Mike Mecca to run Detroit casino

Friday, March 26, 1999 | 11:35 a.m.

The locally owned Greektown Casino said Thursday it hired Mecca as chief operating officer, its top casino executive.

"Detroit is the next great gaming destination, so this is the career opportunity of a lifetime," Mecca said.

Greektown will compete against a Detroit casino in which Circus Circus is a partner with the local Atwater group; and against a third casino owned by MGM Grand.

Mecca resigned as head of Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas in January, a few months before it opened, for reasons that were never publicly disclosed.

He had also been chief operating officer for Mandalay International, the global marketing arm of Circus Circus that has offices in Asia and Central and South America.

Before joining Mandalay Bay in December 1997, Mecca was chief operating officer for Crown Ltd., which operates hotel-casinos in the Southern Hemisphere. He was a key figure in the development and opening of Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.

Mecca also spent 13 years with Caesars World, serving as general manager of the Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas, senior vice president of Caesars Tahoe and as senior vice president of worldwide development activities for the parent company.