Icahn group to get Trop casino

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is back in the Atlantic City casino business.

A bankruptcy court judge in Camden approved the sale of the Tropicana Casino and Resort today to a group of creditors led by Icahn. The group is swapping $200 million worth of discounted debt that it bought at a steep discount for ownership of the casino.

When it first went on the market a year and a half ago, the Tropicana was expected to fetch about $1 billion. Since then, the economy crashed and competition from slots parlors in nearby states has battered Atlantic City.

Icahn once owned the Sands Casino Hotel in Atlantic City but sold it in 2006 to Pinnacle Entertainment, which imploded it and never built a replacement.