Word: kerzner
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...AFRICAN CONNECTION. They don't make them more controversial than Solomon Kerzner. There's the over-the-top casino he built on a South African homeland, taking advantage of apartheid; the money scandal that linked him to a Prime Minister who had to resign; the succession of wives, including a former Miss World; and these days the Mohegan Sun, a billion-dollar Indian casino in Connecticut that he made happen...
...Kerzner, 67, was ideally placed to make a killing as a financier in Indian gaming. He has succeeded in gaming systems with loose rules before. His native South Africa once banned gambling but allowed it in tribal areas carved out by the apartheid-era white government for blacks to inhabit. Kerzner, who began his career as an accountant, opened the first hotel-casino in 1977 in Mmabatho, the capital of the homeland of Bophuthatswana, about 150 miles from Johannesburg. That year he began planning what would become the opulent Sun City resort-casino-entertainment-theme-park complex. When it opened...
...soon as the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) formally recognized the Mohegans as a tribe, Kerzner and several partners reached an agreement to develop and manage the tribe's proposed casino. Their fee: more than the legally allowed 40% of net revenues. The deal with the NIGC was negotiated in private, and then chairman Harold Monteau rubber-stamped it. The other two commissioners and several staff members objected, complaining that Monteau had worked out the generous package in secret. Monteau is now a lobbyist on casino issues for more than a dozen tribes...
...dollar casino (after Foxwoods) when annual revenue hit 10 figures. The 32% increase over last year follows the opening of a second complex, which makes the Mohegan Sun's total gaming area larger than the combined area of the Mirage, Stardust and Tropicana casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. Kerzner, the Mohegans and the NIGC will not release details of the full management agreement, but based on financial data drawn from government records, Kerzner will ultimately walk away with an estimated $400 million. His partners will split another $400 million. And Kerzner is going after more. He and his partners...
...recent years Kerzner has eyed the U.S. for expansion. He failed, though, in an attempt earlier this year to build a $250 million hotel-casino in Atlantic City. New Jersey residents opposed to South African racial policies persuaded city officials to block the project. Kerzner's newest scheme calls for a floating casino, "a five-star hotel on water," that would provide ocean-going gambling aboard a passenger liner cruising between South Africa and Europe...