RSS 2.0 FeedVol. 4, No.9, September 2008, Global Gaming Roundup
Pittsburgh’s a ‘go’
Construction on the casino, which originally was to be called Majestic Star, resumed immediately.
Barden, who has struggled to arrange financing for the $780 million project since the outset, was facing the prospect of bankruptcy court for the project after defaulting on the $200 million bridge loan used to begin construction.
Bluhm, who also is the lead investor in the stalled SugarHouse casino project in Philadelphia, assembled his investment group and offered to assume the project’s debt, pay to meet all of Barden’s obligations to the community (such as partial funding for a new arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team and development money for a depressed city neighborhood) and make an equity investment of more than $200 million in exchange for a 75 percent stake in the project, which eventually grew to 80 percent. Barden will retain a 20 percent stake in the project, which will be renamed—possibly through a public contest.
Roger Gros is publisher of Casino Connection and editor and publisher of Global Gaming Business magazine, the industry’s leading gaming trade publication. Prior to joining Global Gaming Business, Gros was president of Inlet Communications, an independent consulting firm. He was vice president of Casino Journal Publishing Group from 1984-2000, and held virtually every editorial title during his tenure. Gros was editor of Casino Journal, the National Gaming Summary and the Atlantic City Insider, and was the founding editor of Casino Player magazine. He was a co-founder of the American Gaming Summit and the Southern Gaming Summit conferences and trade shows. He is the author of the best-selling book, How to Win at Casino Gambling (Carlton Books, 1995), now in its third edition. Gros was named “Businessman of the Year” for 1998 by the Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce.