\nATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) \u2013 New Jersey casino regulators on Wednesday let MGM Resorts back into the Atlantic City casino market<\/p>\n
\tThe Casino Control Commission voted to let MGM reclaim its 50 percent ownership of the Borgata. MGM decided in 2010 to sell its stake and leave New Jersey rather than cut ties to an Asian business partner in Macau, but a buyer was never found.<\/p>\n
\tThe partner\u2019s father is suspected by New Jersey regulators of having organized crime ties to Chinese gangs, but MGM and the family of Pansy Ho deny the allegations. MGM says Ho\u2019s control of the Chinese company has lessened, and that her father, Stanley Ho, is old and sick. Her ownership stake has gone from 50 percent to 24 percent.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI welcome MGM back to New Jersey,\u201d said Matthew Levinson, the commission\u2019s chairman. \u201cI believe it will be a key player in New Jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe commission heard MGM executives including CEO James Murren describe how circumstances have changed since 2009 when the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement found that Stanley Ho was an \u201cunsuitable\u201d person under state casino law.<\/p>\n
\tSince then, MGM\u2019s Chinese operation has gone public, and Pansy Ho\u2019s influence has been diluted. She has no management role in its day-to-day operations, nor involvement with the selection of gambling junket operators that bring customers to the Chinese casino.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe are looking at what has changed,\u201d Levinson said.<\/p>\n
\tThe company and an affiliate were fined $225,000 stemming from what Murren called an embarrassing failure in its corporate oversight role. Los Angeles attorney Terry Christensen, a former MGM board member and a legal confidant to 97-year-old billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, MGM\u2019s largest shareholder, consulted with Murren and others on various company matters after Christensen was indicted and later convicted of wiretapping.<\/p>\n
\tChristensen and a private investigator were convicted of tapping the phone of Kerkorian\u2019s ex-wife, Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, in 2002. Yet Murren said he still took calls from Christensen afterward.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe made that mistake as a company and I made it as chairman,\u201d Murren said. \u201cIt is one I will never forget and I will always regret.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSince 2010, MGM\u2019s half ownership of Borgata has been held in a trust while a buyer was sought for it.<\/p>\n
\tThe commission\u2019s action will allow MGM to re-engage with its onetime partner, Boyd Gaming, which owns the other half of Borgata, and had declined to exercise its option to buy the whole thing.<\/p>\n
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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) \u2013 New Jersey casino regulators on Wednesday let MGM Resorts back into the Atlantic City casino market The Casino Control Commission voted to let MGM reclaim its 50 percent ownership of the Borgata. MGM decided in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}