Casino Syndicator Couldn't get a Michigan Gambling License; Yet he's Worthy of a Stanley Cup Championship Ring?

Is Michael Malik sporting a Stanley
Cup Championship ring?

If controversial character Michael J. Malik, Sr. isn't affiliated with Ilitch Holdings, Inc., Olympia Entertainment, Olympia Development, the NHL Red Wings or any of the other Ilitch companies, why is it he apparently sports a 2008 Stanley Cup Championship ring?  His reputation suggests he's a rather dishonorable character but apparently someone thinks he's worthy of an NHL Stanley Cup Championship ring.

Malik, who holds himself up to have been, along with Mrs. Marian Ilitch, one of MotorCity Casino's founders, failed to receive a Michigan gambling license in 1999, reportedly due to character and tax issues; and it was reported Marian Ilitch arranged a buyout of Malik's interest in the casino necessary before the Gambling Commission would allow the gambling hall to open its doors. Not licenseable as a proprietor of a gambling hall but worthy of a Stanley Cup ring?

The terms of his "buyout" with Ilitch have never been revealed publicly. Clearly there's something controversial involved.  However, since being formally pushed out of MotorCity Casino, Malik has made his offices in the executive suites at Ilitch Holdings, Inc.'s Fox Theater headquarters. Some consider him to be Mrs. Marian Ilitch's political bag man and others even say he's her Consigliere.  Certainly he plays "bad cop" to her "good cop."

Despite more than a decade of legal and personal problems that pile upon the reasons he failed to get a Michigan gambling license, it has been reported that Malik is partners with Ilitch in various unfulfilled schemes to build an Ilitch gambling empire expanded to New York, California and Hawaii.

However, because of the often controversial, even illegal, nature of Malik's activities, it's always denied that he's directly affiliated with Ilitch Holdings or any of its venerable subsidiary brands.  Yet he's worthy of wearing a Stanley Cup ring?

No wonder some people he attempts to influence, intimidate or even bully walk away from meetings with Malik thinking he's part owner of the Detroit Red Wings. Or is he? And is that why he's sporting a championship ring?  Was Red Wings ownership a part of the buyout of his MotorCity Casino interests?

Detroit Tigers owner doubled his net worth gambling on casinos

Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Pete Rose and Wayne Gretzky got black eyes or worse; Ilitch gets fat and happy and a virtual pot of gold.


When it comes to Mike Ilitch, owner of the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings franchises, the editors of Forbes magazine estimate he doubled his net worth between 2004 and 2006 with the acquisition of MotorCity Casino and bets on Indian gaming.


As part of the due diligence involved in putting together this year’s list of the “Ilitch Holdings, Inc., IH Gaming, Inc., acquired Circus Circus Michigan (a Mandalay Resort Group subsidiary) and its 53.5% share in MotorCity Casino. Then Ilitch rounded up all other miscellaneous shares giving Marian Ilitch 100% control of MotorCity Casino. Under previous owners, reports on file with the SEC indicate MotorCity Casino was the top operating income producer in a portfolio of properties that included Las Vegas sisters like Mandalay Bay, Circus Circus, Excalibur, Luxor and Monte Carlo.

Ilitch and his wife founded the Little Caesars pizza carry-outs in 1959 and established Ilitch Holdings, Inc. in 1999. Ilitch Holdings, Inc. is the parent to brands like Little Caesars; Detroit Tigers; NHL’s Detroit Red Wings, Fox Theater; Johnny Rockets; Olympia Development; and various management and booking companies overseeing Comerica Park, Joe Louis Arena, Cobo Center and other Detroit sports and entertainment venues; and more recently, IH Gaming Management and IH Gaming Inc. (parent of various Ilitch gaming interests including MotorCity Casino)

Sure Forbes recognized the Detroit Tigers finally had a winning season in 2006 but that didn’t score any additional points in their review. In fact, editors said that he'd doubled his net worth, "despite" ownership of the Tigers. Forbes also indicates Little Caesar Enterprises is planning a new era of expansions after a decade of big losses. But the most significant difference Forbes editors point to between their 2004 and 2006 analysis was the acquisition of MotorCity Casino valued at $1 billion.

To think that Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays got black eyes and were banned from coaching roles with baseball once because they got jobs at Atlantic City casinos; or that Pete Rose was TKO'd because he gambled but "not on baseball" and so he wrote a book; or that the Nutting family, owners of the Pittsburgh Pirates, were forced in the last month or two to chose between owning a ball team or a casino; or that "The Great One," Wayne Gretzky, took it on the chin earlier this year because his wife placed a few bets "but not on hockey."

Gretzky's wife had a career as an actress who watched her husband play hockey from the stands. Ilitch's wife was the corporate Secretary/Treasurer of the Tigers, she is the Secretary/Treasurer of the Red Wings and has her name engraved on the Stanley Cup. Ilitch took on $950 million in debt in 2005 to finance the MotorCity Casino acquisition. The Michigan Gaming Control Board authorized Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch to lead the offering targeted primarily at institutional investors. A notice distributed internationally announcing the investment opportunity notes Marian Ilitch is Vice President of the Detroit Tigers.

