A line of cars wrapped around the block Wednesday morning in Detroit, from the entrance to the MotorCity Casino Hotel on Temple Street to three-quarters of the way down the next block on Grand River Avenue.

• Michigan's economic reopening has been on pause for weeks, amid rising coronavirus case numbers. Detroit Free Pres Motor City Casino in Detroit was No. 10 on Uber's Top 10 list of late-night.
• MotorCity Casino in Detroit, Mich., will reopen its poker room next week. No information was immediately available on what day the room will open or any of its procedures. For more information on poker room reopenings, visit our Reopen webpage.

For the first time since March 16, a Detroit casino was open to the public. Two miles away, at the Greektown Casino, a security guard said he heard the queue of vehicles at MotorCity stretched “all the way to New York.”

RELATED: What Motor City Casino in Detroit will look like when it reopens this week Masks are strictly enforced. Capacity was limited to about 1,600 - and the casino hit that limit quickly.

MotorCity, Greektown, and the MGM Grand Detroit all reopened to differing degrees on Wednesday, after an executive order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer permitted the city’s three commercial casinos to welcome guests, following a months-long shutdown meant to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

MGM restricted access to invite-only VIP customers for its first two days of operation and will begin admitting the general public Friday at 10 a.m. Greektown opened Wednesday morning to VIP gold-card holders and to the public at 2 p.m. Only MotorCity flung open its doors to one and all Wednesday at 10 a.m., and eager gamblers from southeast Michigan flocked to the property.

Michigamblers excited to resume normal betting lives

“It’s about time,” said Jean Manz, from St. Clair Shores, who explained that she was relieved she no longer had to travel to the Hollywood Casino in nearby northwest Ohio. “We’ve been driving to Toledo.”

For Detroit residents without access to private vehicles, however, the option of driving an hour south to Toledo or two hours west to the FireKeepers Casino in Battle Creek wasn’t an option. “If I knew how to get down there, I would’ve been there,” said Sandra Bell. “I couldn’t go anywhere else.”

And after months of locked down storefronts and social distancing, Bell said she was dying to return to the casino, sit down at the penny slots, and kibbitz with fellow bettors and casino employees. “Just being around people,” Bell said. “To sit around, have a good time — I missed it so much.”

Although mobile casino gaming and sports betting was approved by the Michigan legislature last December, online gambling remains unavailable, while the state waits for the Michigan Gaming Control Board to finalize implementation rules and grant approval to individual operators. The rollout is expected late this year or early next, but Bell said she would have welcomed the opportunity to play legal, onlinecasino games during the brick-and-mortar casinos’ hiatus. “As long as if I win, I can get paid!” Bell said.

Limited capacity, health protocols in effect

“We have invested considerable time and effort to prepare for an opening with our highest priority being the health and safety of our employees and guests,” said MotorCity Casino President Bruce Dall in a statement released shortly after Whitmer signed last week’s executive order.

Those preparations were obvious, given the considerable time and effort it took for MotorCity guests to get into the casino Wednesday morning. One reason for the line of cars snaked around the block outside the casino was that guests had to pass a drive-through temperature check and mask inspection to gain access to the self-parking lot. Once visitors had parked, they had to line up at the casino entrance for a second mask check and to flash their IDs. For many who arrived Wednesday around the 10 a.m. opening time, the entire process took close to 30 minutes.

Inside, safety protocols included hand sanitizer stations set up throughout the casino floor, plexiglass partitions between slot machines, and limited seating at table games, with plexiglass barriers separating players at blackjack and baccarat tables from each other and from the dealers. For now, smoking is prohibited on the casino floor, and more cocktail waitresses appeared to be wearing face shields than not.

A few feet away from the roulette tables, a MotorCity pit boss could be overheard reinforcing the safety regulations for her craps dealers: “If someone walks up to your table wanting to play, the first thing they have to do is use hand sanitizer.”

The one aspect of Detroit’s reopening that differs from casino comebacks in other states and at Michigan’s tribal casinos is the strict 15% capacity limit imposed by Whitmer’s order — the lowest reported occupancy cap in the nation. When casinos reopened in Atlantic City, N.J., last month, they ran at 25% capacity. Meanwhile, Hollywood Casino in Toledo is operating at 50% capacity, and some of Michigan’s tribal casinos told the Detroit Free Press that they will admit up to 80%.

Motor City Casino Reopening

If the 15% limit remains in place for a long period of time, it could present business challenges to the Detroit casinos. Industry analysts, however, said they believe the capacity restrictions could be raised to something closer to 50% once the casinos can demonstrate their safety measures are effective.

