Most Luxurious Casinos in Michigan

_{Island Resort & Casino shines as a luxurious getaway in Michigan. (Image: Courtesy of Island Resort & Casino)}

Michigan may be home to the Great Lakes, but the state has something a little more exciting too - casinos! 

From the MGM Grand Detroit Casino, to MotorCity and Island Resort & Casino, Michigan is - surprisingly - a great destination for gambling. Although, I did once hear someone refer to Michigan as being “like hell, but the winter version of hell”, maybe plan that gambling trip for the summer. 

Michigan got off to a strong start with gambling, legalizing betting on horse racing back in 1933. But then they hit a bit of a lull, because it wasn’t until 1997 that the Gaming Control and Revenue Act was passed, allowing three casinos to open their doors. 

Michigan now plays host to 26 casinos - 23 tribal casinos, and three commercial casinos. Although they’re scattered all over the state, many of them are towards the north, along Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior.

 Gambling in the state is overseen by the Michigan Gaming Control Board, and the industry currently employs over 60,000 people. Online casinos in Michigan are also legal and tethered to the land based destinations. 

With so many casinos to choose from, it seems obvious that some would provide a luxurious experience, complete with fine dining and a day spa, while others might be a little more, well, dingy. 

We decided to take a sample of the best casinos in the state, and rank them all based on their luxury rating. And how did we decide on that rating? It’s simple - we searched Tripadvisor reviews for mentions of keywords like "luxury," “magnificent," and “satisfied,” and whichever casino got the most mentions of those words in the reviews ranked at the top of the list. 

Here is our full ranking:

Island Resort & Casino in Harris tops our list of the most luxurious casinos in Michigan, with a rating of 12.90% on the Luxury Scale. A decent 16 people out of 155 mentioned that it was "comfortable," and three even said it was "fancy.” Alongside casino games, Island Resort & Casino has a luxury hotel, a spa, and even two golf courses. How’s that for luxurious? 

“Easy check in, comfortable rooms, the pool/hot tub is great, a dry spa, a steam spa, and a very large, modern exercise room. A large, fun sports bar. Wide range of entertainment. Four different places to  eat," said one review. 

What more could you want?

Next up was Lac Vieux Desert Resort and Casino, which claims to have all the comforts of home (plus a casino and a golf course, obviously). In total, there were 7 mentions of our keywords across 65 reviews, resulting in a rating of 10.77%. 

We particularly liked the review that said, “The hotel and casino were very clean and inviting for all ages - our food experience for the all you can eat crab legs was fantastic.” - did someone say, “all you can eat crab legs?” Count us in. 

Third on the podium was Saganing Eagles Landing, which wasn’t far behind Lac Veiux at all - this one came in at 10.38% on our scale. 

The keyword “luxury” even came up here, albeit only once. “Wonderful new hotel. Absolutely beautiful rooms. Rooms are very quiet. Reasonably priced luxury”. We think that’s about as good as it can get when it comes to luxury.

And now for the bad news. We are shocked and horrified to report that Four Winds Casino Dowagiac received a big fat zero on our Luxury Scale. We didn’t even know that was possible - we’ve never seen that before, and we did a lot of research for a bunch of different states. 

Just to be perfectly clear, this means that not one single person mentioned any of our keywords. No one even said their experience was “comfortable”. A reviewer named Steve even went as far as to say “My family and I will never visit another Four Winds casino again”. 

But brace yourself, friends, it gets even worse. 

It wasn’t just the casino at the very bottom of the list that bagged a zero -- second from the bottom got the same honor, but Kewadin Casinos - Christmas had 46 reviews, none of which named this as a luxury casino. 

“We were thinking about eating dinner at the casino but after I went up to the bar to get a drink and looked into the kitchen it was absolutely filthy”, said one person. Although surprisingly, the casino did get 12 five star reviews somehow. 

Methodology 

Casinos.com utilized Tripadvisor reviews to do an in-depth analysis of phrases associated with luxury to determine the most luxurious casinos in the state of Michigan. We calculated the percentage of luxury-rated mentions in the total Tripadvisor reviews.

Keywords tracked: luxury, luxurious, magnificent, delightful, comfort, comfortable, impressive, pleasure, indulge, extravagant, fancy, exclusive, satisfied

Disclaimer

The information in this article is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to be perceived as a factual representation of any of the establishments listed.

Fair Use Policy

The data and graphics on this page are free to use as long as proper credit is given by linking to the original article.

Unable to head out to one of these casinos? Get out your phone and choose from any one of the top casino apps in the US. Yes, they are completely legal in Michigan.