Gambling Hall

ATLANTIC CITY - As this town's 11 casinos prepare for their busiest season, each is pulling out the stops to accommodate visitors with tight budgets. Every gambling hall here is offering summer promotions to attract customers, such as Alexis DeJesus of Brigantine, who says he's on the hunt for competitive room rates, more activities along the Boardwalk, and additional rides at the Steel Pier for his 2-year-old daughter, Gianna. "They need to be more competitive - at the top of their game," DeJesus, 27, said of the city's gambling palaces while he was visiting the Tropicana recently.

The president of the financially troubled Atlantis Casino Hotel said yesterday that the gambling hall had made an impressive turnaround this year and would significantly reduce the losses that have forced it into bankruptcy court. Jeanne Hood, the Atlantis' president, told the New Jersey Casino Control Commission that deep cuts in costs and a new plan to attract gamblers would put the Atlantic City casino-hotel on sound financial footing. "I'm quite confident that we can continue operating," said Hood, whose casino-hotel lost $35.2 million in 1985.

The large and vocal opposition to the proposed casino in Gettysburg should be enough reason for the Gaming Control Board to deny a license to that historic town. But if the gaming board needs further convincing, it should look to the supporters of the project. That's because they failed to make a compelling case that a casino would truly benefit Gettysburg. Casino supporters argue that the gambling hall would produce major economic benefits for Gettysburg. Granted, the casino will generate tax revenue for the state and county.

A state Supreme Court ruling Tuesday means that slot machines and table games could be up and running soon at the Valley Forge Convention Center. Another local gambling hall should support the compelling theory that the region's casino market might already be maxed out. That's potentially good news for Philadelphia, if it convinces state policymakers to steer clear of saddling the city with a second casino to replace the failed Foxwoods project on the Delaware River. One casino for the city is one too many, given the social costs of gambling.

A state senator from western Pennsylvania is eyeing the license granted to Foxwoods Casino investors for a gambling hall on Columbus Boulevard in South Philadelphia. The Senate Community and Economic Development Committee yesterday approved a bill proposed by state Sen. John N. Wozniak, who wants to move Foxwoods' license to Johnstown, in his district. The committee voted to make the license available anywhere else in the state, outside Philadelphia, if the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board decides to pull the long-delayed Foxwoods' license.

The lender for Resorts Atlantic City has taken the unprecedented step of petitioning to take over the casino after the gambling hall failed to make its last three mortgage payments. Column Financial Inc., a subsidiary of Credit Suisse, filed a petition with the New Jersey Casino Control Commission yesterday and cited the casino's default on its mortgage as grounds for the takeover. If a takeover fails, Column Financial wants the owners, affiliates of Colony Capital L.L.C. - the Los Angeles-based parent of the owner of the casino - to surrender the title.

Elsinore Corp.'s contract selling its failed Atlantis Casino Hotel to developer Donald Trump for $61 million is valid, the state Division of Gaming Enforcement said yesterday. The decision is a serious blow to Atlantis conservator Joseph M. Nolan's efforts to kill the deal. Casino Control Commissioners "should either assume the validity of the agreement . . . or else rule that a valid contract" exists, DGE Director Anthony J. Parrillo said yesterday in a 26-page letter to Commission Chairman Walter N. Read.

Donald Trump, proving himself a high-tech P.T. Barnum, officially opened his Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort last night by rubbing a giant lamp that freed the electronic genie Fabu as a crowd of thousands watched. "Good evening, master. I, Fabu, am here at your service," the turbaned genie's image declared from a giant projection screen set up in the 80-foot- wide, 240-foot-long approach to the largest gambling hall in New Jersey. The Taj, with 120,000 square feet of gaming area and 1,250 rooms, is the first new gambling hall here since the Showboat Hotel & Casino opened three years ago. It cost Trump $804 million and must win more than $1 million per day from gamblers to cover its costs.

Mitzi Briggs, the heiress who lost her fortune when the firm that owns TropWorld Casino in Atlantic City refused to pay her as promised for a casino in Las Vegas, won some vindication this week. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that she is owed $33 million in damages and interest. But she won't get any of the money. The court's ruling dismissed an appeal by Aztar Inc. of Phoenix, which had refused to finish making its payments on the Tropicana Casino in Las Vegas but kept the gambling hall.

Philadelphia's resistance to casinos is gradually waning as the arrival of at least one gambling hall on the waterfront appears certain. A poll of 1,602 people conducted in January by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 51 percent favored casino gambling in the city, consistent with results of 53 percent in April and 49 percent in January 2009. But it is the hard-line opposition that appears to be softening. Those who declared themselves opposed to casinos in totaled 34 percent, a 9-percentage-point dip from January 2009, when 43 percent opposed casinos.

Table games revenue at Pennsylvania's 11 gambling halls last month totaled $55.3 million, a 2.1 decrease from a year ago, when the same revenue from blackjack, poker and other games was $56.6 million. February's tables revenue translated to nearly $8 million in state tax revenue, according to figures posted Monday by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The state's top four table game revenue generators last month were Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem at $12.1 million from 183 tables; Parx in Bensalem at $8.2 million from 163 tables; SugarHouse at $7.3 million from 58 tables; and Harrah's Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack at $6.9 million with 121 tables.

Ira Lubert and the professional investors he's hired as partners manage more than $10 billion in other people's money. With his fortune from profits and fees, Lubert buys his personal investments. Three months ago, a group he heads premiered 600 slot machines and 50 gambling tables, built around a stylish hotel bar and amid seven new restaurants, in a two-hotel complex at their Valley Forge Casino Resort. It's a small place compared, say, with the 3,500-slots, 180-table Parx in Bensalem, whose court challenges helped delay Lubert's casino for six years.

Dennis Gomes, 68, co-owner of Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City and a former mob-busting Las Vegas prosecutor whose exploits inspired the movie Casino, died Friday, his son said. The Margate, N.J., resident died at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital of complications from kidney dialysis, said Aaron Gomes, vice president of operations at the casino. Dennis Gomes had developed kidney problems and was undergoing dialysis after breaking his back last year. "Whether or not it was related to his back we will never know, but he ended up having major kidney issues and was put on temporary dialysis," Aaron Gomes said.

ATLANTIC CITY - The former Atlantic City Hilton Casino, renamed ACH Casino Resort last year, is now the Atlantic Club. The casino's new name and business strategy were unveiled Tuesday by Michael Frawley, Atlantic Club's chief operating officer, who said the casino wants to be "the locals casino" in the market as it seeks to reestablish itself. "This isn't where you take your wife on her birthday. This is where you take your wife on a Wednesday," Frawley said matter-of-factly inside his office here.

A state Supreme Court ruling Tuesday means that slot machines and table games could be up and running soon at the Valley Forge Convention Center. Another local gambling hall should support the compelling theory that the region's casino market might already be maxed out. That's potentially good news for Philadelphia, if it convinces state policymakers to steer clear of saddling the city with a second casino to replace the failed Foxwoods project on the Delaware River. One casino for the city is one too many, given the social costs of gambling.

On the casino battleground that is the Delaware River waterfront, this is what victory looks like: A school of cool blue lamps hovering over a brand-new blackjack table, surrounded by a metal sea of blinking slot machines, with the music of Smash Mouth on the sound system: "All that glitters is gold. ... " The much-debated, long-delayed SugarHouse Casino is set to open Thursday, the first gambling hall in Philadelphia. All that's left is to cut a ribbon. That reality holds joy or sadness for the people, neighborhood groups, and city organizations that have for years fought for or against the coming of the casino.

The large and vocal opposition to the proposed casino in Gettysburg should be enough reason for the Gaming Control Board to deny a license to that historic town. But if the gaming board needs further convincing, it should look to the supporters of the project. That's because they failed to make a compelling case that a casino would truly benefit Gettysburg. Casino supporters argue that the gambling hall would produce major economic benefits for Gettysburg. Granted, the casino will generate tax revenue for the state and county.

Out of habit, I inhale deeply, preparing for the worst as I walk into Delaware Park Casino, near Wilmington. But inside, the olfactory assault is unlike anything I've ever whiffed in a gambling hall. It's deliciously decadent, so sweet I can practically feel myself gaining weight just trying to place the scent - vanilla? - wafting from the bakery/ice cream parlor next to the player services counter. You have to smell it to believe it , Mike Miller Jr. insisted after inviting me on a road trip to the casino, where he and his friends regularly deposit part of their pension checks.

A state senator from western Pennsylvania is eyeing the license granted to Foxwoods Casino investors for a gambling hall on Columbus Boulevard in South Philadelphia. The Senate Community and Economic Development Committee yesterday approved a bill proposed by state Sen. John N. Wozniak, who wants to move Foxwoods' license to Johnstown, in his district. The committee voted to make the license available anywhere else in the state, outside Philadelphia, if the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board decides to pull the long-delayed Foxwoods' license.