Few high rollers in Detroit
Many spend no more than $100, hit a casino only 3 times a year, admit they usually lose.
Donna Terek / The Detroit News
Dave Shugar, standing, director of casino operations at MotorCity Casino, visits dealer Theresa Hunt at a Pai Gow poker table. Shugar helped create a version of the game at MotorCity that Li Zhi Ming of Detroit is playing.
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By Mark Puls / The Detroit News
Michiganians who gamble at casinos are not novices, but they’re not high rollers, either. And they say they don’t haunt the slot machines and black jack tables day after day.
According to a Detroit News poll of 400 gamblers, the overwhelming majority — 90 percent — had been to a casino before Detroit’s first opened one year ago next Saturday.
And more than half of those surveyed said they generally take less than $100 to the casinos. Jacob Miklojcik, president of Michigan Consultants, who analyzes gaming trends, said the typical recreational gambler in Las Vegas budgets about $100 per trip; $67 per outing in Atlantic City.
While Gamblers Anonymous has reported meeting attendance up as much as 40 percent, 93 percent of those surveyed by The News insist they gamble just for fun — not because they really expect to walk out as winners.
“We used to go to Las Vegas. But this is closer, so we can be broke all the time,” joked Loretta Graham, 63, of Auburn Hills.
If gamblers don’t take their occasional casino night out too seriously, neither do they take seriously the casinos’ impact on Detroit. Opponents’ predictions of increased crime and gambling addiction haven’t materialized. But neither have hopes that casinos would draw customers to other businesses, or lead to widespread civic improvements.
Only a quarter of gamblers believe the casinos will boost Detroit’s image and its efforts to become a world-class city.
Terry Dreyer, 56, of Troy is a typical casino visitor.
“It’s a break away from common everyday hassles,” she said. “You can play an adult game without children or screaming neighbors. It’s relaxing.”
Gamblers admit they go casino gambling more today than they did last year, before the MGM Grand became Detroit’s first legal gaming house. More than half of those surveyed say they go three times a year or less; more than three-fourths say they go a half-dozen times or less.
Daryl McRoberts of Linden said, “I have a business and I’m bored with it. I come every day. It’s a really good time.”
Good thing, because three-fourths admit they lost, or broke even, for the year.
About half of the losers say their year’s losses were under $100.
Daryl McRoberts’ wife, Kathy, is not your typical gambler. She says she recently won $47,500 during a visit to a Detroit casino.
But McRoberts says she has no illusions of beating the house forever.
“You never come out ahead,” she shrugged. “It’s entertainment.”
Safe for seniors
By and large, casino gamblers are white, middle class and middle age. The News survey found that a third are 60 or older.
Seniors like casinos because they’re a safe place for some entertainment. A common sight at MGM Grand, MotorCity and Casino Windsor, particularly in the mornings and early afternoons, senior citizens are a dependable, repeat clientele for the casinos.
“You spend four days a week, baby-sitting your grand kids, and you want to get out,” said Ivey Ledyard of Sterling Heights.
Not everyone walks out of a Detroit casino happy.
“These are the tightest slots I’ve ever played,” complained Marie Cepeda, 63, of Oak Park.
And undoubtedly, some people are gambling even though they can’t afford it.
“I saw a women in the bathroom who had lost all her money and she was just sobbing,” said Charly King, 55, of Detroit, during a visit to MGM Grand.
Recreational gambler Rick Nash of Marietta, Ga., said the casino “is geared for people who shouldn’t be gambling,” said Nash, in town on business. “They give out a voucher for food here. There’s an element here coming for a free lunch. But if they can’t afford the meal, they can’t afford to gamble.”
Food vouchers are only given to repeat customers and are not used to lure new gamblers, said Nancy Ziolkowski, MGM Grand Casinos vice-president of marketing.
“They only go to motor coach patrons and bus operators with a history of bringing quality customers. And we only send mail vouchers to existing customers.”
‘Many families destroyed’
There’s no way yet to gauge whether significantly more people are losing their homes or their jobs because of problem gambling brought out by Detroit casinos.
But Virginia Auvil-Pieroni of Neighborhood Services Organization, which runs the state gambling hotline, believes that there are more problem gamblers today than there were before MGM Grand and MotorCity opened.
“I’ve seen many families destroyed,” Auvil-Pieroni said.
“Gambling is different than a drug addiction because it’s legal. We’ve said, It’s OK, it’s entertainment. How can that be bad? It’s the excitement.’ We need to recognize that many people have a serious problem.”
National experts peg compulsive gamblers at about 3 percent of the population. Two state studies conducted before the casinos opened estimated that 5 percent of Wayne County residents are compulsive gamblers.
“There is some evidence that a certain number of people have a predisposition to become problem gamblers,” said James McBryde, Michigan’s special assistant for drug policy.
“The casinos offer more opportunity for them to get into trouble.”
Gamblers get counseling
The state’s help line says about 125 problem gamblers call each month, and are referred to counseling.
About half are aged 30-50; and 35 percent are black — nearly three times the percentage of black residents in Michigan.
Local Arab leaders say gambling has become a problem in Detroit’s Arab and Chaldean communities .
“It’s affected lots of families,” said Zouher Hak, president of the Arab Anti-Defamation League.
“I know lots of people who’ve lost businesses.”
Hak, who declined to publicly identify any Arab-American business owners who’ve been ruined by gambling, visits the casinos every three or four months. He said many Arabs are novice gamblers because gaming is very restricted in the Middle East.
“They are beginners and not used to the sophisticated gambling here,” he said.
Employee benefits
Like the mixed reviews of gamblers, casino employees also have good, and not so good things to say.
The casinos employ 7,500 with jobs ranging from valets to dealers, bartenders, cooks and wait staff, security and managers.
Workers say the pay, plus tips, is higher than most jobs in the service industry and included health benefits. MGM, for example, contributes 50 percent of 401K contributions of up to 6 percent of the workers’ earnings.
Donna Terek / The Detroit News
Charlene Hicks, left, and Margaret Fortune live about three blocks from the MotorCity Casino. "I can't say anything bad about it," Fortune, a Pentecostal missionary, says.
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But they also complain about long hours and the grief they get from losing gamblers.
Employees are understandably reluctant to talk about their jobs. But at a Web site set up to log their dissatisfaction, some complain of long hours and limited days off. One worker wrote complaints about six day work weeks and extended shifts.
Linda Bostic is among those who are happy with the opportunity to work at MGM. She deals and supervises games. Bostic left a job working for a company that contracted help service with the Wayne County Jail.
“It was something new, exciting,” she said. “I’m open to new ideas. ...Casinos have never been in the area so we have a chance to advance.”
Job Security
MGM said it has promoted 10 percent of its Detroit workforce to higher positions in the last year.
“A lot of people are experiencing a level of income they couldn’t otherwise have and a lot of the employees are from the city,” Bostic said.
Dealers say the job can be stressful, especially when losing gamblers blame them for their bad luck. But Bostic said that she doesn’t feel in danger. “If there is a situation I feel I can’t handle, I can get somebody who can deal with it.”
Otis Hill, 52, a security guard at MotorCity, said the financial success of casinos offers him job security. “It’s up and coming. I wanted to work with entertainment because of the excitement.”
