While the rise of Barden came in Las Vegas in 2001-2003, he started leaning towards the casino industry as early as 1993, when he sold his share of Barden Cablevision to Comcast to raise $300 million. Barden then made several bids to buy casinos, even one with the iconic Micheal Jackson. Even though he had a unique idea of a theme park in Detroit casino based on Jackson’s hit album “Thriller”, the project failed to gain traction as Detroit City Council denied a casino license to them.