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Detroit’s Three Casinos, and Why There Are Only Three

In 1996, Michigan voters approved Proposal E, which allows up to three licensed commercial casinos in the City of Detroit. The Michigan Gaming Control Board was created under the Michigan Gaming Control and Revenue Act to license and regulate them.

By revenue, MGM Grand Detroit is the largest of the three, and it isn’t close, according to the Michigan Gaming Control Board’s monthly revenue report. The three licenses belong to:

• MGM Grand Detroit
• MotorCity Casino Hotel
• Hollywood Casino at Greektown (formerly Greektown Casino)

If you’re planning a visit, get hours, hotel rooms and directions from each casino’s own website. For in-person play across the rest of the state, from the tribal resorts to the UP, see our local casino guide for Michigan. Coming from the west side of the state? Our Grand Rapids guide starts with Gun Lake in Wayland.

Planning a Visit Downtown

A night at one of the three goes more smoothly with a few practical answers in hand: where you can smoke, where to eat and how to get there without circling for parking. Policies and restaurant lineups change, so the details below are as they stood at the time of writing.

Smoking on the Gaming Floors

Michigan’s smoke-free law covers almost every indoor space in the state, but it exempts the gaming floors of Detroit’s three commercial properties, so each one decides where smoking is allowed. MGM Grand Detroit keeps it to designated smoking slot areas, with the rest of the floor and the poker room smoke-free. Hollywood Casino at Greektown allows it across much of its second-floor gaming space. MotorCity’s rules have changed more than once in recent years, so ask before you go. Restaurants away from the gaming floor fall under the state law and are smoke-free.

Where to Eat

Each property pairs a steakhouse for a night out with quicker counters for a bite between sessions. At MGM Grand Detroit, D.PRIME is the steakhouse, TAP serves pub classics with plenty of screens for the game, and Detroit Central Market covers everything from pizza to coffee. MotorCity’s Revel Steak opens for dinner Wednesday through Sunday, while Grand River Deli & Burgers stays open into the early hours. Greektown’s sit-down choice is Prism Steakhouse, with 313 Burger Bar and other counters in its Monroe Market food court, and the restaurants of the Greektown district along Monroe Street are only a short walk from the door.

Getting There and Getting Around

Downtown has two free rides. The Detroit People Mover loops the center of the city and stops inside Greektown, at its station on Level 3, and Times Square is the nearest stop to MGM Grand Detroit. The QLINE streetcar runs along Woodward Avenue, also free, and meets the People Mover at Grand Circus Park, Times Square and the Financial District. MotorCity sits off the loop, so a car or a rideshare is the easier way there.

DDOT buses cover the rest of the city, and from Detroit Metro Airport, SMART’s FAST Michigan route stops at both terminals and reaches downtown in a little over an hour. If you drive in, parking terms differ at each property, and downtown garages fill quickly on game and concert nights, so check the rate before you set out.

The 21+ Door, and Where the State Lets You In Younger

The offshore sites we recommend accept players 18 and older, and in Detroit that’s the line that matters. Slots, poker and the sportsbook at every property in the city are 21+, and Michigan’s state-licensed online gaming, sports betting and poker apps hold you to the same limit. Here’s how the ages compare across Michigan:

What you want to play	Minimum age in Michigan
Slots, tables and poker at the Detroit properties	21+
Retail sportsbooks	21+ (tribal sportsbooks may follow the tribe’s own age)
State-licensed online casinos, sports betting and poker	21+
Some tribal properties, including Kewadin in the Upper Peninsula	18+
Lottery	18+
Horse racing	18+
Bingo	18+
Daily fantasy sports	18+

Kewadin’s five Upper Peninsula properties have admitted players 18 and over since March 30, 2022, but that’s a long drive north of the Motor City. None of the city’s three floors is open at that age. Our plain guide to Michigan’s gambling laws goes through every age and the law behind it.

Can You Play Online Casinos From Detroit?

You can, through either of two markets. The first is Michigan’s own: online casino, sports betting and poker apps licensed by the Gaming Control Board. These apps only work while you’re physically inside the state. The second is offshore: operators running casino games, sports betting and poker under licenses from regulators outside the United States.

Using an offshore site isn’t something Michigan law goes after. The state’s 2019 online gaming and sports betting acts license operators and don’t name a player who bets with a site licensed elsewhere. On the federal side, the Wire Act and UIGEA target the companies running betting operations and moving their money, so a Detroit player placing a bet isn’t the one they’re written for.

