Who runs the Gun Lake Casino?

ALLEGAN, Mich. (WOOD) - The line to the Gun Lake Casino begins in Las Vegas.

And at the head of that line are Frank Fertitta III and his brother, Lorenzo Fertitta.

The billionaire Fertitta brothers own Station Casinos in Las Vegas, a company founded in the 1960s by their father who died in 2009 . Station owns 18 casinos and hotels and are expanding their business helping run tribal casinos, like Gun Lake, across the country.

They ran the Thunder Valley Casino in Sacramento for seven years and have contracts to develop and run three other California tribal casinos.

The Fertittas also own UFC , the mixed martial arts fights that began life as Unlimited Fighting Championship and now recognized as their most valuable asset.

They've been involved with the Gun Lake Casino since 2003, when they bought half of MPM Enterprises, the company contracted by the Gun Lake tribe to run the casino.

There are three politically connected investors from Mt. Pleasant working with MPM : former mayors Bart Labelle and W. Sidney Smith, and beverage distributor James Fabiano.

Station Casinos advanced $65 million toward the development of the Gun Lake Casino, and helped arrange a $165 million loan from Goldman Sachs. To date, the Gun Lake tribe has repaid $43 million.

For a few years, Station Casinos was listed on Forbes Magazine's Best Places to Work . But they filed for bankruptcy in 2009, and are currently working under a bankruptcy re-organization plan.

In 2010, the National Labor Relations Board leveled dozens of unfair labor practice allegations against Station Casinos in its organizing dispute with restaurant and bartender unions in Las Vegas.

A Securities and Exchange Commission report reveals the financial deal Gun Lake made with the Station-MPM agreement:

• The Gun Lake Casino will pay a management fee to MPM of 30% of its annual net income for seven years

  MPM will pay Station Casinos on a graduated basis:

• The first $24 million MPM earns, it will pay Station Casinos 50% ($12 million)
• Between $24 million and $48 million, Station Casinos will be paid 83% (between $20 million and $40 million)
• Above $48 million, Station Casinos will be paid 93% from MPM

But the state of Michigan and local governments will share some of the wealth, too. Since tribal land is sovereign and can't be taxed, an agreement was struck for the tribe to share part of its slot machine income - an estimated $9 million to the state and $2 million to local government.

Despite these cash outlays, the Gun Lake tribe will earn most of the money.

"It's going to be a tremendous boost to the area, to Allegan County, to the tribe," said tribal chairman D.K. Sprague.

Casino income will go to pay for housing, health care, education and preserving tribal customs and language, said Sprague in an earlier interview.

Now, after years of lawsuits and delays, the dice will roll, the slots will be pulled and the cards will be dealt in Allegan - and felt all the way to Las Vegas.

On the Net:

Station Casinos - facebook

Lorenzo Fertitta on imdb