Park Place, Trump join bidding for Ind. license

Shannon Dininny

Monday, Sept. 22, 2003 | 9:15 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Five companies submitted applications by Friday to operate a proposed casino in Orange County, including Park Place Entertainment Corp. of Las Vegas, an investor group involving Indiana Pacers President Larry Bird and a group led by casino magnate Donald Trump.

The applicants are seeking to open a casino that lawmakers approved after a decade of lobbying by Orange County residents who believe the project is their only hope to improve the local economy and save two historic hotels in French Lick and West Baden Springs. The deadline to submit applications was Friday.

Voters in Orange County still must approve the casino by referendum Nov. 4.

Each of the applicants paid the $16,110 fee required as part of the application to pay for the referendum, said Jenny Arnold, spokeswoman for the Indiana Gaming Commission.

Bird, a hometown basketball hero who still has a home in French Lick, was named president of the Indiana Pacers last month. He is among several investors in Orange County Development, which submitted its application Friday. Bird has said he will donate his share of any casino profits to charity.

Trump Indiana Casino Management, a subsidiary of Trump's Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, submitted its application Sept. 12. The New York developer already operates a riverboat in Gary, as well as casinos in New Jersey and California.

The other applicants were Jacobs Entertainment Inc., Bally's French Lick and Tranchant Indiana.

Jacobs Entertainment operates casinos in Colorado, Nevada, Louisiana and Virginia.

Bally's is a brand of Park Place Entertainment Corp., which owns the Caesars Indiana riverboat on the Ohio River in Harrison County and operates casinos in Nevada, New Jersey, Mississippi, Louisiana, Canada, South Africa, Uruguay and Australia.

Tranchant Indiana is affiliated with Groupe Tranchant, a France-based company that operates 18 casinos in France Switzerland, the Dominican Republican and Emerald Seas cruise lines.

"In Indiana, any time Hoosiers can help each other, especially in the situation in Orange County with the unemployment and the jobs that need to be created, that's what Hoosiers do for Hoosiers," said Craig Adolph, a former sergeant with the Indiana State Police from Auburn who is working with Tranchant.

Adolph said officials from France had been to French Lick, liked what they saw and "wanted to be a part of revitalizing the area."

None of the other applicants could be reached for comment Friday. Telephone messages were left for officials of each of the companies that applied.

The applications included very little financial information, which will be submitted if, and after, the referendum passes, Arnold said. At that time, the commission will conduct a thorough investigation of each applicant, she said.

"It's our job to find the very best application and put together the very best situation in keeping with the statute, and that is to promote economic development," Arnold said. "Until the referendum passes, I don't anticipate we're going to do much of anything at all."

The riverboat casino would be located on a man-made waterway between two historic hotels in French Lick and West Baden Springs.

Supporters hope a casino -- with slot machines, blackjack and poker -- will resurrect the local economy.

Opponents, who have formed a committee known as the Orange County Coalition Against Gambling, have argued that legalizing gambling would increase both crime and the number of residents with gambling addictions.

The county of about 19,000 people is about 50 miles south of Bloomington.