President Casinos
In 1990 he acquired the "President" which was on the National Register of Historic Places in Davenport, Iowa. He also acquired the Blackhawk Hotel in downtown Davenport which is also on the National Register.
Iowa was the first state to legalize riverboat gambling in modern times and the President became one of the first casinos to open.
In 1992 he acquired the President Casino Broadwater Resort in Biloxi, Mississippi. It was the second casino on the Gulf Coast in Mississippi.
In 1992 he formed President Casinos.
In 1993 he converted the Admiral in St. Louis to be one of the first casinos in Missouri after that state legalized gambling.
As a pioneer in gambling in three states, stock soared. He held one third of the company stock and he was worth $107 million. His total net worth of $370 million had him on the Forbes list of richest Americans. He entered the bidding to bring an expansion team to St. Louis after the St. Louis football Cardinals left the city.
However the stock soon plummeted as Illinois legalized riverboat gambling and more casino competition arose. Further complicating matters the Great Flood of 1993 forced the lengthy closure of the casinos. By 1996 his share of stock was valued at $14.7 million. He cut the pledge to $7 million and received a contract to exclusively sell reproductions of Vatican art in the United States. However the deal was eventually halted after he could not market the art beyond Pittsburgh.
His Mississippi efforts were challenged by Jack E. Pratt of the Pratt Hotel Corporation which said it had the rights to develop the Broadwater Resort. Although the case was dismissed Connelly paid out $1 million. He sold the Iowa casino after Illinois legalized gambling on its side of the river.
In 1993 it entered into an agreement with the St. Regis Mohawk Indian Tribe to develop a landbased casino in the Catskill Mountains in New York. It would lose $4.1 million on the project which was never built.
It entered into a planned casino in Gary, Indiana which fell through. It lost $11 million when a proposed casino in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania fell through. In 1995 it closed its money losing casino in Tunica, Mississippi. The company pitched a casino plying the waters of New York City which never materialized.
The company ultimately filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2002 and has now divested itself of all its gambling operations.
Read more about this topic: John E. Connelly
Famous quotes containing the word president:
“To be President of the United States, sir, is to act as advocate for a blind, venomous, and ungrateful client; still, one must make the best of the case, for the purposes of Providence.”
—John Updike (b. 1932)