Playing in Michigan

 I traveled up to Mackinaw Island to see the Grand Hotel and investigate some of Michigan’s casinos. There are a total of 19 casinos located throughout the state. All are Native America ones except three, Greektown, Motor City and the MGM Grand, which are all located in the city of Detroit. I was able to visit eight of them over a four-day period. Some were very large, similar to a Las Vegas casino; others were small, with only slots and half covered in a harden tent. The large ones had all the Las Vegas trappings like the big buffet, a hotel, live entertainment, extensive outdoor grounds and a great variety of games. I found the large ones to have enjoyable staff to play against, which wasn’t always the case with the smaller casinos. More than once, at the smaller ones, I found dealers who were very quick and almost enthusiast when taking losing bets. They didn’t appear to like the players and maintained a mannerism that was not enjoyable at all. Some casinos had very low limits, like $3 blackjack, and roulette with $1 inside and $1 on outside bets. Quite a few had no mid-deck entry for both hand-held and shoe games. Other than the Detroit ones, you have to do some driving to visit each casino. However, similar to Las Vegas, Reno, or Atlantic City, it always pays to analyze each casino for its blackjack rules, video poker payouts, craps odds and etc., and do it before you decide to play. With over 800 casinos in the US it pay’s to be fussy before you decide to visit any casino.