AC Press: Professional poker players find careers in the cards at Atlantic City gaming tables

Before Joe Simmons sits in on a game at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, before he grabs his chips from the cashier, Simmons scouts out the poker room.

The 45-year-old Brigantine resident looks at chip stacks, pot sizes and familiar faces. He looks for known bad players, those he does not recognize and the least number of headphones. He wants that game.

Simmons doesn’t want to play against decent regulars. He’d rather hit up the tourists. He is one of dozens — possibly hundreds — of professional poker players in the resort.

Simmons doesn’t flaunt his job or talk about the daily grind at the table. Instead, he focuses on the players around him. He makes early assumptions based on a person’s demeanor and the amount of chips a player has.

Does he look mad? Did he just lose a big pot? Did she just say she’s getting sleepy? Did that player just tip the dealer extra money? She sure knows a lot of chip tricks. He played that hand tricky.

All of these thoughts add up as Simmons creates profiles for the other players in the game.

“You don’t know if someone is just lucky or good until you have played with them,” he said. “It’s better to assume they know what they’re doing until you find out they don’t. That’s when you go after them.”

Simmons wakes up never knowing whether he’s going to get paid that day. Unlike most people with “regular” jobs, Simmons and other professional poker players could lose money after a day of work.

“I saw all the money out there, and it seemed like people were just giving it away for awhile,” said Simmons, who has $828,164 in career tournament winnings. “The money can be very good at times, but people don‘t realize how hard it is to do this every day.”

The poker boom began in 2003, when Chris Moneymaker, a regular guy with no pro experience, won the World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas. He became an instant celebrity and millionaire. His win gave legitimacy to poker as not just a shady back-room card game.

Poker became mainstream almost overnight. It brought housewives, lawyers and college students to the table looking for that same success.

Simmons, who created music and managed bands such as The Roots, got involved right away. He felt poker’s popularity was about to take off, and he didn’t want to miss it even if some family members didn’t agree.

“My mother never liked me playing poker,” Simmons said. “Even when I was making a lot of money, she never agreed with it.”

Poker involves psychology, skill and luck. It combines the rush of gambling with elements of strategy.

And then there’s the money.

“I saw how much money people were making on TV, and I wanted to try it out,” said poker pro Dwyte Pilgrim, 28, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who made his name playing tournaments in Atlantic City. “I saw I was good,” Pilgrim said. “I was the best out of my friends.”

To prove it, Pilgrim won $733,402 on Thursday at the Borgata Poker Open, a World Poker Tour event.

Atlantic City has been the proving ground for popular players such as Phil Ivey, 34, a Roselle, Union County, native who now lives in Las Vegas and is considered one of the best poker players of all time. He got his start at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, which was featured in the poker movie “Rounders.”

But the game also has chased away people who couldn’t handle the lifestyle. So many of them didn’t realize how big the ups and downs could be or how depressing losing feels.

Choosing poker as a career

Most area professional poker players say they started with a dream of winning a huge tournament like the ones they see on television. They all thought about what it would be like to be their own boss. It’s so easy to be caught in the spectacle of poker, with the money and freedom it can afford, but the leap is not easy to make.

Pilgrim made the move after testing his abilities for several months playing poker on the Internet and traveling to Atlantic City from Brooklyn on the weekends. Even though he was winning, he didn’t want to quit his job as a loan officer.

Pilgrim would leave guaranteed money and benefits to go to a world where he wouldn’t have either.

After months of talking to confidantes, he finally made the jump in 2007. He spent six days a week at the Taj Mahal, and on the seventh day he returned to New York. He earned comps and free rooms playing poker, and lived out of a suitcase.

Pilgrim switched to Harrah’s Resort in 2008, when he decided to focus on tournaments over cash games, where each player‘s own money is at stake as opposed to a tournament with a prize pool.

“I was looking for a bigger payday,” said Pilgrim in a phone interview from Indiana. “On a good day in a cash game, you can win a thousand, but in a tournament, if you get hot, you can win thousands.”

Those big scores in a cash game are rare in Atlantic City for most pros. There aren’t many big-stakes games. The resort is littered with $1-$2 and $2-$5 no-limit hold ’em games (the numbers represent the price of the small and big blinds, forced bets by the two players to the left of the dealer position). But the higher the blinds, the fewer games are available because casual players don’t want to put large amounts of money at stake.

