The state Division of Gaming Enforcement on Friday approved an additional 18 months for the Las Vegas company to sell its 50-percent interest in the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.
MGM decided to sell its stake and leave New Jersey rather than cut ties to an Asian business partner in Macau whose father is suspected by New Jersey regulators of having organized crime ties to Chinese gangs. MGM and the family of Pansy Ho deny the allegations.
Boyd Gaming owns the other half of the Borgata, and passed on buying out MGM's share.
MGM decided March 12, 2010, that its business dealings with Ho outweighed the value of staying in New Jersey, and reached an agreement with the gaming enforcement division to sell its half interest in the Borgata.
New Jersey regulators have expressed concern about Pansy Ho, MGM Mirage's joint venture partner in the Chinese enclave of Macau. Her father, Stanley Ho, has been accused of ties to Asian organized crime gangs but never charged. He denies any ties.
The gaming enforcement division had recommended that Pansy Ho be found an "unsuitable" business partner because of her father's reputed ties to Chinese triads, or criminal gangs. The issue first came to light in May 2009 when the division asked MGM to sever its ties to Pansy Ho.
Boyd joined with MGM in requesting the extended deadline for a sale, said Lisa Spengler, a spokeswoman for the division.
MGM said last fall it had received an offer of just over $250 million for its half of the Borgata from a third party it would not publicly identify. The company did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday.
The extension gives MGM until March 24, 2013, to direct a trustee overseeing its interest in the Borgata to sell it. After that, the trustee will be responsible for lining up a buyer.
The New Jersey Casino Control Commission, which still has to approve the extension, will consider it on Aug. 8.
The Borgata opened in 2003 as a joint venture between Boyd and MGM, and soon became the dominant casino in the nation's second-largest gambling market. Bringing Las Vegas-style glitz and buzz to the New Jersey seashore, the Borgata touched off a casino arms race here as competitors scrambled to build their own expensive hotel tower additions, renovate hotel rooms and gambling floors, and concentrate on top-name entertainers.
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Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC
