Trump Marina became “RUMP Marina” this week (watch the video), as workers began removing vestiges of the Donald J. Trump era from the property. New owner Landry’s Restaurants is wasting no time putting its Golden Nugget imprimatur on the last-place casino, which officially becomes part of the Nugget fraternity on May 23. This is an occasion for great optimism because Landry’s CEO Tilman Fertitta (below) is passionate, detail-driven (sometimes to the point of micromanagement, it is true) and “george” … putting $150 million into redoing the erstwhile Trump Castle.
Among the changes is Landry’s 30th Chart House restaurant (below), one several Fertitta brands that will be incorporated into the resort. Meanwhile, as though there were any doubt in the matter, Coastal Marina, has withdrawn from the pursuit of an Atlantic City casino. That’s the firm run by all-jockey/no-pony horseman Richard Fields, who could somehow never ink the deal — S&G was skeptical from the get-go — that would have made Trump Marina his. Fields’ retreat isn’t such good news for Colony Capital creditors who are shopping around the Atlantic City Hilton and who need to knock at least $20 million off their very optimistic sale price. Fertitta balked at the cost and he’s King Midas compared to other prospective buyers.
Those who have followed Landry’s reinvention of the Las Vegas Golden Nugget know that Fertitta probably won’t stop there. They also know how, in the last six years, the Nugget has eclipsed all other Downtown operators combined, with the exception of the plucky El Cortez. Things couldn’t get any worse for the Marina and the entry of Landry’s makes it a lock that they are about to get considerably better. Look what a change of ownership and a relatively small capex investment have already done for Resorts Atlantic City, riding three straight months of revenue gains.
Fertitta’s dirt-cheap ($38 million) acquisition of the Marina marks a dramatic comedown from the $485 million that Trump got by selling it to his own company in 1996 — pennies on the dollar, especially when inflation is taken into account. Let’s hope this presages a de-Trumpification of the Boardwalk. Would Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal do better or worse if franchised as, say, “Ameristar Plaza” or “Taj Mahal Hollywood”? “Better,” I say, especially if the arrangement involves a company that has casinos outside the border of New Jersey. S&G is increasingly convinced that it would be a wise investment for Marc Lasry to buy out his spokesmodel’s 5% equity stake, especially at its current, distressed value, and start cold-calling the likes of Cordish Gaming and Isle of Capri Casinos. He’s got nothing to fear but Chapter 11 (again).
In any event, it’s a great day for Atlantic City.
Inside Pokergeddon. The indictments that came down like a ton of bricks last April 15 were four years in the making. It all began with a plane crash in Costa Rica. That led authorities to an Absolute Poker bagman and the financial skein proceeded to unravel. Given the time and international resources that the U.S. Department of Justice put into this crackdown, executives at Wynn Resorts and affiliates of Station Casinos (like Station CFO Marc Falcone, who acts as registered agent for Fertitta Interactive, no relation to Tilman) have to be smacking themselves upside the forehead.
They bought into Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman‘s silly predictions of imminent federal legalization of Internet poker, only to see their PokerStars and FullTilt partners get body-slammed by Attorney General Eric Holder. Chastened, even scandal-plagued Absolute Poker is making heavy restitution to U.S. players. However, brick-and-mortar casinos came justthiclose to stepping in a bear trap and surely rethinking whether the game is worth getting cleaned out by Uncle Sam. As the late Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-IL, right) once sagely noted: A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon we’re talking about real money.