While owning two major sports teams the Michigan couple quietly doubled down on commercial and Indian casinos, boosting their restaurant and entertainment holdings empire with serious steroids. And by Forbes' independent account, Mike & Marian Ilitch got twice as rich (from $750 million to $1.5 billion) betting on casinos.

In the 21st Century, the Ilitches are re-tooling that famous iconical reference to American values ...

"As American as gambling backed baseball, motherhood and apple pie."

You may also want to review these posts:
Forbes Magazine: Mike llitch has backed losing sports teams and pizza ... But casinos in Detroit?
The Verifiable Truth: Baseball and Casinos Don’t Mix, or Do They?
The Verifiable Truth: New York Times sports writer recognizes conflicts in Ilitch casino ownership

first posted 12/20/06

Ilitch Holdings Inc. reports it's a $1.6 billion enterprise; Nevertheless taxpayers can expect to fund their hockey arena

February 2, 2007

Freep.com

Ilitch empire grows but no word on Joe
February 2, 2007

BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

PADUCAH, Ky. -- Life is good these days in the Ilitch family businesses.

Little Caesar Enterprises, the pizza chain at the heart of the family fortune, added more than 200 stores in 2006.

Up to 100 more new stores could be opened in the next two years by U.S. military veterans under a new program inspired by an Ilitch gift to wounded Iraq war veteran Robbie Doughty.

Doughty's Little Caesars franchise's grand opening in Kentucky on Thursday drew Ilitch family members from Detroit and a congratulatory note from President George W. Bush.The Detroit Tigers baseball team, owned by family patriarch Mike Ilitch, 77, is reaping the benefits of last year's improbable run to the World Series, selling tickets like crazy for the 2007 season.

MotorCity Casino, owned by Mike's wife, Marian Ilitch, is nearing completion of its permanent $300-million, 400-room casino-hotel near Grand River and the Lodge freeway in Detroit.

Ilitch Holdings, the umbrella firm for the family food and entertainment interests, is now a $1.6-billion enterprise, with double the $800 million in annual revenue it produced in 2000, said Christopher Ilitch, 41, president and CEO.

Amid this run of prosperity, the biggest hanging question in Ilitchland today remains, "What about Joe Louis Arena?"

What will the family do about the 28-year-old home of the Detroit Red Wings hockey team, which occupies a prime spot on Detroit's riverfront alongside the Cobo Center convention complex? Renovate the existing Joe? Or build a new arena, perhaps on land the family owns behind its Fox Theatre headquarters?

Pose that question, as we do whenever we chat up the Ilitch clan, and you get to see Mike and Chris Ilitch dance, feint and weave, as they did Thursday when I raised the subject.

Mike Ilitch, who told me in late September that a decision could be 30 days away, sounded for a moment Thursday like a man who'd made up his mind.

"We're there, pretty much. I think we got our homework all done," Ilitch said Thursday, about a year after the family announced it had hired a firm to study the build-or-renovate question.

"We don't see anything standing in the way of being able to go forward other than carving out the deal. We're looking forward to making sure that what we do now makes sense, that we can build it right, so that we can project our business ... and make it a profitable operation."

Hmmm. Sounds like the aim is a new arena, yes?

In years past, Mike Ilitch added, "I wasn't even thinking about another arena. We had in the back of our minds that we probably redo the Joe. You know, we kept thinking that we've got the water there, people are used to coming, that's kind of the mindset that we had. But, you know, times change, with the development that's going on in the city."

Double-hmmm. Definitely sounds like the tilt is toward building new, yes?

But then a hem: "Whatever we do, we've got to make sure it's the right thing."

And then a haw: "It's just a matter of deciding what we're going to do."

Then he deferred to son Chris Ilitch for the official word.

And Chris insisted that remodeling the Joe is "an extremely viable alternative."

When I suggested that a renovation decision could be announced immediately, while the build-new option might take longer to nail down if land parcels must be acquired for adequate parking at a new site, etc., Chris Ilitch replied, "If we want to play cat-and-mouse on this and read tea leaves, we can also point out that we made significant improvements at the Joe this year: a video-wall scoreboard and a renovated Gordie Howe entrance."

OK, that was enough sparring over the future of the Joe Louis Arena.

I sidled over to Doughty, 32, who lost both legs to an Iraqi roadside bomb explosion in 2004, and his partner, fellow veteran Lloyd Allard, to talk about their new career as pizza franchise operators, thanks to the gift of a new pizza outlet from Mike Ilitch.

There was nothing hesitant about their plans. "Once we get this one up and going, we're going to open one in Clarksville (Tennessee, Allard's hometown 90 minutes from Paducah) and everywhere in between," Allard vowed.

Contact TOM WALSH at 313-223-4430 or twalsh@freepresscom. For information on Little Caesars' discounted franchise opportunities for veterans, visit www.littlecaesars.com/veterans. Or call the Center for Veterans Enterprise at 866-584-2344.