If a person thinks about going pro, he or she has to think about losing. Sure, the money is good when you’re winning, but what happens when you’re not?

“The toughest part is the down swings,” Pilgrim said. “Anyone can handle winning, but it’s how you handle the losing that separates the good players.”

Dealing with down swings

Simmons knows about those swings probably better than most.

Since 2003, he has gone broke twice.

He lost his money the first time by playing too big. He sat in on a $150-$300 mixed game (where different games are played in a rotation) at Borgata. He had enough for a buy-in, but the other players just had more money in general.

Simmons played against those with millions of dollars behind them, while he had a bankroll worth a few hundred thousand.

It was easy for his opponents to call bets even if they didn’t have the right odds and Simmons had a favorable hand. Money wasn’t a problem for them.

“These guys were playing bad, and I knew it,” Simmons said. “But there is still some gambling going on. There is still luck, and there was a time when I was just unlucky for a long time. That happens.”

In early 2006, he went broke chasing his money. Eventually, he had to play smaller stakes and grind out another bankroll.

Simmons earned his money back cashing big in tournaments in 2007. He won more than $500,000 in a seven-month span, including $387,709 with a fourth-place finish in the Borgata Poker Open championship.

With all that money rushing into his bank account, he took advantage of the windfall.

He rented a $2,500-per-month apartment in Center City, Philadelphia, invested $50,000 each in two companies and went back to playing the bigger games.

Eventually, Simmons’ savings took a hit and dwindled. The two companies — a music studio and a salon — both failed. The rent ate away at his savings, and he once again hit a bad streak.

“You lose so much money, and you can’t even think straight,” Simmons said.

He was broke again.

“I’m not mad that I didn’t buy a house. So many people told me I should have done that,” Simmons said. “I wished I would have put money away for my kids and my parents.”

Simmons, who has a 13-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter in Philadelphia, moved to a cheaper place in Brigantine to be closer to the casinos. He then borrowed $2,000 each from 10 different poker regulars to get his bankroll back.

He played in smaller games, such as $2-$5 no-limit, and had to deal with questions about why he was playing lower limits.

“I was embarrassed,” he said. “I didn’t know what to tell people at the time. I hated when people asked me that.”

Simmons hit a big share of a bad-beat jackpot at Borgata earlier this year worth more than $80,000. He paid back his loans and is now working on making sure his money isn’t all in one place.

He’s working on a poker website (www.stuckfrompoker.com) and is back to creating music at his home studio.

“These kinds of swings could happen to anyone,” Simmons said. “So many people told me how that happened to them. I learned a lot and not how to do that again.”

Not enough for some

Depending on the stakes, a poker player can average $500 to several thousand dollars a week in cash. There are no tax forms on cash games because there is no way for casinos to determine how much a person won or lost in a single session. However, the casino informs the IRS of tournament winnings and bad-beat jackpots in cash games.

Most poker players go to work for an eight-hour shift and take a food break in the middle. But it’s not all-in moves and a constant barrage of betting throughout the night.

Jason Hague, 30, moved to Atlantic City from Trenton to play poker while he was between jobs. There were nights he sat in on games where he was bored out of his mind — because there are nights when the action is just not there.

Those nights, Hague listened to his iPod or chatted to the person next to him. However, he still had to pay attention or he would have watched his chips slide into someone else’s stack.

This is when he had the advantage.

“Boredom makes a lot of people make mistakes,” said Hague, who normally played after 7 p.m. “I noticed when people got tired, they didn’t think right. Those were times I waited for, to take advantage.”

Hague has a bachelor’s degree from The College of New Jersey and realized there was absolutely nothing he wanted to do with it.

Playing poker wasn’t the dream either, but he was good at it. He moved to Absecon and played poker until he got a job as a poker dealer at the Showboat Casino Hotel.

“It’s too scary to just play cards,” said Hague, who recently moved to Bethlehem, Pa., to take a job as a poker supervisor at the Sands Casino. “While there is a lot of skill involved, there’s just too much luck involved to feel comfortable.”

Hague remembers nights he played at Caesars Atlantic City before he got a job and hoped he would be able to make his rent. He watched chips shuffle between bad players and was frustrated when he couldn’t get a hand to hold up against them or just never got any cards he could play with. There were nights when he lost more than $300 in one hand.

