the casino most likely would be located in downtown Lansing on the Grand River.
City officials neither confirmed nor denied the developments throughout the weekend, but Bernero said in a statement he strongly supports the idea.
“A casino would create thousands of new jobs and spark even more new investment, adding to the significant momentum we have already created in these challenging economic times,” Bernero said in the statement.
“We recognize that significant legal hurdles would have to be overcome to make it happen.
We stand ready to support a credible effort to build a casino gaming facility if it is the right fit for Lansing.”
O’Dell said advocates of the project also are mulling about the possibility of forging a partnership between the planned casino and The School of Hospitality Business at MSU to give students in the school co-op management opportunities.
Ronald Cichy, the school’s director, said in an email he had not yet been contacted about the plans to incorporate student learning opportunities within the casino.
The timetable — which O’Dell said includes opening a temporary casino within the year, followed by a permanent one in the future — is optimistic, but not impossible, said Eric Bush, administrative manager for tribal gaming at the Michigan Gaming Control Board.
“The process has several criteria that could take several steps,” Bush said.
“It may take anywhere from a year to two years … to get approval.”
Bush said, under the law, tribes are supposed to have owned the land a casino is built on since before 1988, but there are some exceptions that could allow for the construction.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
