By RICHARD
WILNER
September 29, 2004 -- Casino Fortune, an obscure, Trinidad-based online
casino, said it has a perfect apprentice in mind to help turn around the
struggling Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts: The Donald himself.
The privately-held Web casino, which boasts 2 million customers, has made
an unsolicited $400 million investment offer for Trump's three ailing
Atlantic City casinos — a sum it said represents a 31 percent stake
in the company.
And John Wallis, the CEO of Sunny Group, which owns Casino Fortune, said
if the offer was accepted the company would not be idle investors but
active managers and teach Donald Trump about running a profitable casino
business.
"We feel we can help Trump turn around his [money-losing] casinos
and want to be involved in the management," he said.
And then, like hurling a fastball under a batter's chin, he noted that
unlike Trump's three Jersey Shore casinos, which haven't turned a profit
since they went public in 1996, his casinos were profitable.
"Very profitable," he said dryly, "one of the most profitable
casinos in the world."
If nothing else, Wallis is not hurting for chutzpah.
"I want
to sit down with his decision makers. We have the financing, we have the
money and are willing to get on a plane" at a moment's notice.
Wallis said his offer was "very serious."
Maybe. Maybe not. It might be one offer Trump can definitely refuse.
As of yesterday afternoon, Trump had not even bothered to give Wallis
a call.
Maybe Trump knows the out-of-the-blue offer is not Casino Fortune's first
attempt to grab headlines.
In early April, the company wrote a letter to the NBA's Phoenix Suns seeking
to buy the team for $380 million and, three days later, sent a letter
to NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe seeking to buy a seat on an upcoming
shuttle mission. It was a busy month. Poorly researched, as it turned
out, but busy.
First, the offer to buy the Suns came with a promise to emblazon the team's
jerseys with the casino's corporate logo. The NBA, however, bars any corporation
name on its jerseys.
Casino Fortune said its first move once it owned the team would be to
retire Charles Barkley's No. 34 uniform. That had already been done.
The Suns said talks between the team and the casino were "never serious." The team was subsequently sold to another investor.
The offer to purchase a seat on an upcoming NASA shuttle flight was tied
to a worldwide gambling tourney that would have the seat as a grand prize.
But don't get excited. NASA said the space agency doesn't sell seats on
the shuttle.
Meanwhile, Trump is looking for a way to keep his company out of Chapter
11 after an apparent deal with bondholders — one that would have
pumped in much-needed capital and lowered debt — fell through.
Talks between Trumps and debtholders continue.
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