He knew he wanted a steady job and didn’t want to make a living as a poker player. Although before he moved, he often played on his days off to supplement his income.

There was just too much luck involved for his liking.

Good players lose. Good players get unlucky and sometimes make mistakes worth hundreds of dollars. The daily grind of figuring out your next payday is too much for some.

“I’ve seen thousands of people say they want to be professional poker players,” said poker pro Gavin Smith, who was at Borgata for a tournament in June. “Most of them think they have what it takes, but most have no idea.”

The swings get to most players. One week, they may never lose a hand. However, over the next three weeks, the statistical odds go against them and all the money they made during the past two months is gone.

Those times separate the good players from the bad. The good ones are mentally tough enough to ride out a bad run of cards and know they will eventually get back to winning.

The bad ones give up or go broke and never come back.

“The swings are the hardest thing you’re ever going to deal with in poker,” Simmons said. “If people don’t have discipline and can’t handle their money, they aren’t going to make it. There aren’t many people I would tell them it’s a good idea to play poker.”

SOURCE

Press of AC article on Annie Duke

Just wanted to link you guys to the article from The Press of Atlantic City on Annie Duke.

It was a pretty good read. I hope you guys enjoy it.

Poker pro Annie Duke hit Harrah's for satellite tournament

Going to Harrah's in a handbasket

Harrah's Resort has been hit with a new set of lawsuits. At this point it's only getting comical. Here's a link to the story from The Press of Atlantic City.

In a country where people are innocent until proven guilty, I see the opposite of this.

I knew far too many people who had complaints at Harrah's, spoke to people in human resources and their supervisors, only to see the situation escalate to the point where working conditions were made impossible. I'm not surprised by the latest allegations.

Since this is a blog about poker, I will say this. I've seen the poker room turn from one my favorites to a room I will never walk into again. The majority of the dealers are unprofessional (which reminds of a story I need to tell about my latest trip to Atlantic City), lack any sort of knowledge about poker and do not care about the integrity of the game.

All the good dealers and floor people at Harrah's are slowly leaving. And the ones who were good have given up because they don't see the point in trying anymore.

Atlantic City Press catches bad beat fever

The Press of Atlantic City had a recent article about the bad beat jackpot at Caesars.

The reporter caught on to the fact that there are many people in the room, but missed some key element to describe the craziness of the room.

The reporter doesn't describe how long the wait list or the fact that there are only $1/$2 no-limit games available. In addition, it doesn't say how long players are waiting for a game.

"It's a circus," said a less-than-thrilled Greg Rudolph, also of New York City, still waiting for a table. "It really is."

In that quote, it merely says Rudolph is still waiting. But how long? 10 minutes? One hour? Three hours? A day?

Nice to see the Atlantic City paper get a poker story in, but just needed a little something extra.

Lots of Atlantic City casino news

Over the past week, plenty of news has been dribbling in about some of the Atlantic City casinos and ventures that affect them.

- Latest update on high stakes poker player Andy Beal's attempts to gain control of the three Trump casinos (link).

- ACES, the direct train from New York City to Atlantic City will have less trains during the winter season because of low ridership (link).

- Atlantic City makes plans for Revel's tax payments (link).

Borgata Poker Open down to three tables

The Borgata blog is the place to keep up-to-date with the latest info on the Borgata Poker Open.

The main event is down to the final three tables. Play will begin Wednesday at 11 a.m., and go down to the final six for the final televised table.

Those six will get their mugs on Fox Sports Net in the future.

Here are the chip counts heading into Day 3 from the WPT live updates.

Also, if you want to see more photos, check out this gallery from The Press of Atlantic City.

Press of AC: Borgata cashes in on lower buy-in poker tournaments

It's good to see The Press of Atlantic City with some poker articles.

Borgata cashes in with lower buy-ins at poker tournament

By SUSAN LULGJURAJ, Staff Writer

The grim economy would seem to make the timing bad for a major poker tournament in this struggling casino market.

However, the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship has been a success since it started on Sept. 8 with an estimated 15,000 entrants.

The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa's signature poker tournament concludes with a televised final table of the main event Thursday.

The Borgata Poker Tour is a stop on the World Poker Tour and the final table eventually will be seen on Fox Sports Net.

A key to the event's success has been the lower buy-in for the no-limit Texas Hold 'em main event, which started Saturday.

