Gaming briefs for Oct. 20, 2003

Monday, Oct. 20, 2003 | 11:20 a.m.

Gaming company in reverse merger

A Utah company has signed a letter of intent to acquire all of the common stock of Reno-based Holder Hospitality Group LLC in a deal to raise money to upgrade Holder's Silver Club Hotel & Casino in Reno.

Holder Hospitality Group Chief Executive Harold Holder and Chief Operating Officer Bruce Dewing will continue to run the company after the deal, which will involve taking the Silver Club casino public through a reverse merger. Executives for Salt Lake City-based Power Marketing Inc., a shell company with no material assets, will resign after the merger.

The deal doesn't involve the six other casinos owned by Holder Hospitality, including the Mining Co. in Henderson.

The public entity will have management contracts to run the remaining casinos, providing a revenue stream for the company, Dewing said.

The proposed acquisition is subject to certain conditions including approval by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

The penny stock company was incorporated in 1995 in Delaware and has never generated any significant revenue.

Holder Hospitality purchased the Mining Co. casino in Henderson a few months ago, marking the company's seventh casino acquisition in about three years.

Holder has an eighth casino, Pipers Casino, under contract in Silver Springs. A ninth casino that has not yet been named is under construction in Tonopah.

Resort operator spending $75 million on garage

ATLANTIC CITY -- A new, 11-story parking garage will add more than 3,000 parking spaces and create 550 jobs in the city, Gov. James E. McGreevey said Sunday.

Park Place Entertainment Corp. of Las Vegas announced Sunday it is investing $75 million in the garage, which will be on a block bordered by Pacific, Atlantic, Arkansas and Michigan avenues.

The garage will provide 3,189 parking spaces for Bally's Atlantic City, The Wild Wild West Casino and Caesars Atlantic City. It will also serve the Pier at Caesars, a planned retail and entertainment project for the history Million Dollar Pier behind Caesars Atlantic City.

Construction is scheduled to begin in January, 2004, and is targeted for completion in the second quarter of 2005.

McGreevey pointed out that almost 75 percent of visitors to Atlantic City travel by car. That came to more than 24 million visitors in 2002, according to the South Jersey Transportation Authority.