Ilitch backed NY casino at Aqueduct race track would be 4.5 times larger than MotorCity Casino

Since 2003, Marian Ilitch has been bankrolling plans by the Shinnecock Indians – they have yet to be recognized by the federal government -- to build a 65,000 square foot casino resort in The Hamptons on Long Island.

But now, the Ilitch backed tribe has come up with a new scheme: to build a 495,000 square foot casino at New York’s Aqueduct race track (more than 7.5 times larger than the casino plan announced for Long Island). The Aqueduct scheme is reported to rival two of the country’s largest Indian casino resorts: Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods.

Marian Ilitch was 25% partner in the original MotorCity Casino venture which opened in 1999 in Detroit. She acquired all outstanding shares of MotorCity Casino from MGM Mirage/Mandalay Resort Group and other minor investors in 2005 to help facilitate the merger of the two Las Vegas gambling conglomerates. Since then MotorCity Casino has undergone a $275 million renovation and expansion and the new MotorCity Casino has 100,000 square feet of gaming space according to Wikipedia. The Aqueduct proposal would be 4.5 times larger than MotorCity Casino.

Marian Ilitch and her husband Detroit Tigers/Red Wings owner Michael Ilitch hosted a fundraiser at their Detroit headquarters for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign in August. The event was reported to have raised as much as $345,000 for Giuliani’s campaign.

The Ilitch family and their casino syndication partner have personally contributed nearly $1 million to political campaigns in recent years.

Ilitch and partners have paid some of the most influential and most controversial D.C. lobbyists more than $3.5 million to push various Indian casino proposals since 2002.