N.J. group drops bid for Casino Journal

Monday, Dec. 22, 1997 | 10:56 a.m.

A New Jersey publishing group today ended its bid to acquire the Casino Journal and its family of trade magazines.

Gaming Venture Corp. U.S.A. of Fort Lee, which signed a letter of intent in May to buy the West Atlantic City, N.J.-based Casino Journal Publishing Group, cited a decline in the price of its stock for its decision to abandon the acquisition.

Alan Woinski, president of Gaming Venture Corp., said today the Asian financial crisis that has battered the small-cap and microcap markets drove the price of the company's stock below a level that made it feasible to buy Casino Journal. Gaming Venture's stock, traded over the counter, was at 3/frac 1/2 when the letter of intent was signed and climbed to 4 1/2 after the deal was announced.

But after Asian markets tumbled, the stock price fell to 2 and Woinski said it was not in his shareholders' best interests to continue with the acquisition.

"A lot of the recovery you've heard about affects the big companies, but the small caps and the microcaps are still hurting," Woinski said today. "We also wanted to get this thing done by the end of the first quarter in '98. If we let it drag out, new audits would have to be done and further delay would have been even more costly."

Casino Journal Publishing Group, which has a Las Vegas office, publishes Casino Journal, Casino Player, Nevada Hospitality and Atlantic City Insider. It also is the sponsor of the American Gaming and Lodging Summit in Las Vegas. This year's convention, which drew more than 10,000 gaming experts to hear presentations from casino and resort company executives, occurred earlier this month.

There was no one available to comment on the cancellation of the deal from the Casino Journal's offices in New Jersey or Las Vegas.

"It is unfortunate that at the current time, we could not complete a deal with Casino Journal Publishing Group because we still do feel that the two companies would create a powerful combination," said Woinski.

Gaming Venture Corp. publishes gaming, lodging and leisure industries publications, including the Gaming Industry Weekly Report, the Gaming Industry Daily Report, the Gaming Sector ... Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and the Daily Lodging Report. After the acquisition, the company was planning to develop a monthly magazine called Gaming Investor and was planning to co-produce the Gaming Stock Investment Center on the Internet.