Little River Band holds VIP preview of casino

Thursday, July 22, 1999 | 9:32 a.m.

The Little River Band's complex, which was previewed Wednesday night, has 500 slot machines and 12 table games. The casino expects to draw 800,000 people a year - 50 times the population of Manistee County.

Officials have said the casino can acquire a strong percentage of the Michigan market, rivaling the $260-million Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Mount Pleasant.

"I'm very nervous," tribal chairman Robert Guenthardt told the Traverse City Record-Eagle for a report Thursday. "It's a big time for the tribe and an occasion that won't happen every day."

State Sen. George McManus looked around the casino and called it "really great." McManus commended the tribe on its efforts since 1994 to get the casino project off the ground against what he labeled "considerable opposition."

"It was the toughest thing I've ever done in the Legislature," said McManus, who listed competition among Michigan tribes and out-of-state casinos as two groups against the Little River Band's casino.

But on Wednesday, tribal leaders from the northwestern Lower Peninsula voiced only support for the Little River Band's efforts.

"We're really excited for them," said George Bennett, tribal chairman for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. "We go back a long way, to the time when (the Little River Band) was struggling for their compact. "It's a proud day for the community."