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As one of three casino resort hotels in Detroit, the Greektown Casino Hotel opened in 2000 in the historic Greektown district. The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians owned a majority interest in the casino, which made it the only casino in the city to be under control by a Native American tribe. It was sold in 2019 and is now owned by Vici Properties and operated by Penn National Gaming. Penn National Gaming will be bringing the Barstool Sportsbook and Hollywood Casino online in 2021.
This is a large casino with 100,000 square feet of gaming space, several top-notch restaurants, a hotel, retail stores, and other entertainment options. There are 25,000 square feet of convention space at the hotel as well as a specially designed poker room.
The casino opened a retail sportsbook on-property in March 2020. That venue later went under renovation and reopened as a Barstool Sportsbook on December 23, 2020. The Barstool Sportsbook app officially launched in Michigan on January 22, 2021.
| Year opened | 2000 |
| Online Sportsbook | Barstool |
| Online Casino | Hollywood Casino |
| Phone number | 313-223-2999 |
| Address | 555 East Lafayette Street, Detroit, Michigan, 48226 |
| Number of slots | 3,000 |
| Number of table games | 61 |
| Hotel? | Yes. 400 rooms. |
| Minimum age to gamble? | 21 |
Greektown Casino-Hotel Michigan Online Gambling
Greektown Casino-Hotel was one of the first casinos to offer a sportsbook, with The Sportsbook at Greektown Casino opening for business in March 2020. Soon after the casino closed due to COVID-19. It has opened and closed intermittently throughout 2020. As of late-January 2021, it is back open again at limited capacity.
Online casinos and sports betting were legalized in December 2019, and Greektown quickly set up the means to offer both. Penn National Gaming operates Greektown Casino under the terms of a partnership with Vici Properties. Penn National is one of the top names in online gambling in the US.
Online gambling officially launched in Michigan on January 22, 2021. Greektown Casino launched its Barstool Sportsbook app on that day.
Greektown’s Online Sportsbook – Barstool Sportsbook
In addition to the live sportsbook, Greektown also offers an online sports betting platform under the Barstool Sportsbook brand. The Barstool Sports brand is relatively new to online sports betting, but thus far has impressed bettors with a strong app. It’s a hit with fans of its Barstool Sports brand, which is integrated into the app.
New players are eligible to receive a welcome bonus of a risk-free bet up to $1000.
Check out our full review of Barstool Sportsbook Michigan.
Greektown’s Online Casino – Hollywood Casino
An online casino, branded as Hollywood Casino, will also hit the Michigan market under the Greektown Casino license at some point. Many casino gamers might not recognize the name Penn National, but they might know Hollywood Casino from its reputation in other states. It’s known for its slots offering, but the Hollywood Casino online app will also include a variety of table games. Although a number of online casino apps launched on January 22, 2021, Hollywood Casino was not among those to go out in the first wave.
Barstool Sportsbook At Greektown Casino
In October 2020, Barstool Sportsbook announced its partnership with Greektown Casino to operate a retail sportsbook on-site. Greektown launched a retail sportsbook earlier in the year, and this agreement led to the rebrand of the sportsbook.
Even prior to the rebrand, The Sportsbook offered easy access to bets on all major sports. The rebranded sportsbook is located on the upper casino level near Trappers Bar. It features four live wagering windows in addition to betting kiosks throughout the casino.
Greektown Poker Room
Detroit poker players are lucky to have 3 casinos in the city that each have strong poker offerings. The Greektown Casino Poker Room offers a variety of poker games and tournaments. The poker room includes cash games like Omaha and Texas Hold’Em. The casino also claims to have some of the best poker tournaments in the city.
As part of the legalization of online gambling in Michigan, soon poker players will have access to online poker apps. Thus far, Greektown has not announced a partnership with an online poker provider.
Greektown Casino-Hotel Casino History
The Michigan legislature authorized the construction of three casinos in Detroit in 1996 as a way to bring in revenue for the state and city. The third to open was the Greektown Casino-Hotel, which was primarily owned by the Sault Chippewa Indians. The architects and interior designers for the original casino were Steelman Partners.
The casino had its official opening in 2000, following the opening of the two other Detroit casinos that opened the year before. A few years later, in 2006, the site of the casino began to prepare for a new hotel to be used in conjunction with the casino. The construction started in late 2006 finished in three years.
In 2007, the hotel opened with 30 floors of rooms. It opened at the same time as a 13-story free parking garage nearby. In November 2008, 25,000 square feet of gaming space was added and opened at the casino. The VIP gaming area at the Greektown Casino was expanded and redesigned in February 2009. Later that year, an ample convention space was added along with a new poker room.
