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Lawsuit backers invest in casinos

June 16, 2005

Gateway Funding Associates, the company that is bankrolling the Shinnecock land-claim lawsuit filed Wednesday, is headed by two Detroit-area investors with a history in casino development.

Marian Ilitch, whose family owns the Detroit Tigers, the Detroit RedWings and the Little Caesar's Pizza franchise, owns the Motor City Casino in Detroit, one of three non-tribal casinos in the city. According to press reports, she has also lobbied to legalize gambling in Hawaii.

The second investor, Michael Malik, is a Detroit real estate developer who had a stake in the Motor City Casino until Ilitch bought out his share this April.

Ilitch and Malik created Gateway Funding Associates specifically to back the Shinnecocks, said their spokesman, Tom Shields, but the investors have worked together on other projects.

In the 1990s, both backed the Bay Mills Indian tribe in their ultimately failed bid to construct a casino in Port Huron, Mich. The two are now proposing a casino in Barstow, Calif. with the Los Coyotes Indians.

-- Katie Thomas