Borgata wins license; opening date a mystery

John Curran

Thursday, June 12, 2003 | 9:46 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- New Jersey casino regulators granted a license to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa on Wednesday, dealing a new player into the game for the first time in 13 years.

Exactly when the dice will begin rolling at the $1 billion casino resort, however, remains one of Atlantic City's best-kept secrets.

"Today is a day long anticipated in Atlantic City, New Jersey and throughout the entire gaming industry," Borgata attorney Lloyd Levenson told members of the state Casino Control Commission. "Even though they say time flies, 13 years is a long time between casino openings."

The last casino hotel to open in Atlantic City was Trump Taj Mahal in 1990.

Borgata, a joint venture of Las Vegas casino companies MGM MIRAGE and Boyd Gaming Corp., is a 2,002-room behemoth whose 480-foot hotel tower and 40-acre footprint have already shaken up the Atlantic City casino market, triggering multimillion-dollar improvement projects by jittery competitors.

On Wednesday the state panel held a 2 1/2-hour hearing to determine whether Borgata's owners and executives possess the "good character, honesty and integrity" required of them by New Jersey casino law, and whether the casino's backers have the resources to meet payroll, pay off winning wagers and satisfy debt service.

The licensing of a casino -- even one already built, such as Borgata -- is never a sure bet in New Jersey.

In the 1980s Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and Hilton Hotels Corp. were found unsuitable to hold casino licenses and forced to sell their interests as a result.

The Division of Gaming Enforcement's background investigation of Borgata and its backers turned up no bankruptcies, license revocations or "questionable contributions."

Boyd Gaming has faced some regulatory issues in other states, but none serious enough for New Jersey to oppose Borgata's licensing, according to Deputy Attorney General Dorothy Turi.

Borgata, the biggest of Boyd Gaming's 13 casinos, will employ about 4,800 people, pay salaries of $120 million a year and contribute $90 million annually in tax revenue to local and state governments when it begins taking bets.

Its amenities include in-room Internet access, the only casino wine cellar in Atlantic City and 3,650 cashless slot machines.

"It's good to have wealthy owners and wealthy parents, and that's what Borgata has," said Ellis Landau, Boyd's chief financial officer.

Borgata CEO Robert Boughner, who rose from the position of time card clerk to chief operating officer at Boyd, said Borgata would be a "trade-up destination" for Atlantic City gamblers hungry for a new game in town.

Room rates will begin at $179 on weekdays and $249 on weekends.

No opening date has been set, although Boughner said it would be between July 1 and July 11.

Independence Day -- a three-day weekend this year -- has traditionally been one of the casinos' most lucrative weekends, but Boughner refused to commit to it Wednesday.

"We'll open when we're ready," he said.