Trump wants a hand in Penna. slots

Donald Trump, who is readying his Atlantic City casino company for a second bankruptcy, wants to bring the restructured company to Pennsylvania - a state he has eyed for expansion since at least the mid-1990s. Trump officials said yesterday that they plan to use a $500 million credit line from Credit Suisse First Boston to expand across the Delaware River. The credit line is part of an expected Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts plans to enter into by the end of September. The agreement, reached late Monday night with the bank, also includes $400 million to repair and upgrade Trump's three aging Atlantic City casinos. Scott C. Butera, whom Trump hired to restructure the debt, declined to discuss potential Pennsylvania suitors for a slots deal. "We are in preliminary talks, and are now looking to accelerate those talks," he said. The recent debt restructuring has weighed heavily in any decision so far, he said. "We'd love to win a license in Pennsylvania." Those words have become a common refrain among Atlantic City casino owners and operators looking to protect their gambling profits. But Trump's competition will be stiff in Pennsylvania. Of the state's 14 authorized slots parlors, seven are essentially taken, going to existing or soon-to-be-licensed racetracks. Trump could enter a deal to manage one of those tracks, as he has done in California. But the cost would be steep. "It's a very competitive market in Pennsylvania," said Eric Hausler, senior gambling analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group. To make his point, Hausler mentioned Harrah's Entertainment Inc., which recently paid $252 million for a 50 percent stake in Chester Downs & Marina, a proposed harness racetrack and slots parlor in Chester. That deal includes projected construction costs and payouts to the current owners. Butera said the company has talked to existing track owners, but Trump would prefer to win a license for one of the two stand-alone gambling halls set aside for Philadelphia. That comes as good news to Gov. Rendell, who said yesterday that he would welcome a brand name such as Trump in the state and in the city. "The Trump name has a certain mystique for the consumer," Penny Lee, a spokesman for Rendell, said. "It's a name they well recognize." Trump also happens to be friends with Rendell. The two men met while fighting for riverboat gambling in the city when Rendell was mayor, Lee said. In 1993, Trump considered buying land along the Delaware, hoping to build riverboat casinos, but the legislature never acted to legalize gambling. Over the years, the two men have remained friends and have attended Beach Boys concerts together, Lee said. Trump also has made $32,000 in campaign contributions to Rendell since 2000, according to state records. Rendell does not have the sole power to grant Trump a license. The governor has three appointments to the state gambling control board, but approval for a slots license requires a super majority - that is, a yes vote from each of the four legislative appointees and at least one yes vote from a gubernatorial appointee. "Nothing is a slam dunk," Hausler said. During the debate on slots in Harrisburg, Trump pushed to have slot licenses auctioned off - a proposal that racetrack owners successfully killed. At one point, Sen. Gibson Armstrong (R., Lancaster) said Trump's lobbyist, Robert Taylor, told him that "people who run a failing business should not be in charge of something as complicated as operating slots parlors" - a reference to racetrack companies.