FORBES highlights Ilitch patriarch; family $ interests; betting on casinos

10.09.06
The Forbes 400
Encore
Mark Tatge with
Miriam Gottfried

Mike Ilitch has backed losing sports teams and pizza before it was dinner fare--and mostly won big. But casinos in Detroit?

. . . The Ilitches placed their first bets a decade ago by backing a referendum to legalize gaming. (It passed.) To give form, if not substance, to a Major League Baseball rule banning joint ownership of baseball and gambling, Marian, who owned none of the Tigers, bought a 25% stake in MotorCity and held it separately from the other Ilitch businesses. Mandalay Resort Group ran the casino and was the majority partner. But last year Mandalay needed out because it was merging with MGM Mirage, which had to trim its casino assets in Detroit. To acquire 100% of MotorCity, Marian, long considered the family's financial brains, borrowed $950 million: $300 million in junk bonds, yielding 8%, and $650 million in fixed- and variable-rate bank debt.

There is little room for error. . .

Whatever the long odds, Marian has already shelled out around $10 million to buy up land and explore management contracts for proposed Indian casinos in Barstow, Calif. and on New York's Long Island. Those iffy projects are still years off.

link to full story: http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/1009/068.html