Greektown got its start in the early 1900s, when it became the heart of a bustling community of immigrants from southern Greece. In 1966, the city and the Central Business District Association came up with a plan to clean up and market Greektown and held the first of many annual festivals there in July. In 1978, several businessmen and the city began planning a festival marketplace, which finally opened as Trappers Alley in 1985. Ex-Greektown Casino partners Ted Gatzaros and Jim Papas bought it in 1989. National gambling experts expect Greektown Casino to do well, since the other three casinos in Detroit and Windsor have proved there's a strong market here.
Gamblers seem just as eager to line up for tonight's grand opening as they have for the others.
Most of the gamblers who come to Greektown are likely to be from southeast Michigan. Greektown managers earlier this year held focus groups with some local gamblers to determine what they wanted. The Pantheon Club boasts higher staffing, fewer seats at table games, more attention and some of the casino's strongest supervisors, Semola says. It has its own bar, big-screen TV, entrance, elevator and valet parking. Card decks are shuffled by hand rather than by machine, as they are elsewhere in the casino.