A-Rod Gambling Investigation Raises Questions About Tiger's Baseball & Ilitch Casinos

With rumors circulating Alex Rodriguez took part in high-stakes underground poker games at a Beverly Hills mansion, Major League Baseball reportedly has him under investigation.  So, blogger Maury Brown (bizofbaseball.com) gives us a quick history lesson on MLB and gambling:  From A-Rod to the MLB Itself: A Brief History of Gambling and Casinos in Baseball. 

Here’s how Brown explains Detroit Tigers owner Mike Iltich’s gambling ties:

Illitch and the Wink-Wink Relationship to Casinos

MLB does not allow owners to be involved in direct ownership of casinos, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t nepotistic ways to get around it.

Case in point, Mike Illitch, the owner of the Detroit Tigers. While he’s not a casino owner, his wife Marian, is. In 2005, she became the owner of Detroit's MotorCity Casino. Since then, Mike Illitch’s wife has made minority investments in casinos across the country including the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and Little River Casino Resort in Manistee, MI. Ilitch has partnered with the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Hampton Bays, New York to develop a recent casino in New York. Ilitch also a partnered with Barwest, LLC and Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians to develop casinos in Barstow, California.

Detroit casino to benefit from Obama stimulus package

According to blogger Brian Darling at HumanEvents.com; the Obama stimulus package includes:

"$1.5 million to improve the parking garages and roads surrounding the Greektown Casino development in Detroit."

Detroit's Greektown Casino filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection back in May. Greektown Casino, one of three commercially operated casinos in Detroit, is owned primarily by the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

Tom Celani, a former founding partner in Detroit's MotorCity Casino along with Marian Ilitch and Michael J. Malik, Sr., tried to buy controlling interest in Greektown Casino back in January, according to a story published in the Detroit News, but that transaction was never consumated.

But now, according to BackRoomNews.com:

"Tom Celani, a Bloomfield Hills businessman and investor, is trying to buy Greektown Casino in downtown Detroit.

Celani, who was an initial investor in Motor City Casino, has partnered with a Connecticut-based hedge fund called Plainfield to bid for Greektown, which is being marketed to buyers through bankruptcy proceedings.

Celani says he expects he is among up to four bidders interested in the casino, which generates $300 million a year in annual revenue. Celani would not disclose the amount of his bid.

'I understand the property very well … I’ve been in the casino business for 20 years. Gaming is what we enjoy,' Celani said. 'I’d love to do it in my hometown.' "

Posted 6.26.08 by blogger Rep. Charlie Dent (R - PA 15th) at The Hill's Congress Blog:

Tribal Casino Expansion Only About Money

Tribal casino expansion is out of control. This week we voted on a bill, HR 2176, that would create Indian governmental entities—tribal casinos—on lands that are more than 300 miles from the homelands of these tribes. Creating a far-flung string of casinos on lands with no connection to a tribe’s heritage was not the intent of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).

Establishing these off-reservation casinos has absolutely nothing to do with the preservation of Indian culture. It is about money, pure and simple. Twenty years ago, before IGRA, there were no tribal casinos in this country. Now there are more than 400, and tribal gambling is currently a $19 billion a year business.

That is why I have introduced HR 2562, the Limitation of Tribal Gambling to Existing Tribal Lands Act of 2007, which would preclude new casino development on lands that are taken into trust as part of a settlement of a land claim. That bill was inspired by the efforts of a tribe located more than 900 miles from Pennsylvania to force home- and business owners in my District off their properties just so yet another tribal casino could be built.

IGRA was designed so that Indian tribes could be self-sustaining, not so that business interests could create gambling empires. It’s time to protect property rights and rein in this abuse.

Turtle Talk posts '02 & '07 Bay Mills Indian Community settlement agreements

on 2.08.08 the blog Turtle Talk has posted the following:

Granholm Amendment to Bay Mills Charlotte Beach Settlement
As reported earlier, here is the amendment to the Bay Mills Indian Community settlement agreement executed last November.