During the Great Recession in 2008, the Sault Chippewa Indians filed for bankruptcy. Two investor groups acquired the hotel and casino. In 2013, Rock gaming bought a majority stake in the casino and made plans to rename the casino. However, in March 2018, the company decided to sell the casino for $1 billion. Vici Properties and Penn National Gaming bought Greektown in May 2019 and now own and operate the casino.
Sports betting debuted at Greektown Casino in March 2020. Originally branded as The Sportsbook at Greektown Casino, the venue is undergoing a facelift and will eventually relaunch as Barstool Sportsbook.
Greektown Casino-Hotel Loyalty Program
The Greektown Casino-Hotel uses a common loyalty program that goes by the name of MyChoice. It is free to sign up, and accumulated points can earn players status and comps, which can be used at any casino that offers MyChoice.
Some of the benefits of the program include free slot play, dining, and hotel stay discounts, exclusive invitations to special events, and entries into promotions. Signing up requires visiting a casino and showing a photo ID to get your MyChoice card.
Greektown Casino And Hotel
There are five tiers you can work through the more you play games, use slot machines, dine, and shop at the casino. They include:
- Choice – 0 to 999 points
- Advantage – 1,000 to 17,999 points
- Preferred – 18,000 to 49,999 points
- Elite – 50,000 to 199,999 points
- Owners Club – 200,000 points or more
As users move up from one tier to the next, they gain additional benefits such as priority valet service, discounts at all shops and restaurants, complimentary golf, waived check-cashing fees, and more.
Greektown Casino-Hotel Michigan FAQ
No. There is no dress code at the Greektown Casino. However, some of the dining establishments in the casino do have a dress code that needs to be followed. It’s a good idea to double-check on any rules before dining at the casino.
Yes. The main garage for the Greektown Casino-Hotel offers both valet parking and self-parking options for guests. There is also another self-parking garage that attaches to the hotel but is a walk from the casino. Two other parking garages are pay to park.
Greek Casinos Online
Yes. Bistro 555 is the buffet restaurant on-site at Greektown Casino. It offers an award-winning breakfast buffet between the hours of 7 am and 10:30 am. There are also several other restaurants, including a steakhouse, an Asian restaurant, and a deli.
Twenty-four hours a day. Visitors can enter Greektown at any time of the day or night. This casino, as well as most others in Michigan, is also available every day of the year. It doesn’t close for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Yes. The Greektown Casino-Hotel has 400 rooms so guests can spend a night or more in Detroit while gambling. The hotel offers luxury accommodations with amenities like floor to ceiling windows, large flat-screen televisions, and pillow-top mattresses.
Greece has a rich history of gambling, which can be traced back to antiquity. Gambling was among the favorite pastimes of Greek soldiers who reportedly engaged in dice games as early as the Trojan War. In fact, the Ancient Greeks attributed a divine origin to gambling as becomes evident by a myth which relates the story of Hades, Zeus, and Poseidon playing dice in order to apportion the universe between themselves. Also, it was in Greece that mass games of chance were first introduced and organized.
Because of all this, it may come as a surprise that the current gambling policies of the country where democracy was born are anything but progressive. Furthermore, Greece has suffered somewhat of an economic crisis in the past decade, so much so that the European Union had to bail it out not once, but twice for this period. This caused the Greek government to re-evaluate its stance in regard to online gambling. The first steps towards introducing adequate online gambling regulations have already been made, but unfortunately, the market in the country has remained in limbo for quite some time.
Greece’s Legal Stance on Gambling
When the popularity of interactive gambling increased dramatically at the turn of the 21st century, online casinos were met with such a strong opposition on behalf of the Greek government that the latter went as far as to enforce a ban on all forms of web-based gaming for real-money. Interestingly enough, this piece of legislation failed to adequately differentiate between online video games, and interactive and landbased gambling, which led to console games being prohibited from internet cafés throughout the country, along with online casino games.
Following the financial crisis the country was struggling with, the Greek government decided to soften its stance on the gambling sector and passed the Gambling Act of 2011. The goal was to generate additional profits through the taxation and licensing of foreign gambling operators, with big names like William Hill and Betfair being among the first ones to enter the Greek market with interim licenses. This was followed by making provisions for setting up a permanent licensing system for offshore and native operators alike.
Sadly, the intentions to establish one such system were stalled only a year later, in 2012, by the country’s Ministry of Finance. Instead of opening the market to foreign competition, the Greek authorities ended up monopolizing the interactive gambling sector, instead. The result was that OPAP (which is the Greek Organization of Football Prognostics) acquired a monopoly on all online gambling operations on the territory of the country.
