Trump Entertainment Resorts

Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. announced today that it has emerged from Chapter 11 reorganization, days after the New Jersey Casino Control Commission approved a plan that lets Donald J. Trump and his daughter Ivanka retain at least partial control of the company that bears their name.    - Inquirer staff  

ATLANTIC CITY - The California development company that plans to buy Atlantic City's Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino for $20 million says the deal is on hold. In a statement issued late Friday, the Meruelo Group said the sale could not currently be completed as planned because Trump Entertainment had been unable to obtain the release of a mortgage held by a "senior secured lender. " When the deal was announced in February, Meruelo said it hoped to close the sale by May 31 The Press of Atlantic City said Trump spokesman Brian Cahill confirmed Meruelo's statement but had no further comment.

Donald J. Trump is looking to two Atlantic City veterans to turn his struggling casino business around. Mark Juliano, who resigned as president of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Friday, will replace Mark Brown as head of the three Trump casinos in Atlantic City, according to Trump. Juliano's last day at Caesars Palace is July 31. "I'm very happy about it," Trump said yesterday in a phone interview from New York. "It's fantastic. There's no better team in the business. " Juliano, 50, joins James B. Perry, who was tapped by Trump earlier this month to become chief executive officer of New York-based Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., which operates a riverboat casino in Gary, Ind., in addition to the three casinos in Atlantic City.

A shift manager at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort was fatally shot yesterday in a storage room just off the casino floor. Minutes later, a suspect identified by state police as a 57-year-old man from Norristown, Pa., was arrested inside the casino's parking garage. Police also recovered a handgun that may have been used in the shooting. The manager, identified by a company official as Ray Kot of Egg Harbor Township, was pronounced dead about 5:30 p.m., 2 1/2 hours after the shooting.

Donald J. Trump characterizes billionaire financier Carl Icahn as a good friend but says that his friend doesn't spend money. "I've known him for many years," Trump told a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing in Camden this morning, referring to the man who has put forth a plan to bring Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. out of its third bankruptcy. But, Trump continued as he answered a question from one of Icahn's lawyers, "He doesn't spend any money. If he spends 10 cents, it's a major event.

Trump Entertainment Resorts has come out a loser in the Pennsylvania casino market. Again. The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday rejected the two-year bid of the company - known for its three Atlantic City casinos and its high-profile partial owner Donald Trump - to overturn a 2006 ruling by the state Gaming Control Board. Trump, using the name Keystone Redevelopment Partners LLC, pitched a casino at the old Budd Co. plant in Nicetown. The board rejected Trump's bid for one of two casino licenses in Philadelphia, in part because it worried he would use the local casino to draw customers to Atlantic City, where the tax rate on gambling profits is lower.

TRENTON - Ready. Set. Go get married! A couple of New Jersey lawmakers are proposing a bill to eliminate the state's 72-hour waiting period for couples seeking a license to wed. Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, D-Voorhees, and state Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Linden, argue that the law is antiquated - it dates back to 1934 - and getting rid of it would give New Jersey a competitive edge in the wedding-tourism market. Other nearby states, like New York and Delaware, have only 24-hour waiting periods.

Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., owner of two casino hotels in Atlantic City, is about to enter a partnership with another firm to offer online gambling. Trump Entertainment has "determined that such a joint venture represents the most advantageous way for the company to participate in opportunities in online gaming at minimal cost to the company," according to an Oct. 14 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trump Entertainment would own 10 percent of the new venture.

Gov. Chris Christie this morning allowed Atlantic City's casinos be reopened to the public, six days after his executive order declaring them closed in preparation for Hurricane Sandy's arrival. Christie ordered gaming suspended on Saturday. He said they could reopen starting 10 a.m. today. Sandy officially came ashore in Atlantic City 8 p.m. Monday night and was severely impacted by the storm, with part of the the boardwalk being washed away in the northern end. Christie had suspended operations at all 12 casinos, which forced closure of all the hotels, simulcast facilities and gaming.

Frederick T. Cunningham, 59, vice president of legal affairs for Trump Entertainment Resorts, died Thursday, Sept. 20, after suffering a heart attack on his way home to Haddon Heights from Atlantic City. Mr. Cunningham also served as secretary of the New Jersey Bar Association's Casino Law Section. He grew up in Levittown, Bucks County, as well as Levittown, Long Island, and graduated from the State University of New York in Brockport in 1974. Mr. Cunningham met his wife, Joanne, while working in the claims department at Colonial Penn Insurance Co. After marrying and starting a family, he studied law at night at Rutgers University Law School in Camden, from which he received his degree in 1986.