• Bay Mills Indian Community 2002 Settlement
• Bay Mills Indian Community 2007 Settlement Amendment

Gannett news outlet acknowledges impact of TheVerifiableTruth.com

as published in Gannett's Port Huron Times Herald 1.27.08:

Article published Jan 27, 2008
Casino foes are well-heeled

...The Verifiable Truth
The Verifiable Truth, a 14-month-old Web site, is relentless in its criticism of casino developers Mike Malik and Marian Ilitch.

Aides to Malik said they suspect the site is the work of lobbying firms and wealthy Indian tribes that wish to block potential competition from poorer tribes. They suggested the site is too professionally done and is privy to too much insider information to be the work of an unpaid grassroots group.

In an e-mail, Web site spokesman Frank Lee wrote: "There are no lobbying firms associated with TVT. TVT has not received funding from any tribe. The Ilitch/Malik machine will say anything in order to create a boogeyman to blame for its own circumstances."

Lee also described The Verifiable Truth as "a collection of citizen volunteers from around the country who have seen the Ilitch/Malik machine at work and who wish to ensure that the public has all the information that the Ilitch/Malik machine fails to disclose, share or effectively supresses."

It's difficult to ascertain the truth. Frank Lee apparently is an pseudonym, and the people who run the site have not revealed their real names or affiliations.

Myers posts letter rejecting Los Coyotes tribe's Barstow casino proposal

From a post made 1.07.08 by John Myers of KQED's Capitol Notes:

Another big blow was struck late last week against the embattled plan for tribal gambling in the desert city of Barstow, as federal officials rejected the land applications of two out-of-the area tribes.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of the Interior rejected requests from both the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians and the Big Lagoon Rancheria to open side by side casinos in Barstow.

The casino plans are contingent on the land being taken into trust by the federal government as Indian land. But in a letter from assistant secretary for Indian affairs Carl Artman, each tribe's proposal was rejected on the grounds that a casino far away from the actual Indian reservation would have a negative impact on the community back home... (Full Post)

Myers has also posted a copy of the letter the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians received from the Department of Interior rejecting the casino resort the tribe had proposed for Barstow in partnersip with Detroit-based casino syndicator BarWest LLC.

Senator indicates "great deal of opposition" to Shinnecock proposal for Aqueduct

Blogger David M. Quintana at Lost in the Ozone... posts:

State Senator Serphin Maltese clarified that both he and other local elected officials, such as Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer, are committed to have racing continue at Aqueduct.

The senator briefly commented on recent reports of a Shinnecock Indian group proposing to bring a casino to the Aqueduct site by saying that their offer wasn’t considered to be realistic.

“That’s not expected to happen,” he said. “Quite honestly, there was a great deal of opposition [to that]. Nobody knew what it would do. We were very apprehensive about the fact that other casinos [in] the surrounding areas have deteriorated [because of] their problems with prostitution, homelessness, vagrancy and vandalism.”

Maltese expressed his wish that a casino group in good financial standing step forth to offer their services to run Video Lottery Terminal operations.

Red Wings went ahead with Gambling Tournament at MotorCity Casino

Posted by blogger George James Malik (no relation to Michael J. Malik, Sr.) 11.25.07 at Snapshots:

Although unrelated, it's worth noting that while the flak the Ilitches received for staging a "Texas Hold 'Em" tournament at Motor City Casino which included a $500 donation to play at a table with several Red Wings--mostly because the tie-ins with casino gambling are a "no-no" for NHL teams--the tournament, held on November 5th, did in fact happen. The Red Wings simply never mentioned the results thereof.

Marian Ilitch owns MotorCity Casino and along with her husband Mike Ilitch she co-owns the Detroit Red Wings. An earlier announcement about the poker tournament was pulled from the Red Wings official Web site.

TVT experiences highest traffic day following cancellation of Natural Resources Committee hearings

Following today's announcement that the House Committee on Natural Resources would not hear proposals for two off-reservation casinos planned for Michigan, TheVerifiableTruth.com (TVT) had some 550+ visits; creating the highest traffic count in a single day experienced by TVT since we first began publishing the blog almost one year ago (11.27.06).