Meanwhile, the foreign operators which were granted temporary licenses were politely asked by the government to wind down their services on the local market. Some operators opted for leaving Greece right away since their temporary licenses were not to be renewed once they expire, others decided to try and wait out until the legal gambling environment in the country improves.
These restrictive regulations led to various accusations of protectionism and violation of the free trade laws in the European Union. Things escalated rather quickly and only a year later, in 2013, the European Commission intervened and ruled that the restrictive policies of monopolization of the gambling market in Greece were indeed in violation of EU laws. The result was the Greek government coming up with several proposals for amending its online gambling legislation.
Nevertheless, the Greek legislators spoke strongly against games running on Random Number Generators. Their argument was that such games should not be made readily available to players from the country due to their quality of being “highly addictive”. This argument, was rather hypocritical on its own, considering the fact OPAP was issued a license, allowing it to operate over 30,000 landbased video lottery terminals in the country.
All of this lead to the liberalization of the Greek gambling market coming to a standstill. In 2016, the Greek authorities announced they are planning to open the market to foreign competition in order to adapt Greece’s gambling regulations to the EU laws. However, the country’s government has not released an official list of interactive gambling operators that can potentially receive local licenses. At least not so far, which is to say the market continues to be rather under-regulated and restrictive.
Greektown Casino Careers
Meanwhile, there are over twenty interactive gambling websites that continue to operate under the interim licenses they were granted by the Greek authorities after the enforcement of the Gambling Act in 2011, with PokerStars being one of the most popular options for players from the country. Under the pressure on behalf of the European Commission, the Greek officials have decided in favor of granting permanent licenses to offshore gambling operators. The new permanent licenses are yet to be issued, however, with OPAP still exercising its monopoly in this sector.
Many players from Greece actually opt in for registering at foreign web-based gambling operators that have not acquired a license from local authorities. Because the liberalization of the market is expected to take place soon, many foreign online casinos have already commenced accepting Greek players.
The Greek Online Gambling Regulators
All forms of landbased gambling on the territory of Greece are considered legal and are regulated by the so-called Hellenic Gambling Commission. Players at licensed brick-and-mortar venues are allowed to legally engage in a wide range of games, including staples like blackjack, roulette, craps, baccarat, and slots. As far as poker goes, landbased casinos in Greece are permitted to offer a range of variants like 5-Card Stud, Texas Hold’em, 7-Card Stud, and Omaha. The Hellenic Gambling Commission is responsible for monitoring the landbased gambling market in the country, performing various audits, and ensuring fair gaming and transparent conduct in the interest of Greek players.
Online gambling activities, on the other hand, are within the field of responsibility of OPAP, which holds a monopoly over the entire interactive gaming market in the country. In order to obtain a local license, foreign gambling operators need to be based in Greece. In other words, their servers should be located within the boundaries of the country and the websites should utilize the .gr domain, reserved for Greek players exclusively.
Taxes on Online Gambling in Greece
As is usually the case, all licensed gambling operators offering their services to players located in Greece are expected to contribute with taxes. It is precisely these excessive taxes that have driven a number of foreign operators from the Greek market. According to the Greek legislation, all licensed casino operators are expected to pay a flat tax of 35% of their gross revenue.
Since 34% of OPAP are owned by the state, the regulator is placed in a rather favorable position, compared to foreign-based operators. Furthermore, there are no taxes on the winnings of players who gamble at OPAP-licensed establishments. The only exception to this rule is when the profits exceed the amount of €100. Other than that, all winnings of players are subjected to a 10% tax.
The Future of Online Gambling in Greece
Greek authorities have already made the first steps toward opening the country’s gambling market to foreign competition since over twenty offshore casino providers are currently operating under interim licenses. However, the excessive taxes imposed on foreign gambling operators appear to be the biggest stall in the path toward market liberalization. Excessive taxation is precisely what might drive foreign companies away from Greece.
Furthermore, the beginning of 2016 saw the Greek government coming up with the decision to increase the existing tax on the operators’ gross revenue from 30% to a flat rate of 35%, which led to speculations that OPAP has pushed for increasing the tax rates in an attempt to deter foreign competition from applying for local licenses.
Greek Casino Online
Meanwhile, the process of renewing the temporary licenses of foreign operators with permanent ones is expected to be completed by the end of 2021. However, due to the hefty taxes many offshore gambling providers may choose not to reapply for local licenses.