Dan Gilbert: When Sucking $$$ From the Poor Isn't Enough

Dan Gilbert pitching casino for downtown Toronto

By David Muller
MLive.co
on April 12, 2013

Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert . (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive.com)

 

DETROIT, MI - Dan Gilbert and partners in Caesars Entertainment will pitch plans for a downtown casino in Toronto to city officials there next week, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Ontario officials are also considering whether or not to privatize government-owned casinos outside of Toronto, so Gilbert and company may see some opportunities there, a company spokeswoman told the Cleveland publication.

 

Gilbert, who signed off on buying majority share of downtown Detroit’s Greektown Casino-Hotel last week, is expanding his gaming holdings throughout the region.

 

He recently struck casino and horse track deals in Baltimore and northern Kentucky, and has bought a stake in Caesars’ online gaming division, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

 

Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans and owner of 4 million square feet of downtown Detroit commercial real estate, began his foray into the gaming world when he started Horseshoe casinos in Cleveland last May and in Cincinnati last month. On Tuesday, his group opened Thistledown Racino in the suburbs of Cleveland.

 

Caesars is a minority partner with Gilbert’s Rock Gaming on the Ohio gaming developments, as well as on Turfway Park, a thoroughbred track in northern Kentucky. Casino gambling is still illegal in Kentucky, but the state has been talking about its legalization.

 

http://www.mlive.com/business/detroit/index.ssf/2013/04/dan_gilbert_pitching_casino_fo.html

 

 

 

 

If the public really wanted it.......

If the public really wanted it, the predatory gambling trade would not need to spend $32 million to remind them

A pro-casino group in Ohio reports it has spent nearly $32 million promoting a fall ballot issue that would authorize casinos in the state's four largest cities (and there is still twelve more days to go in the campaign.)

A state campaign finance filing shows the Ohio Jobs & Growth Committee spent $31.7 million. Nearly all the cash came from arms of its two main backers, Penn National Gaming Inc. and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert.

The ballot issue asks voters to approve casino construction in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo, agree to a 33-percent tax on the facilities for state and local programs and create a state committee to oversee a type of gambling that is thus far illegal in the state. Spending by its rival, the anti-casino TruthPAC, was not yet posted Thursday afternoon.

This is the fourth time the predatory gambling trade has paid for a campaign in Ohio. They were defeated in their first three tries and now they are spending $32 million to tell Ohio citizens to vote for something that supposedly they want.

It is another example of “the spend enough money until you win” strategy in action. It is also why the movement to stop predatory gambling will continue to grow across America.