Among those visiting the Web site today were readers from the Dykema Gossett and Dickinson Wright law firms, the Bay Mills Indian Community and various other tribes, Canadian Indian Claims Commission, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, U.S. House of Representatives, St. Clair County, U.S. Senate Seargant at Arms, Marketing Resource Group, Singer PR, Harrah's, Gannett, Ang Newspapers, various lobbying firms around D.C., Roll Call Newspaper, Detroit Media Partnership and hundreds of others from throughout Michigan and elsewhere in the U.S.

TVT's success this past year is due in no small part to the scores of individuals from across the country who have forwarded or confirmed "tips" and materials to us and the 20,275+ who've visited TheVerifiableTruth.com.

Blogger raises reasonable doubts about Shinnecock plan for Aqueduct

Blogger Alan at Left-at-the-Gate makes this post regarding the Shinnecock/Gateway proposal for a casino and hotel at New York's Aqueduct Racetrack:

Casinos other than racetrack VLT parlors are illegal in the state, unless built on land owned by a tribe that is recognized by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. Although the tribe has been recognized by a federal judge, the bureau has yet to follow suit, saying a decision might not be made until 2014.

The bureau has said it can't get to the Shinnecocks' case until 2009, and that a decision couldn't be made until five years after that. [Newsday]

Yeah, the wheels of government turn slowly alright, unless its funding a failed war. The tribe is awaiting a court's decision on their plan to build a casino on Eastern Long Island, but even a favorable decision would be subservient to their federal tribe status. However, according to the News' report, should the court rule that they have the right to build that casino, the tribe would try for a global settlement with the state and feds — giving it tribal recognition and making the land around the racetrack reservation property.

The proposal calls for over 10,000 slot machines as well as a full array of table games; and would have nothing to do with operating the racetrack. The Shinnecocks have no experience with running a casino, but they have a willing partner in Gateway Casino Resorts. That company is run by Marian Ilitch, the wife of Detroit Tigers' owner Mike Ilitch, who, of course and according to major league baseball rules, has nothing at all to do with his wife's business! Of course, you can find all you need to know about the Ilitch clan over at The Verifiable Truth. Gateway operates the MotorCity Casino in Detroit, a venture which is apparently having some problems of its own.

Blogger decalres its "The End of Hockeytown" ... Ilitch not fan friendly

blogger YzerFan19 posted The End of Hockeytown on 10.06.07 at DetroitHockey.Net:

...The ticket prices are far from the worst but they're not good, either. Yeah, you can get tickets for $22 or even $9 if you go to the box office but the $44+ tickets are the vast majority of seats. And the exhibition prices are the same as regular season. Last week I took my dad to the Wings-Leafs exhibition, seats were at center ice but were the last row in the arena, right in front of the press box. Total cost, $100 (Ticketmaster charge included, but not parking).

That kind of thing p*sses the fans off. The Wings came back from the lockout and their big thing was "Look, we're not raising ticket prices!" Aside from the $9 seats that I can't get because I live in Lansing and it's not so easy to just hop down to the JLA box office, they haven't lowered ticket prices (even just to raise them again) since the lockout. It's like they didn't even try to make it up to fans.

And some of the more embedded (or embittered) bloggers will also point out that the Wings' organization is extremely media-unfriendly. The beat writers basically have to spew what the team tells them.

Their website is awful. Their only official fan communication is through a $40/year subscription site that they don't even take the time to update (I paid my $40 twice and then figured out how to hack their forums, so I feel better that they're not getting my money for that sh*t anymore). The players aren't accessible to fans (unless you pay $500 to enter the Hockeytown Hold'em Poker Tournament that just happens to be at the casino owned by the Ilitch family)...(Full Post)

Boston Globe reporter's background feature on Mashpee Wampanoag's Middleboro casino proposal

The Middleboro Recall has posted a terrific background feature written by Sean P. Murphy of the Boston Globe on the proposed Masheepee Wampanoag casino. (Full Post)

...At about two in the afternoon on April 27, Jack Healey opened bidding on the 120-acre property once owned by Daniel Striar. A couple of dozen folks had gathered in the domed Middleborough Town Hall. When a man in a neat leather jacket and casual slacks offered the minimum bid of $1.5 million, heads turned. He was unfamiliar to people in the room. His name was Jason Wilson, general counsel of Strather & Associates of Detroit. Herb Strather, a Detroit-born businessman who had built a fortune investing in real estate and casinos, had funded the Mashpee Wampanoag with millions of dollars during its drive for recognition, and then gone into partnership with Kerzner and Wolman to back the tribe’s effort to open a casino.