ATLANTIC CITY - The California development company that plans to buy Atlantic City's Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino for $20 million says the deal is on hold. In a statement issued late Friday, the Meruelo Group said the sale could not currently be completed as planned because Trump Entertainment had been unable to obtain the release of a mortgage held by a "senior secured lender. " When the deal was announced in February, Meruelo said it hoped to close the sale by May 31 The Press of Atlantic City said Trump spokesman Brian Cahill confirmed Meruelo's statement but had no further comment.

ATLANTIC CITY - This resort's casinos are struggling to deal with the aftermath of Sandy by laying off workers, cutting the hours of others, and making still others take unpaid leaves. The storm forced the city's 12 casinos to close for five to seven days. Since then, business has been slower than normal. The Atlantic Club has turned to layoffs to offset the downturn. The two Trump casinos are making salaried workers take a week off without pay and are barring hourly workers from using vacation days to cover time off during the storm.

Gov. Chris Christie this morning allowed Atlantic City's casinos be reopened to the public, six days after his executive order declaring them closed in preparation for Hurricane Sandy's arrival. Christie ordered gaming suspended on Saturday. He said they could reopen starting 10 a.m. today. Sandy officially came ashore in Atlantic City 8 p.m. Monday night and was severely impacted by the storm, with part of the the boardwalk being washed away in the northern end. Christie had suspended operations at all 12 casinos, which forced closure of all the hotels, simulcast facilities and gaming.

Frederick T. Cunningham, 59, vice president of legal affairs for Trump Entertainment Resorts, died Thursday, Sept. 20, after suffering a heart attack on his way home to Haddon Heights from Atlantic City. Mr. Cunningham also served as secretary of the New Jersey Bar Association's Casino Law Section. He grew up in Levittown, Bucks County, as well as Levittown, Long Island, and graduated from the State University of New York in Brockport in 1974. Mr. Cunningham met his wife, Joanne, while working in the claims department at Colonial Penn Insurance Co. After marrying and starting a family, he studied law at night at Rutgers University Law School in Camden, from which he received his degree in 1986.

ATLANTIC CITY - When Atlantic City rolled out its "Always Turned On" tourism slogan in 2003, critics felt it was a little, well, risque. Nine years later, they've fixed that. The new slogan? "Do AC!" It's part of a $30 million casino-funded campaign to promote the nation's second-largest gambling resort through a group called the Atlantic City Alliance. The slogan, written by an agency the alliance hired, tested well, according to Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority president Jeff Vasser.

In the Region House to study refinery closures Rep. Patrick Meehan (R., Pa.) said Wednesday that the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence would examine how nationwide refinery closures, including three in the Philadelphia area, could cause supply shortages and threaten critical infrastructure. Meehan said the panel's inquiry would help explain the homeland security consequences of the decline in U.S. refining capacity. Sunoco Inc. has shut its Marcus Hook refinery and announced plans to idle its Philadelphia plant if a buyer cannot be found.

ATLANTIC CITY - Ho-ho-whoa! Just in time for Christmas, New Jersey casino regulators ruled Friday that it would be all right to have a strip club inside the Taj Mahal Casino Resort. The so-called "gentlemen's club" would be the first in an Atlantic City casino since legalized gambling began here 33 years ago. The ruling by the Division of Gaming Enforcement would permit Scores to open a $3 million club at the Taj, provided the company can obtain a liquor license. The project "will give us additional entertainment, food, beverage, and retail amenities that will be great additions to the property," said Robert Griffin, chief executive officer of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. In a directive that bordered on an anatomy lesson, the division explicitly detailed what would need to stay covered.

TRENTON - Ready. Set. Go get married! A couple of New Jersey lawmakers are proposing a bill to eliminate the state's 72-hour waiting period for couples seeking a license to wed. Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, D-Voorhees, and state Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Linden, argue that the law is antiquated - it dates back to 1934 - and getting rid of it would give New Jersey a competitive edge in the wedding-tourism market. Other nearby states, like New York and Delaware, have only 24-hour waiting periods.

Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., owner of two casino hotels in Atlantic City, is about to enter a partnership with another firm to offer online gambling. Trump Entertainment has "determined that such a joint venture represents the most advantageous way for the company to participate in opportunities in online gaming at minimal cost to the company," according to an Oct. 14 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trump Entertainment would own 10 percent of the new venture.

TRENTON - New Jersey regulators are considering a request from two casinos to post armed guards on their premises following several high-profile killings. The Division of Gaming Enforcement is studying a request from Trump Entertainment Resorts to allow it to post armed guards on the casino floor and in other areas. There have been two fatal carjackings from the parking garage of the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in the last 16 months. The request would let all 11 casinos use armed guards, even though executives of several others say they do not favor such a step.