Trump Denies Offering Up Atlantic City Casinos

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Donald Trump offered to sell his three Atlantic City casinos in exchange for stock in Mirage Casino Hotel’s parent company, the chairman of Mirage Resorts Inc. said Tuesday.

Trump denied the report, saying Mirage officials were making false statements to get publicity on the shirttails of the Trump name.

Steven Wynn, chairman of Las Vegas-based Mirage, told business owners in Bridgeport, Conn., that Trump made the offer on Monday. Wynn, who owned a successful casino in Atlantic City, is trying to persuade Connecticut lawmakers to approve gaming halls in that state.

“I wouldn’t go back to Atlantic City if they gave me a hotel for nothing. And (Monday) Trump offered all three of them to my senior financial officer for as much stock as I cared to offer them.”

“It’s absolutely false,” Trump said in a telephone interview from his New York headquarters on Tuesday. “I spoke to one of his people. They called me and the idea was formulated by them. I was asked, ‘What do you think of the concept of merging?’

“I have no interest,” Trump said. “We’re doing fantastic.”

Wynn previously owned the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City but sold it for $440 million to the Chicago-based Bally Manufacturing Corp., saying he was fed up with New Jersey regulators.

He operates the Golden Nugget and the Mirage in Las Vegas.