By law, abutters had to be individually noticed of the auction by mail. One abutter, Richard Beal, happened to be in the real estate business. Beal stepped up with a bid $5,000 over Wilson’s. But Wilson had been instructed not to come home without the 120-acre parcel, a representative of the casino developers told me. “We needed to control that parcel for our plan to work,” the representative said. “We couldn’t afford to have another player involved.”

The competition wore on, with 31 bids in all.

“One million, seven hundred and sixty-five thousand,” Wilson finally said.

Silence.

“Sold,” declared Healey.

It was only after the auction, Healey told me, that he realized that it was a representative of the casino developers who had successfully bid on the property.

I called Marshall, the tribal chairman, on his cell phone a few hours after the auction. He said the casino developers were already in discussions with Healey and other town officials, and that the talks had predated the auction. “We’ve had a couple of good meetings,” he told me. “We’re still negotiating.”

Healey was only eight weeks from hanging a “gone fishing” sign on his career and retiring. But what a whirlwind six weeks it would be. ...

Original Post: Big money and tough times forces Middleborough's hand

Detroit-based casino developer convicted of bribing a police officer among Gov. Deval Patrick's donors

posted 9.18.07 at the Scotto Bloggo:

Only in Massachusetts...

...The question of casino gambling is hardly new to Massachusetts, but when confronted with the inevitability of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe building a casino in Middleboro, the Massachusetts government quickly hustled in to get a cut of the action. Massachusetts either gets a significant piece of the action or Massachusetts won't allow it. Overnight, Governor Deval Patrick went from having no opinion about legalizing casino gambling to supporting the legalizing licensing of three casinos in the state. Coincidentally, Detroit casino developer Herb Strather, a key financier of the Wampanoag tribe's activities and a convicted briber, was a maximum donor to Patrick's campaign last year...

Detroit casino developer Herb Strather, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe's first and most visible investor, was arrested on a bribery charge in 1977 for trying to buy off a police officer in Michigan, according to a 1997 report in the Detroit Free Press.

Strather was previously one of the founders of MotorCity Casino and a partner of Marian Ilitch and Michael J. Malik, Sr.

Editor apologizes and recognizes City's Brown Act violation; raises questions about what else has been going on

as posted 9.18.07 at the Desert Dispatch blog "The Editor's Desk:"

Who watches the watchdogs?

It looks like I owe Manuel “Gil” Gurule an apology.

He called me at the end of last week about the casino happenings (and lack thereof) in Sacramento. His intention was to point out to me that the meetings between the governor’s staff and four City Council members may have been a Brown Act violation. The Brown Act is California’s public meeting law, which is intended to make sure that local governmental meetings and decisions (with some exceptions) happen in a public forum, with the community appropriately notified.

I blame casino outrage fatigue for not listening, though it’s really a lousy excuse. City Council members aren’t supposed to gather in large enough numbers to define a quorum — three or more in this case — without public notification of the meeting. Their meeting in Sacramento is most likely a Brown Act violation, though they amended the situation by reporting out the content of the meeting at the subsequent City Council meeting Monday.

I was dismissive of Mr. Gurule’s call, because I’ve grown tired of folks on both sides finding ways to pick pick pick at their opponents and trying to get the newspaper involved. I’ve also been made increasingly aware by our readership that most folks out there don’t care about the squabbling, just the results.

But while this particular Brown Act violation was fairly mild — they were just there to receive information, it appears, not to plan anything — there are potential serious repercussions when this happens. What other meetings could have taken place in Sacramento without our knowledge?

