Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 01:11:00

It was the first legal casino ever opened in Detroit - built inside a converted IRS office in 1999 while the 800-million-dollar real thing rose a few blocks away. The MGM Grand Detroit, at 1777 Third Street downtown, opened its permanent resort on 3 October 2007, with the Event Center as its 1,200-seat entertainment engine. The history tracks Detroit's casino gamble: after the city legalised gaming, MGM's 235-million-dollar temporary casino of July 1999 became the first of the three Detroit houses, and the permanent resort - 100,000 square feet of gaming, 401 hotel rooms and a Hollywood-star opening night with Kid Rock and fireworks - replaced it eight years later. The Event Center works as the flexible big room: the Grand Ballroom configuration seats or receives 1,200 under 21-foot ceilings, subdividing into salons for conferences and galas, while the entertainment calendar runs touring comedians, tribute acts, boxing and MMA cards, live podcasts and headline concerts scaled to the room. The bookings lean intimate-marquee: Mike Tyson's one-man show, national stand-ups like Sinbad, and residency-style tribute productions have all used the room's theatre setup - the sightline geometry keeping every seat close in a space that trades arena scale for proximity. The resort completes the night: restaurants from steakhouse to market hall, bars, a spa and the casino floor wrap around the Event Center, making the property a self-contained evening in the manner of its Las Vegas parent - albeit with the Detroit skyline and the Lodge Freeway outside. Practical notes: the casino sits at Third and Bagley with its own garage - downtown's stadium district is a ten-minute walk east; events are typically 21-plus given the casino setting, ticket prices run below comparable theatre tours, and pairing a show with dinner on-property is the operating assumption of the whole building.