What does Marian Ilitch see in Mike Malik?

What does Marian Ilitch see in Mike Malik (Michael J. Malik, Sr.) other than millions of dollars of her family's money being flushed down the drain?

For more than a decade Malik's found some way to convince Marian Ilitch to invest millions in her family's fortune on his various casino schemes. O.K. so she's now the owner of Detroit's MotorCity Casino -- presumably an opportunity originally brought to her by Malik and his associates -- but Malik has failed in every effort to develop a new casino since then:

• Failed to legalize gambling in Hawaii and build a proposed casino resort on Oahu;



• Failed multiple times to get state or federal approvals for various schemes to build Indian casinos in Barstow, California;



• Failed to make any meaningful progress on a scheme to build an Indian casino in the posh Hamptons resort on New York's Long Island; and today,



• Failed for the seventh time in ten years to win congressional approvals for a scheme manufactured for the opportunity to build an off-reservation casino in Port Huron, Michigan.

In fact, the only success Malik has with casino resort projects dates back to the 1990s when he worked with a partner, Tom Celani. On the other hand, Celani has gone on to greatly expand his interests in casino and resort projects across the U.S.