The Open drew 1,018 players for the $3,500 event ($3,300 goes into the prize pool and $200 to the casino).

The buy-in is significantly lower than it is for most major tournaments around the country.

"I think it's very smart for today's economy," said Brigantine resident Joe Simmons, a regular at the Borgata. "It gives everyone a chance to play. The $10,000 buy-in at this point is cool for the World Series (of Poker), but just imagine how small this field would be otherwise."

The prize pool is smaller than at some tournaments but not by much. The large turnout generated a prize pool of $3.4 million with the winner getting $925,514. The top seven will finishers take home six-figure amounts.

"We've built the event for the players," Borgata poker marketing director Ray Stefanelli said. "Rather than spend $25K on an event, they can come here and get the same exact prize pool with a better value."

If you compare the WPT event at the Borgata to a recent WPT event in California, you see how successful Borgata is with its structure.

The winner of the Legends of Poker, which was held at The Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, Calif., received $1.03 million, but there were only 279 entrants and a $2.65 million prize pool.

Poker players enjoy the Borgata's tournament so much they have came from across the country. Some well-known poker players attended the event such as Gavin Smith, Lacey Jones and Kathy Liebert.

However, many of the popular poker players are currently competing in the 2009 European Championships in London.

"Nobody does it better than the Borgata," said poker player Will Failla, of Smithtown, N.Y. "They just make it right. It's really been a great place to play."

The tournaments are filled with many East Coast players, but the Las Vegas players come to the Borgata as well. Some just enjoy the casino so much, they always make sure it's a stop on their schedule during the year.

"They always have a pretty good field," said Smith, 41, who lives in Las Vegas. "The biggest difference is that the field is quite a bit weaker. You get a lot more amateur players willing to pay $3,500."

Borgata's buy-in for the main event has been around $3,000 for the last three big events. The casino holds three major tournaments throughout the year: Borgata Poker Open, Winter Open and Summer Open.

The American stops on the World Poker Tour had buy-ins of at least $10,000 for the main events. Some went as high as $15,000.

The World Series of Poker Circuit events, tournaments at Harrah's properties around the country, have buy-ins around $5,200. The World Series of Poker main event, the one that grabs headlines and is seen on ESPN, has a $10,000 buy-in.
The Borgata's is one of the least expensive tournaments and most popular.

"I think the Borgata is ahead of the curve. I think this is the future of the big events," Failla said. "With the way the economy is, the Borgata is doing the right thing."

E-mail Susan Lulgjuraj:
slulgjuraj@pressofac.com

Press of AC: Four plead guilty in Borgata sports betting ring

MAYS LANDING - Two of the alleged leaders of a multimillion-dollar sports betting ring at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa pleaded guilty Monday to bankrolling illegal loans and money laundering.

Andrew Micali, 32, of Ventnor, the man who allegedly controlled the day-to-day operations of the 23-person ring, pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal usury, according to Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office. Micali admitted before Superior Court Judge Michael Donio that he bankrolled loans while knowing the interest rates for those loans were in excess of what the law allows, Aseltine said.

Jack Buscemi Jr., 50, of Harrison Township, Gloucester County, the alleged boss of the ring, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, Aseltine said. Buscemi admitted that he possessed money that he knew was the proceeds of illegal gambling - money that was generated as the result of a conspiracy with Micali, Aseltine said.

Under the terms of the plea deals, the state will recommend five-year prison terms for both Micali and Buscemi. Micali agreed to forfeit $150,000, and Buscemi must forfeit or pay fines totaling $50,000, Aseltine said.

Also pleading guilty Monday was one of two casino poker room supervisors alleged to have been agents who brought in gamblers and bets for the ring. Joseph Wishnick, 43, of Brigantine, a former Borgata poker room supervisor, pleaded guilty to the third-degree charge of promotion of gambling, Aseltine said.

Robert Mackie, 39, of Staten Island, N.Y., also pleaded guilty to third-degree promotion of gambling. Both Wishnick and Mackie admitted in court to being "agents" of the gambling ring, Aseltine said. Under the terms of their pleas, Wishnick and Mackie will face probation, but the state will ask that county jail time be served, Aseltine said.

All four men will be sentenced Feb. 13 before Donio.

The ring, which authorities say operated out of a poker room at Borgata for 20 months, was busted in November 2007, when a multi-agency investigation, dubbed Operation High Roller, led to the arrests. New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram previously said the ring took in $60 million in bets, but Borgata itself was not involved.

