The days of Detroit being known as motor city with rappers and thugs (and both) aspiring to be the next Eminem may be replaced with something else — gambling in style.

Detroit is the next casino destination. A decade ago this may have been difficult to believe, but now the thought of Madonna performing a homecoming gig at the MGM Grand Detroit isn’t too far off. Yes kids, Madonna was from Detroit.

And as it is, Michigan’s identity is getting a revamp. For years, four major casinos operate in Detroit — MGM, Motor City casino, Greektown and Windsor Casino across the Detroit River in Ontario.

MGM is probably the most major of them all, with its Grand Celebrity Room frequented by famous folks the likes of Rasheed Wallace playing high stakes Baccarat.Many Detroit wage earners have also traded their welding equipment to cards and chips taking jobs in the casinos. Bye-bye to oil and grease, baby.

And that’s all about to get better as a new player is about to take a huge bite off the Michigan gambling market. Four Winds Casino Resort, a new 5-star casino and hotel facility, opened recently just off Exit 1 of I-94 near New Buffalo. In fact, the area is one of three new casino locations expected to open in Michigan cities in the next year or two.

Not to be outdone, MGM took a grand effort to get a facelift with a new 17-story, $800 million MGM Grand Detroit hotel and casino to open in Oct. 2. Reports also came out that the other three casinos as scrambling to renovate. story

That’s good news, indeed, for a state with the highest unemployment rate after big car companies went robotics and laid off hundreds of thousands of workers. It’s the casinos to the rescue.

That’s not to say everyone has embraced the coming of the casinos. Of course there are still those who believe it’s the bearer of society’s evil. But ask anyone in Detroit about the impact of the city’s casinos - city officials, cab drivers, business owners, anyone in the street – they all start with the same sentence: “They bring in jobs.”

Ergo, that can’t be bad now, wouldn’t it? That’s something new to rap about.

[Las Vegas style casino gambling is coming to Detroit. But online, there’s only one place to be: AcesAce Casino, online casino site for high rollers.]