Trump no-show at summit

Gary Thompson and Ed Koch

Thursday, Dec. 5, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The Donald is displeased.

Furious over an unfavorable investment advisory, gaming magnate Donald Trump canceled plans to match the role played by his rival Steve Wynn as a featured luncheon speaker at the American Gaming Summit.

Wynn spoke Wednesday, lauding legendary Nevada banker E. Parry Thomas, and Trump was scheduled to appear today at the conference of gaming's top executives at Caesars Palace.

But a recent investment advisory by summit co-sponsor Bear Sterns & Co. sent Trump into a rage. He reportedly phoned Bear Sterns Senior Vice President Jason Ader, one of Wall Street's most respected gaming analysts and the author of the offending report, and threatened to sue if Ader didn't revise his opinion.

Ader stuck by his guns, and Trump bowed out of the summit.

Perhaps it was just as well. The Ader report was followed Wednesday by Salomon Brothers gaming analyst Bruce Turner's downgrading of Trump Hotel & Casino Resorts stock to "hold" from "buy" and his slashing of per-share earnings estimates through 1998.

After his introduction as the featured luncheon speaker Wednesday, Wynn quipped:

"They had to scramble around for a stand-in and got me. Donald's back in New York, regrouping."

The thousand or so luncheon attendees roared.

Meanwhile, more Nevada sports book managers expressed skepticism about Trump's claim to have wagered $1 million on 20-1 underdog Evander Holyfield before his Nov. 9 victory over Mike Tyson in a heavyweight title fight.

"This is the first I have heard about such a bet -- it was not taken here," said Gene Kivi, vice president of the race and sports book at the MGM Grand, where the fight took place.

"I may be wrong, but I doubt such a bet was taken in Las Vegas. We'd have heard about it long before now."

The MGM opened the fight with Tyson a 17-1 favorite, but had dropped the line to 5-to-1 by fight time.

Although some late money came in on Tyson at the lower odds, it was not enough to prevent the books from suffering a huge loss if Holyfield won the fight, which he did by 11th-round knockout.

Although the books lost significant money on the fight, none apparently had such a lopsided loss that would indicate a single $20 million payout.

One high-ranking sports book official of a major Strip resort said he would have had to get approval from someone much higher than himself to even accept a $1 million wager at 20-1 odds.

Nevada is the only state where betting on individual sporting events is legal.

Sports book officials, who asked not to have their names printed in response to a question about the probability of Trump placing his wager with an illegal Nevada bookmaker, said they seriously doubt that happened either.

One bookmaker noted that a licensee of several -- in this case, New Jersey -- casinos would be risking loss of his livelihood if gaming officials ever learned that he placed a bet with a nonlicensed and nontaxed operation.

For that reason alone, Trump, if he indeed bet the fight in Las Vegas, most likely did so at a legal book that has not yet stepped forward.

Industry observers say such a huge loss would be a great marketing tool to entice other high-rollers to bet future fights at their place. They say any book suffering such a loss would have promoted it to the hilt to get more than $20 million in free publicity.

The late Gene Mayday several years ago took a $1 million bet from fellow casino owner Bob Stupak on a Super Bowl game.

Both Mayday, who lost, and Stupak, then-owner of Bob Stupak's Vegas World and later co-owner of the Stratosphere, got a lot of mileage out of publicizing the wager, which became part of Las Vegas folklore and bolstered the legends of both men.

The bet even made Mayday's tiny Little Caesars Casino one of the most popular small betting parlors in town during the 1980s.

* SUMMIT: Entertainment companies consider gaming options. Page 10D