Past AC license denials

In yesterday’s article on the Tropicana license denial, the Press of Pleasantville (I saw that in one of the comments and couldn’t resist) ran a sidebar on past license bids that fizzled. Here it is:

1979
- The Casino Control Commission orders the chairman and vice chairman of the Caesars World board, Clifford and Stuart Perlman, to sever their relationship with the company because of their business dealings with alleged organized-crime associates.

- The commission denies a license to Bally Manufacturing Corp. board Chairman William T. O’Donnell because of his business dealings with an alleged organized-crime figure.

1982
The commission denies a permanent license to Hugh Hefner and his Playboy Enterprises Inc., which had opened the Playboy Casino & Hotel the year before, because it felt Hefner had lied on the witness stand. Two months later, the casino hotel becomes Elsinore’s Atlantis.

1985
- The commission denies a casino license to Barron Hilton and his Hilton Hotels Corp. due to questions about some of its executives and ties to a Chicago attorney whose activities suggested a possible link to organized crime. The company sells its marina casino to Donald Trump for $320 million.

1989
- The Atlantis closes after the Casino Control Commission rules that it is no longer financially stable. Donald Trump buys the property for $63 million and operates it as the Trump Regency, a noncasino hotel.
Atlantic City’s Tropicana fears bankruptcy from license denial

Good news for Bill Yung: Clifford Perlman was denied a license in New Jersey and was inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame this year. So maybe Yung will be in the class of 2022.

Here’s the progression of license denials:
Mob/Mob/Perjury/Mob/Financial instability/Non-first-classedness
It looks like the original focus of regulation and licensing–to keep the mob out–has drifted a bit.