The indictment handed down in April charged Buscemi, Micali, and Anthony Nicodemo, 36, of Philadelphia, with racketeering, conspiracy and money laundering, as well as third-degree promotion of gambling. Nicodemo is accused of also exercising leadership over the ring. He is scheduled to appear in court - along with the remaining 18 defendants - Thursday at 1:30 p.m., according to Nicodemo's attorney, James Leonard Jr.

The ring took in illegal wagers on sporting events using password-protected Web sites and a Philadelphia wire room where bets were taken by phone, authorities said.

The investigation, which began in March 2006, revealed that Micali relied on a network of agents to take in millions of dollars in bets on college and professional football and basketball games. Micali and Buscemi allegedly received a percentage of the gambling proceeds collected by the agents.

Deputy Attorney General Kerry DiJoseph is representing the Division of Criminal Justice Major Crimes Bureau, Casino Prosecutions Unit.

Micali's attorney, Louis Barbone, had no comment regarding the plea deals Monday. Buscemi's attorney, Robert Messick, and Mackie's attorney, Carl Poplar, did not return calls for comment Monday afternoon. Wishnick's attorney, Holly Bitters, could not be reached for comment.

Taj Stabber Will Be Sentenced to 5 Years

Vincente Perez pleaded guilty to reckless manslaughter today and will be sentenced to about five years in prision. All over a poker seat. Well, we have an end to this case, here is the news in The Press of Atlantic City.

However, I am sure this isn't going to end what a hole the Taj Mahal is. I haven't been to the room since the incident and, frankly, I have no desire to even go there. The Taj is a dump, and though it has great games when it comes to stuff other than hold 'em, it's not enough for me to want to go there.

I never went to the bathroom by myself. I never went to the bathroom by the parking lot. I am sure people who have been to the Taj know exactly what I am talking about.

Revel casino project may hit a snag

Here's a story from The Press of Atlantic City yesterday that shows a possible problem for the Revel casino project. I was pretty excited about this casino after I saw the plans for this casino. It was different for Atlantic City and definitely a place I would check out as I am just dieing for a good poker room with great dealers.

Atlantic City Housing Authority questions financing for $2B. Revel casino

By MAYA RAO Staff Writer, 609-272-7221
Published: Friday, January 11, 2008

ATLANTIC CITY - The head of the Housing Authority raised questions in an interview Friday about whether Revel Entertainment Group has sufficient financing to follow through on its proposal for a $2 billion casino on which construction has just begun in the South Inlet.

Dennis Ricci's remarks followed a controversial decision the authority made at a special meeting Thursday night that will hamper Revel's access to $53 million its financers are holding in escrow until it has a so-called reverter clause stricken from its agreement with the authority. The casino, slated to open in 2010, would be the biggest and most expensive in the resort.

"The question that needs to be asked is why this is undercapitalized," Ricci said. "Everyone knew going in that the reverter was in place. (Revel CEO and Chairman Kevin DeSanctis) knew it was in place. That was their business decision."

The authority maintains that all of its redevelopment agreements have carried such a clause, under which developers must complete construction within a specified period - among other requirements - or the land "reverts" to the Housing Authority. The measure was implemented to hold developers accountable after the resort in decades past saw a slew of failed promises resulting in vacant lots; the authority only removes it from agreements once construction is complete.

An agreement from a previous developer bearing the clause was carried over to Revel in 2006 once the company, backed by Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley, purchased five acres of authority-owned land as part of its 20-acre beachfront site. Revel only recently submitted papers seeking 20 different amendments, one of them a request to drop the reverter clause.

The Housing Authority approved the majority of the amendments sought. And it offered to meet Revel halfway, said Ricci, by agreeing to remove the clause once the company secured permanent financing. So far, Revel is operating on $160 million in interim financing in an effort to start construction quickly even though permanent financing was difficult to obtain because of problems in the credit markets. Revel expects to secure permanent financing in three or four months.

"We will bend over and do something we have never done for anyone else before by taking out the reverter prior to completion," Ricci said.

The unanimous vote has prompted threats and criticism from Revel, which said it was counting on tapping into its $53 million in escrow by the end of the month to proceed with the project. Revel officials met with Mayor Scott Evans in City Hall on Friday to press the issue, and several City Council members are backing an ordinance for next Wednesday's meeting that would eliminate the authority's redevelopment powers.

