Beal Bank to bail out Trump Entertainment

Just three months after Donald Trump vowed to save Atlantic City, the bombastic businessman is on his way out of town. The good news is that the biggest backer in the Trump Entertainment properties—billionaire Andy Beal—is ready to step in. Beal is perhaps best known in the gambling world for his series of multi-million dollar poker games against The Corporation, but in the last few years he’s been gambling on casinos instead of in them.

Beal Bank has partnered with Trump on several casino projects, so the Beal bid for Trump Entertainment Resorts’ three bankrupt Atlantic City properties is far from surprising, especially since half a billion dollars of the casinos’ debt already belongs to Beal Bank. Beal had originally planned to buy out the casinos alongside original owner Donald Trump, but Trump caved under pressure from other creditors and agreed to drop his bid last week.

Beal’s new plan is to take Trump Entertainment’s $486 million debt to Beal Bank and turn it into equity, allowing the properties to pay off their other creditors and to emerge from Chapter 11 debt-free. Beal’s offer will be on the table when Trump Entertainment Resorts’ bankruptcy hearing commences on December 3.