Gambling Hall

Developer Donald J. Trump and Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. will maintain control of the three Atlantic City casinos that bear his famous name. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Judith Wizmur ruled Monday in favor of a proposal by the bondholders and the company to bring it out of bankruptcy a third time. The decision represented a major defeat for billionaire financier Carl Icahn, who had waged a bid to take over the company since December. "We were hoping for this," an elated Trump said by phone Monday from his New York office, minutes after the 121-page ruling came down at 5:45 p.m. He took the call with daughter Ivanka Trump at his side.

Not content with being the top-grossing casino in the state, Parx wants to grow again - just three months after opening a bigger $250 million gambling hall in Bensalem. The casino is embarking on a multiphase expansion over the next three to five years at a cost of $100 million - with the potential to add $200 million more - depending on the size of a hotel, spa, and showroom, according to Bob Green, chairman of Greenwood Racing Inc., which owns Parx. He said the expansions could create an additional 1,000 jobs over that time.

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.

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 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.

Atlantic City last month suffered its largest monthly decline in gaming revenue since the seaside resort opened its first casino in 1978. Figures released yesterday by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission confirmed what had been felt by many casino operators there: Last month was horrible. Slots competition from Pennsylvania casinos, a split Labor Day weekend, and a tropical storm combined to whack the resort's casinos, resulting in a 15.1 percent decrease in total revenue, compared with September last year.

The Board of City Trusts has widened its search for a suitor to build a gambling hall on prime Center City property owned by the Girard Estate. Only two politically connected developers with ties to the board submitted proposals last year when the board solicited plans from about 10 firms in May 2003. The board had imposed a July 2003 deadline for submissions. But a third company submitted a proposal three weeks ago to develop the site at 12th and Market Streets across from the Pennsylvania Convention Center, according to Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.

Finally, the big Miss B has set the date. The $1.1 billion Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa - the one that invites you to "ditch your inhibitions" and "give boredom the slip" - will open to the public on July 3, in time for the big holiday weekend. The Borgata will be the first new casino in Atlantic City in 13 years. The upscale resort boasts of its good taste, sophistication and sensuality, aimed at baby boomers and others who have rejected Atlantic City in the past. Its opening date had become the big unanswered question around town, with officials declining until yesterday to be any more specific than sometime between July 1 and July 11. They still hedged yesterday, saying the opening was "pending the receipt of final regulatory approvals.

You can be darn sure there were no seagulls in Dodge City. No sand castles either. And the stagecoach wasn't followed, as it was yesterday on the Boardwalk, by Carlos Velez and his wondrous Madvac to suck up the horse deposits. But the public seemed to pay no mind to the native - and practical - touches of Atlantic City 1997 yesterday at the grand opening of the Wild Wild West Casino. The $110 million addition to Hilton Hotel Corp.'s Bally's Park Place is the first themed gambling hall in this seaside town that hopes to broaden its appeal beyond day-trippers to vacationing families.

Driven out at riflepoint more than a century ago, they're now getting a red-carpet welcome back. A tribe of the Delaware Indians, force-marched westward around the time of the Civil War, has been invited back to Wildwood - to bring casino gambling to a Jersey Shore spot other than Atlantic City. City officials here say they've wrapped up about a year's worth of negotiations with the Delawares, who are 1,500 miles away in the southwestern corner of Oklahoma, to bring casino gambling to Cape May County.