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Well shit... I have the article saved as a text.
N.J. Agency Says Trump Loan Illegal
By David Johnston
April 09, 1991
ATLANTIC CITY — One of Donald Trump's casinos has admitted that it broke the law and violated terms of its license when the developer's father lent it $3.5 million by purchasing gaming chips when he had no plans to gamble, the state Division of Gaming Enforcement said yesterday.
Through his attorney, Fred Trump bought 700 gray chips, each worth $5,000, in December so that Trump Castle Casino Resort would have enough cash to make an $18.4 million interest payment on its mortgage, the division said.
Trump Castle gets to keep the money, but must pay a $30,000 fine under terms of the settlement, Division Director Jack Sweeney said. Sweeney said Fred Trump also agreed to apply for a license as a financial source, which would make another such loan possible in June, when the next interest payment is due.
Donald Trump, the sole owner of Trump Castle, would not be disciplined under the proposed settlement, which must be approved by the Casino Control
Commission, Sweeney said. The commission may consider the settlement in May.
CALLED ROUTINE
Tom Auriemma, the division attorney assigned to the financially struggling Trump casinos, portrayed the settlement as a routine regulatory matter.
But a Pennsylvania State University sociologist who has studied the gambling industry for 24 years said the settlement reflected how New Jersey was weakening regulations to serve the needs of casino owners saddled with debt.
"I said a few years ago that New Jersey would stop enforcing the law as soon as things got tough in Atlantic City and that the casinos would put on
pressure to loosen up regulation," said Vicki Abt, a sociologist at Penn State's Ogontz campus and co-author of The Business of Risk: Commercial Gambling in Mainstream America.
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