Could there have been strategy sessions to deal with opposition to one project?

Could they have discussed dumping the city’s agreement with one tribe or the other? These are all potential discussion subjects that are obligated to happen in public.

So I apologize for letting my frustration with the nature of this debate cloud my perception about what is happening in Sacramento. Gurule was absolutely right to be concerned and I appreciate his call, in retrospect.

Blogger has written comprehensive history of Hockey in Detroit

posted 8.28.07 at Articlesbase.com:

History of Hockey Town

By Ann Knapp

In Hockey Town, there's only one team to root for -- the Detroit Red Wings. The team currently resides just a luxury sedan or limo ride away at Joe Louis Arena, located in downtown Detroit. Here are some team historical highlights...

Taxpayers picked up $400k bill for Tigers new seats; next day Ilitch paid $525 million for casino

from the March 19-25, 2005 archives of BallPark Digest:

Taxpayers foot bill for Tiger seats

Posted March 20, 2005
Financially strapped Wayne County is picking up $400,000 of the total $1.2 million needed to add 900 seats to the right-field bleachers at Comerica Field, the home of the Detroit Tigers. The team will pick up the rest of the cost; the project is expected to be completed by Opening Day. The deal irritates some fans and taxpayers, especially since it came one day after Marian Ilitch, the wife of Tigers owner Mike Ilitch, bid $525 million to become the sole owner of MotorCity Casino.

A Detroit News reader survey at the time indicated:

The Wayne County Commission has decided to pay $400,000 toward the cost of adding 950 seats to Comerica Park. Do you support this expenditure?

Yes 14.55%
No 85.45%

Casino approvals a humbling defeat for Labor

6.28.07

Analysis: Lawmakers' approval of casino expansions a humbling defeat for organized labor

By Peter Hecht
Bee Capitol Bureau

Analysis
As state lawmakers Thursday voted to allow four of California's richest casino gambling tribes to add a total of up to 17,000 new slot machines, the vote was a humbling defeat for organized labor.

Before the final vote, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez declared that he had extracted verbal promises that unions could organize workers on tribal lands. But securing the last-minute statements - which have no force of law - was merely a face-saving gesture for many Democratic lawmakers long allied with labor.

The result left Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, fuming. Even before the final vote, Pulaski put out a statement saying Legislature had "abandoned California's 100,000 current and future casino workers who now risk languishing among the working poor."

Unions have long been a muscular power player in the Democrat-controlled Legislature. But this time, labor's intense campaign to force union-friendly provisions on the tribes lost mightily in the face of the tribe's soaring political influence - and financial clout - in the Capitol.

Pacing outside the Capitol, Pulaski said lawmakers had caved in out of fear that "money from those casinos will be spent against them" in election races.

"You have to make a choice between the power of money and the authenticity of the grassroots people," he angrily said. "Because the people always win."

But this time, at least for people who are union activists, the tribes won in a rout. (Complete Story)

Map of Malik's proposed Harsens Island housing development failed to include all the adjacent property it appears he controls

The editor of the Harsens Island news blog has discovered that an illustrative map of Michael J. Malik's proposed 348-unit housing development previously published in the Port Huron Times Herald (see bottom) does not include designation of another 50 acres or more of semi-contiguous property that's also owned by Michael Malik's Lucky 7 Development LLC.

recently created by the editor of the Harsens Island news blog

As previously reported here, Lucky 7 Development LLC owns 8 parcels of land on Harsens Island in St. Clair County, Michigan. A significant portion of those lands are known as the former "Boys Club" property. A decade earlier Malik and another partner had proposed a marina development for the property.

The editor of a Harsens Island news blog mapped those eight properties (see above) in comparison to a map previously printed in the Times Herald (see below) and discovered that three of the eight parcels owned by Lucky 7 Development LLC are not included in the illustrative map the newspaper published. The news blog reports the three unincluded parcels represent approximately 50 acres.

