Local sports fans lined up at MGM Grand Casino on March 11, hoping to be among the first to legally place a bet in Detroit.
“I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” Mike Silicilia told Click on Detroit as he waited to bet on March Madness.
Alas, March Madness never happened. Nor the NBA, NHL or MLB. All were casualties of the coronavirus.
MotorCity Casino is partnering with FanDuel Group to operate a newly designed, two-story sportsbook. MGM Grand and Greektown Casino opened their sportsbooks the day before.
“Everything kind of came to a halt pretty quickly,” said Mike Huff, a sports lawyer at Mika Meyers PLC in Grand Rapids. “There weren’t any games to bet on.”
Not only does the shutdown impact bettors, but taxes on casino revenue earmarked for education and schools around the state, money the fund won’t receive until sports events return. “The state projected to have revenue going into the school aid fund. That will likely be substantially less now than what the initial expectations were,” Huff told Fox 17.