Escrow money aside, just $68.3 million of Revel's interim financing is allotted for construction improvements; $52 million is going to pay off existing debts, authority documents show.

"That's (the construction improvements) less than 3 percent of project," Ricci said. "That's a very small amount of money."

"The reverter is the only control or remedy the public sector has in case there are any defaults along the way," he added.

Revel attorney Lloyd Levenson raised sharp questions about the Housing Authority's motivations, claiming the authority asked Revel during the course of their negotiations for money in exchange for dropping the clause.

"They know as well as everyone else knows that this is a partnership between Morgan Stanley and Revel, and we have done more in a year than any other developer has done on that site in 40 years," DeSanctis said.

Levenson, who said the company has spent more than $250 million overall on the project - including the cost of the land - also noted that the authority would only have the power to "revert" five acres of land, which would be useless because it is too small for a hotel or casino.

Among the other concessions the authority granted to Revel, according to documents, was extending the term required for completion from three years to four - with the option of extending that term by paying $250,000 for every six-month interval after. The Housing Authority balked at an additional request from Revel to change the period the authority has to approve its permanent financing to just 10 days. The authority is pushing for a 30-day period.

The Housing Authority is also asking Revel to increase its hiring goals for unemployed and under-employed resort residents from 20 to 30 percent, a proposal that Revel rejected, according to Ricci.

City Council passed a resolution Dec. 28 ordering the authority to approve the amendments Revel was seeking, but Ricci claims he did not find out until later and had to call the Clerk's Office for the documents. Evans said he met with Ricci on Friday.

"The city is very concerned about this issue and the city intends to see that everything can be done in an amicable way to see that the Revel project continues without any disruption," Evans said.

The mayor has a seldom-invoked veto power over authority meeting minutes, according to the city code, which says that no action taken by the authority is effective until approved by the mayor or 10 days after a copy of the minutes is delivered to his office.

Evans, who was unaware of that power, said he would consult with the city solicitor on it and that he believed the issue could be resolved within the next few days.

Councilman Tim Mancuso said he thought the authority had acted with good intentions, though some miscommunication may have occurred, and suggested that all parties could sit down without having to "go to war."

State Sen. James Whelan, D-Atlantic, a former resort mayor and frequent critic of the government's interference here with attracting what he believes is much-needed development, had this to say: "Frankly, this is the kind of snag that comes up that developers look at and kind of say geez, what's going on?"

To e-mail Maya Rao at The Press:

mrao@pressofac.com

Colony Offers $850M for Trop

Check out the latest article from The Press of Atlantic City on the selling of the Tropicana.

LATEST NEWS: Colony Capital makes $850M. offer for Tropicana
By DONALD WITTKOWSKI Staff Writer, 609-272-7258
Published: Wednesday, January 9, 2008

ATLANTIC CITY - Colony Capital LLC, a private real estate investment firm that already owns two Atlantic City gaming halls, has made an $850 million cash offer for the troubled Tropicana Casino and Resort.

Los Angeles-based Colony expressed its interest in a letter to Gary S. Stein, a former New Jersey Supreme Court justice who is overseeing Tropicana's sale in his role as a state-appointed conservator.

Colony spokeswoman Lisa Baker declined to comment Wednesday night. Other company representatives in Los Angeles and New York could not be reached. The Press of Atlantic City learned of the offer from people familiar with Colony's letter.

The Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort and sister property Resorts Atlantic City are owned by Colony affiliates. Colony tried to acquire Tropicana in 2006 but was outbid by Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex Corp. in a $2.75 billion takeover of Tropicana casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas formerly owned by Aztar Corp.

Columbia Sussex, in turn, was denied a new gaming license Dec. 12 by the state Casino Control Commission following a disastrous 11-month reign that included mass job cuts, regulatory violations and complaints of unsanitary conditions and poor customer service. The commission appointed Stein to take charge until the casino is sold.

Interest in Tropicana has intensified in the last two weeks as potential bidders have begun jockeying for position. Connecticut's Mohegan Sun casino is looking at Tropicana as part of its East Coast expansion plans. In addition, a private investment group headed by New Jersey real estate developer Curtis Bashaw and former Atlantic City gaming executive Wallace R. Barr has confirmed it may make a bid for Tropicana.

As owner of two of Atlantic City's smaller casinos, Colony Capital reportedly has been shopping for a large property that would transform it into a major player in the country's second-largest gaming market.

The sprawling Tropicana has 2,129 hotel rooms, 3,400 slot machines and about 150,000 square feet of casino space. However, the aging casino floor and hotel towers are badly in need of renovation to complement Tropicana's tourist-friendly retail and entertainment complex known as The Quarter.

Gaming analysts have estimated Tropicana will fetch between $800 million and $1 billion in an auction. Colony's offer suggests a minimum of $850 million. The buyer likely will have to spend a few hundred million dollars more to refurbish the 27-year-old property.

Other possible bidders include Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., Ameristar Casinos, Penn National Gaming and Crown Ltd., a gaming company headed by billionaire James Packer, Australia's richest man, according to analysts.

One private group seen as a likely bidder is Gomes + Cordish Gaming Management LLC, a newly formed partnership between Dennis Gomes and Baltimore-based retail developer Cordish Co. Gomes was Tropicana's chief executive when it was owned by Aztar, while Cordish is the developer of an Atlantic City shopping and entertainment district known as The Walk.

Founded in 1991 by Thomas J. Barrack Jr., Colony Capital has about $36 billion in real estate and casino holdings worldwide. Colony bought Resorts Atlantic City in 2001 for $140 million. It acquired the Hilton in 2005 as part of a $1.24 billion deal with Caesars Entertainment Inc. and Harrah's Entertainment Inc. for four casinos in New Jersey, Mississippi and Indiana.

To e-mail Donald Wittkowski at The Press:

DWittkowski@pressofac.com

Showboat Hostage Standoff

SERIOUSLY? What the hell is going on here? Another article from The Press.


Developing: Maryland man faces charges after peaceful end to standoff
By ELAINE ROSE Staff Writer, 609-272-7215
Published: Wednesday, November 14, 2007

A bomb squad vehicle and dogs were in the area around the brown Harrah's bus at Showboat casino early today.

11:15 a.m. Nov. 14 Update -

ATLANTIC CITY - David Kilkeary, who allegedly boarded a Showboat shuttle bus and demanded money through making bomb threats, is expected to make an first appearance in federal court in Camden this afternoon.

He allegedly held dozens of police at bay early this morning at the entrance to the Showboat Casino Hotel.

A records search indicates Kilkeary may be a Maryland resident with a criminal record that includes a bank robbery.

City Councilman George Tibbitt, who went to the scene, said he was told that a man with a bomb strapped to his body rode the Harrah's Express shuttle to the Showboat porte-cochere at about 10:45 p.m.

Shortly before 1 a.m. today, Acting Mayor William "Speedy" Marsh said the man had a gun and there was a language barrier in trying to communicate with him.

The mayor said he was told a robot had delivered a telephone to the shuttle bus to communicate with the man.

Several popping sounds, similar to gunshots, were heard coming from the porte-cochere at about 11:15 p.m.

Nichole Handwerk, of Allentown, Pa., said she was standing on the roof of the parking garage with her fiance, Sean Libovsky, when they heard a woman scream that a masked man on the shuttle was holding hostages.

From the ledge of the roof, they saw a man let four or five people go and shoved an older man toward a second bus, Handwerk said.

"He went from one bus to the other with a huge duffle bag," she said.

They were watching the situation when police officers ordered them to leave the garage, Handwerk said.

"As soon as I heard there was a bomb, I got out," she said. "It was like watching TV."

A massive law-enforcement team responded to the scene, closed Pacific Avenue from Delaware to Maryland avenues and emptied the casino's bus area.

The Atlantic City Bomb Squad, police in riot gear carrying rifles, K-9 officers, State Police troopers, FBI agents, the Atlantic City Fire Department and ambulances rushed to the area.

There had been reports of a body found in the building, but a medical examiner's van was seen leaving the area with no body inside.

"We're leaving it to the experts to do what they've got to do," Marsh said.

Meanwhile, casino employees, hotel guests and others waited on the west side of Pacific Avenue. Many were in town to attend the New Jersey League of Municipalities conference and were not allowed back into their rooms.

One man, talking to a friend on his cell phone, said, "It's like something out of a movie."

To e-mail Elaine Rose at The Press: