Trump: Say no
to isle casinos
Gambling is a 'very
By Russ Lynch
double-edged sword,' he says
Star-BulletinDonald Trump, one of the world's leaders in the casino business, says legalized gambling is not for Hawaii.
Trump, who shares ownership of the Miss Universe pageant with CBS Television and will arrive in Hawaii tomorrow for next week's event, said he's been to the islands a number of times.
He is aware that the economy is flat and real estate prices are down. In fact, Trump said in a telephone interview yesterday, he might be interested in investing in Hawaii but gambling would not be the way to go.
"Gaming is a very double-edged sword," Trump said. "It both giveth and taketh away in terms of an economy.
"It's usually used for a depressed area, which Hawaii certainly isn't."
Trump heads Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc., which has ownership interests in three Atlantic City casinos and a gambling riverboat in Indiana.
"Gaming has not been something that has been well accepted," he said, except for depressed areas that needed a fix.
The Miss Universe pageant is his choice of a way to help the Hawaii economy, said Trump, who bought the pageant and its associated Miss Teen U.S.A. and Miss U.S.A. contests two years ago.
"I purchased it from ITT as something that I always thought was a great asset because it gets tremendous TV ratings all over the world," Trump said from his New York headquarters.
The Super Bowl gets high viewing in the United States, he said, but is hardly seen anywhere else in the world.
The Miss Universe pageant this year will bring Hawaii to 2.5 billion potential viewers around the globe, he said.
"Miss Universe is here and you have two and a half billion people watching it, focused on how beautiful Hawaii is.
"The biggest beneficiary isn't going to be the winner, it's going to be Hawaii," Trump said.
Lobbying by the State of Hawaii and the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau paid off, Trump said, because Hawaii won over five other sites that were competing to hold this year's contest.
And Hawaii shouldn't be too concerned about the $3.5 million in state money that went into bringing the pageant here, he said.
That price is going to get a lot higher as more and more places push for the tourism benefits that the huge TV exposure can bring them, Trump said. Next year, the price will be $5 million, he said.
Official Miss Universe Web site.