“I think they’re all planning on a ramp to something far north of 15%,” said Alex Calderone, managing director of Calderone Advisory Group in Birmingham, Mich. “They’re in the baby-step mode right now, and the name of the game is, prove that they can open responsibly and without any significant outbreaks at 15%. Then, gradually move up from there.”

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LANSING – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gave the go-ahead Wednesday for Detroit's three casinos to open at greatly reduced capacity Aug. 5, after shutdowns that began in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, under a new executive order.

But Whitmer is also dialing back economic reopening in northern Michigan, reducing the size of groups allowed to gather and banning indoor alcohol sales in nightclubs and other establishments that mostly serve alcohol, with little food. Both changes are effective Friday.

Capacity at Detroit casinos will be limited to 15% under Whitmer's new executive order. The MGM, Greektown and Motor City casinos have been at a competitive disadvantage because many of Michigan's tribal casinos — which are not under state jurisdicition — reopened with special precautions weeks ago.

Casinos must conduct a daily entry screening protocol for customers and employees, including temperature screening. Casinos also must require patrons to wear a face covering, except while eating or drinking or for identification purposes, the release said.

Both the size of indoor gatherings Up North, now limited to 10, down from 50, and the restrictions on indoor alcohol sales match restrictions that are already in place in central and southern Michigan.

'As we see COVID-19 cases continue to rise, Michiganders cannot afford to drop our guard,' Whitmer said in a news release.

'After seeing a resurgence in cases connected to social gatherings across the state, we must further limit gatherings for the health of our community and economy. By taking these strong actions, we will be better positioned to get our children back into classrooms and avoid a potentially devastating second wave.”

Outdoor gatherings are limited to 100 people, though a higher limit of 250 people outdoors will remain in effect in the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula, Whitmer said.

Michigan's economic reopening has been on pause for weeks, amid rising coronavirus case numbers.

The Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula remain in Phase 5 of Whitmer's six-phase reopening plan, while the rest of the state remains in Phase 4. Gyms, movie theaters and various entertainment venues are among the businesses that can be open in Phase 5, but not in Phase 4.

Alex Calderone, managing director of the financial consulting firm Calderone Advisory Group, based in Birmingham, said reopening at 15% capacity is potentially helpful for Detroit's casinos, but 'Michigan may be playing it too safe.'

Detroit casinos have laid off thousands of workers during the pandemic, and it is unlikely many of them will return to work with the casinos operating at greatly reduced capacity.

'Given that operating expenses have been slashed so drastically, it is possible they will be able to operate profitably, even at lower revenue levels driven by the 15% capacity restriction,' Calderone said.

Still, the restrictions will mean continued economic pain for both the city of Detroit and state of Michigan, which reap significant tax revenues from the casinos when they are operating near capacity, he said.

'Michigan has imposed the most onerous capacity limitations of any gaming jurisdiction I am aware of,' Calderone said.

More: 5 wedding guests got coronavirus after Southgate hall defied Whitmer order

Motor City Casino Reopening Date

More: Michigan reports 669 new coronavirus cases, 16 deaths Tuesday

Michigan's seven-day average of daily new cases is now in the high 600s, after bottoming out June 15 at 152 and rising to 275 late that month. But state officials said Tuesday case numbers may have reached a plateau, while daily death counts are far below those of March and April and hospitalization rates remain well under control.

Whitmer had hoped to be announce that south and central Michigan could join northern Michigan in Phase 5 of her six-phase reopening plan ahead of the July 4 holiday, but that was postponed because of rising cases.

Motor City Casino Reopening

Michigan's barbershops, hair and nail salons, tattoo parlors and other personal service shops reopened June 15 in southern and central Michigan, after reopening June 10 in the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula.

Also open Up North, as of June 10: movie theaters, gyms, bowling alleys and outdoor sporting venues.

For economic reopening purposes, Up North is the Upper Peninsula, plus Antrim, Alpena, Benzie, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Crawford, Emmet, Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Manistee, Missaukee, Montmorency, Otsego, Presque Isle, Roscommon and Wexford counties in the northern Lower Peninsula.

Motor City Casino Poker Room Reopening

On June 1, Whitmer said all Michigan bars and restaurants could reopen at 50% capacity June 8. She had earlier loosened restrictions on bars and restaurants in northern Michigan. But on July 1, she halted indoor bar service at nightclubs and other establishments that mostly serve alcohol, except for Up North.

Motorcity Casino Reopening Date

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.

Motorcity Casino Opening Date

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit casinos to reopen at reduced capacity; new restrictions Up North