The Detroit News has reported that the race to build permanent casinos in Detroit is leaving Greektown Casino behind in the dust.  Greektown already has been approved to build in the city, but is still awaiting to receive their casino site plan approval from the Detroit City Planning Commission, which officials say may take several weeks still. Unsorted red tape and a seemingly cursed fate are what's keeping Greektown Casino trailing their competitors.

The competition in this case is the MGM Grand Detroit, and MotorCity, who both have already begun construction on their permanent casinos, hoping to finish by late 2007.  Both casinos are 100% confident they will be operating in 2008.  In fact, they are so committed to making that happen, they both have already begun registering conventions for and tradeshows hosted in their conference centers.

Motor City has $275 million budgeted for their new casino, which they will build onto their current temporary casino.  MGM Grand, on the other hand, is building from scratch - putting over $765 million into their luxurious and large casino resort, which they are determined to open in early 2008.  Surprisingly, Geektown Casino says they will have a new casino built and open to visitors in 2008 as well, although it is highly probably they will be lagging behind the competition - ultimately costing them millions of dollars in delays.

As for the city of Detroit, despite the delays with Geektown, they are happy to see progress on at least two fronts, considering they are in desperate need to stimulate their economy and improve their fledgling school systems.