Having thrown its workforce to the wolves as part of its bankruptcy plan — one that may not ultimately save any jobs — Trump Entertainment Resorts has pissed off the wrong guy: state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D). Chief creditor Carl Icahn has pledged to invest $100 million in Trump Taj Mahal if New Jersey commits hundreds of millions more to a taxpayer bailout of TER and its dubiously competent management team. In a series of tweets, Sweeney laid out his opposition to the rescue plan …
I won’t allow Icahn to use any state grants, tax breaks, subsidies to help underwrite attempt to take away rights and benefits of workers … If the court’s ruling stands, then middle-class America has lost. We should be building economy from the bottom up by supporting workers … It’s unfair and un-American to allow billionaires like Icahn to exploit the financial difficulties of the casino industry to prey on workers.
Above and beyond the question of Taj management sticking it to their labor force there’s the specter of what happens should the state set a precedent of subsidizing failing casinos. (Revel never got to the point of drawing down any of its tax credits, so that’s a moot point.) If the Taj qualifies for PILOT program funds or other subventions, a whole long queue starts forming, with every money-losing casino on the Boardwalk asking, “Why not us?” There being no good answer to that question, lawmakers would undoubtedly prefer to dodge it.
* One and a half billion dollars. That’s the price of admission for Caesars Entertainment to enter the Philippines, a market which the American casino industry has heretofore tended to skirt. (No doubt in part because Filipino 
majority ownership is required of every casino project.) Losing money hand over fist, the company has to strike gold soon and Philippine investment by Melco Crown Entertainment and Genting Hong Kong have given the sometimes tawdry Filipino casino industry a new sheen. “There are those who are saying Caesars is a brand name that tells the world that essentially we have arrived,” said President Benigno Aquino.
Pagcor Chairman Cristino Naguiat, the government’s point man on gaming, indicated that Caesars wasn’t the only American company to show interest, but he
declined to name the others. And though the government had provided the 247 
acres on which multi-casino Entertainment City was built, he said that newcomers would have to find their own land. (A fifth developer might still be allowed into Entertainment City, however.) A local partner is another prerequisite that Caesars presently lacks.
Caesars was coy, with an executive saying, “It’s still early in the discussions, but it would be a great complement to our upcoming integrated resort in Korea, the start of a network of Caesars-branded [integrated resorts] in Asia,” including Vietnam. “Caesars is seeking to build a resort with shops, restaurants and an entertainment district that could showcase international performers such as Celine Dion and Elton John,” reported Bloomberg News. Caesars hopes that, thanks to tourism from South Korea and China, this will be a bank shot whereby it gets some Macao-style action.
In other Philippine news, Kazuo Okada‘s Universal Entertainment indicated it would open its casino in 2016, a year behind schedule. This did not sit well with Naguiat, who said Okada would finish by March or forfeit a $2.23 million bond.
* Good news from New Orleans … gaming revenues last month were even with 2013. Harrah’s New Orleans led the market with $24 million, followed by Boomtown ($9 million), Treasure Chest ($7 million) and Fair Grounds racino ($3 million). The impressive part is that this feat was accomplished with 25,000 fewer patrons than last year. There may not as many gamblers coming through the turnstiles but at least they’re loosening their purse strings.