For a Detroit player, the practical difference shows up in the lobby and the cashier. The offshore sites we recommend take Michigan players, put slots, table games, live dealers and poker under one account, and pay out to the methods in their cashiers. You can see how we rank them or read the full reviews before you pick one.

These are the sites we trust for real-money play from Detroit: established, reputable names with full lobbies and cashiers that pay.

What the Offshore Lobbies Offer That a Casino Floor Can’t

Real-Money Slots

A downtown gaming floor can only hold so many cabinets. An online lobby has no such limit, so you’ll find classic three-reel games, video slots with bonus rounds and progressive jackpots in one place, and you can switch games without walking across a room. Each game’s info screen shows its rules and features before you put a cent in.

Blackjack, Roulette and Baccarat

Digital table games deal at your own pace, with no waiting for a seat on a busy weekend. Read the rules panel before you play, because blackjack payouts, dealer rules and roulette wheel type (single zero or double zero) differ from one table to the next, and those details change your odds more than the table’s look does.

Live Dealer Tables

Live dealer games stream a real dealer, real cards and a real wheel to your screen from a studio. You place bets through the interface and watch the hand play out. It’s the closest you’ll get to sitting at a table at one of the city’s three floors without parking or a dress code. Expect blackjack, roulette and baccarat.

Poker, From Downtown Card Rooms to Online Tables

Poker in person in Detroit means finding a seat downtown, and fewer card rooms run games than a few years ago, so check before you go. Offshore poker rooms run cash games and tournaments online instead, so you can play a hand without leaving home.

Betting on Sports, at the Counter or Online

Detroit’s three casinos opened retail sportsbooks in March 2020, so MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino and Hollywood Casino at Greektown each give you a counter to bet at in person. Those counters carry the same 21+ limit as the gaming floor, and so do Michigan’s state-licensed betting apps.

Offshore, you don’t need the trip downtown: the sportsbooks we point Detroit bettors to take bets online, so you can bet on a game from your couch. Before you bet, read the book’s house rules on how it settles each market, such as what happens to a wager when a game is postponed, because those rules come from the sportsbook itself.

Online Bonuses Aren’t Casino Comps

If you’ve earned comps downtown, you know they come after you play. An online welcome bonus works the other way around: the site hands you extra money up front, then sets conditions on it. The most important one is the rollover, the total amount you have to wager before bonus funds can be withdrawn. After that, check which games count toward the rollover and how much, whether there’s a cap on what you can cash out from bonus play, how many days you have to finish, and whether your deposit method qualifies.

The rollover is also where a session can quietly stretch longer than you planned. If you catch yourself reloading just to clear a bonus before it expires, the Michigan Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-270-7117 is there to talk it through.

Which Sites Pay Out Best?

No single site pays out best across the board. What decides your return is the game, not the logo. Many online games publish a return-to-player figure, which tells you how much of every dollar wagered the game pays back over a very long run. It’s a long-run average, not a promise for your next session. Table games played with sound strategy generally return more than most slots, and two slots in the same lobby can have quite different returns, so compare before you settle in.

How fast you get paid depends mostly on how you take your money out. These are the methods you’ll usually find in offshore cashiers:

• Cryptocurrency: check which coins the cashier takes and how long a crypto withdrawal takes to arrive before you deposit.
• Credit and debit cards: easy for deposits, though some banks decline gambling charges. Check whether a withdrawal can go back to your card.
• Bank wire or check: slower payout routes that some players use for larger withdrawals. Check the fees first.
• Prepaid vouchers: handy for deposits if you’d rather keep a card out of it, but you’ll need another method to withdraw.

What Michigan Takes From a Win

Michigan taxes gambling winnings at its flat state income tax rate of 4.25%, as the Michigan Treasury withholding guide sets out. Every win is taxable, whether it came from a casino, a racetrack or a charity game. It goes on your Michigan return even when it’s below the amount that would trigger a tax form. Winnings are federally taxable too. Keep your own record of deposits, withdrawals and results for each site you play, because reporting is up to you whichever market you use.

Complaints, Self-Exclusion and Knowing Your Limits

If something goes wrong at one of the Detroit properties, such as a disputed payout or a problem with a machine, the Michigan Gaming Control Board handles patron disputes and keeps the excluded persons list. It’s also the place to start if you want to ban yourself from Michigan’s licensed gambling. On an offshore site, questions about your account or a payment go to that site’s own support team.

Detroit Casino FAQ