While the Times Herald had reported as part of a story anticipating an upcoming public forum that the project was simply a "condo development;" in fact, 2/3rds of the property in the proposed development appears to be dedicated to a man-made lagoon surrounded by 75 single family home lots and 96 townhomes or "detached condos" built in clusters of six; the remaining units would be located in multi-story buildings on the back 1/3rd of the property. The lagoon feature would include a canal with unobstructed access to the North Channel of the St Clair River and a clubhouse is positioned on the point of an island in the lagoon.

It's not clear how the Times Herald came to obtain or created the map previously published; neither the map nor the related stories are available on-line at the Times Herald any longer. But certainly the developer or his associates must have at least been consulted on the map given the level of details and may likely have even provided the newspaper with the graphic.

previously published in the Times Herald

Political blog suggests tribe's Sacramento PR stunt may be last ditch effort

posted 6.28.07 at CapitolBasement.com:

...Meanwhile, two more tribes that signed a compact in 2005 aren't getting any attention. The Bee's Peter Hecht reports:

"The Los Coyotes tribe and a Northern California partner -- the Big Lagoon Rancheria in Humboldt County -- have been trying to persuade lawmakers to approve a deal to allow them to build side-by-side gambling resorts in Barstow that would total 200 hotel rooms and more than 2,000 slot machines.

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed gambling compacts with both tribes in 2005, hoping to keep Big Lagoon from opening a casino on a pristine coastal estuary while also giving Los Coyotes an economic opportunity in the depressed Mojave Desert town.

"But despite Schwarzenegger's declaration May 31 that he still stands solidly behind this "unique collaboration," the Barstow casino development is getting nowhere in the Legislature -- which must ratify gambling compacts signed by the governor.

"So Kupsch brought her trailer -- an 8-by-13-foot metal hull with a rusted stove and wooden slats for bunk beds -- to the Capitol. For 2- 1/2 years, without electricity or running water, Kupsch, her husband and three children lived in the trailer on the Los Coyotes reservation."

Four of Five Tribes sign side deals with Schwarzenegger; Assembly still must ratify Compacts but not new MOAs

posted 6.27.07 by John Myers at KQED's Capitol Notes:

Governor, Tribes Sign Side Deals

After weeks of private meetings and negotiations, Governor Schwarzenegger has signed agreements with four politically powerful Indian gaming tribes that are effectively side deals to the formal casino compacts negotiated last year.

The agreements, technically known as 'memoranda of understanding,' (MOA) are between the state and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, and the Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians.

The side deals have been a hot topic of discussion for some time, and have been seen as the key to getting the renegotiated casino compacts through the Legislature. Those compacts have been stalled in the Assembly on issues that have-- at one time or another-- ranged from organized labor criticisms to the auditing powers of casino profits.

In recent days, the buzz has been that the deals were about to be struck, with much of the heavy lifting done by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. But that buzz has always focused on the MOAs and how they would need to be approved by both chambers of the Legislature.

This afternoon's announcement makes it clear that these are "government to government" agreements between Schwarzenegger and the tribes. So... do they need to be ratified by the Legislature?

The governor's staff admits that while technically they don't need a legislative blessing, the governor is seeking to have them approved in the Assembly and Senate. And advisers say legislative approval will make the legality of the MOAs that much more certain.

This is no small issue. In fact, it would seem quite possible that legislators... who have, at times, strongly disagreed with the content of any tribal side deals... could just take a pass on the MOAs and let them take effect without any formal votes. That would certainly sidestep, among many issues, the thorny problem of labor union opposition to both the MOAs and the revised compacts.

The side deals' most important provisions pertain to the auditing of slot machines and other Vegas-style casino games... a process that was thrown ito question by a federal court ruling that seems to have taken auditing power away from the National Indian Gaming Commission. The MOAs say that the tribes will continue to maintain standards that are no less strict than those the NIGC has been imposing.

It should be noted that the other big gaming tribe with a pending compact in the Legislature, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, did not agree to sign the new MOA.

The new side deals are expected to be up for discussion tomorrow morning in a legislative hearing.

Full details on the MOAs are here.