Greenwood Gaming breaks its losing streak

Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment Inc., which already owns Parx Casino in Bensalem, was the big winner Tuesday when the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board chose Live! Hotel & Casino, planned for South Philadelphia, for the city's second casino license.

Not only does the selection of Live! give Greenwood the chance to protect its majority slice of the $1.14 billion gambling market in the immediate Philadelphia region, it also ends a losing streak.

Greenwood, which fought fiercely against the board's approval of a license for Ira Lubert at the former Valley Forge Convention Center, lost competitions for casino licenses in Maryland and Massachusetts in the last year.

In Massachusetts, in particular, the company thought it had a great chance because it had a local partner, but the license went to Penn National Gaming Inc. Cordish, its partner in Philadelphia, was another competitor in New England.

Greenwood's roots in the Philadelphia area go back to the late 1980s. That's when chairman Robert W. Green, a native of the United Kingdom, formed the firm to buy Philadelphia Park racetrack - now home to Parx as well - from penny-stock swindler Robert E. Brennan's International Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. for $67 million.

The purchase was a bet that lawmakers would eventually turn to the legalization of slot machines at racetracks for tax revenue. That finally happened in 2004, with much support from Green.

Green's primary financial backer is Watche "Bob" Manoukian, an Armenian born in Lebanon who now calls London home. He made his fortune in the 1980s and 1990s as an agent for the royal family of Brunei, the small but oil-rich nation in Southeast Asia.

Manoukian owns 85.84 percent of Parx, and is restricted to owning no more than 33.3 percent of a second casino in Pennsylvania. To stay within those limits, Manoukian will own just 28.33 percent of Live! outright while another entity, set up for the benefit of certain Manoukian family members, will own 17 percent.

Other Greenwood-related investors, including Green, own 4.67 percent, for a total of 50 percent on the Greenwood side.

Cordish Cos., a family-owned business in Baltimore, owns the other 50 percent, with most of it split between the three sons of chief executive David S. Cordish. The company's top casino executive, Joseph Weinberg, owns 5 percent.

In 1910, Cordish's grandfather founded the company, which now has operations in private equity, real estate development, and entertainment management. Local projects include Xfinity Live! Philadelphia, next to Citizens Bank Park, and the Walk in Atlantic City.

Live! in Philadelphia will be the sixth casino Cordish has developed. The company owns Live! Maryland, south of Baltimore. That is the highest-grossing casino in the mid-Atlantic region, with $552 million in gambling revenue this year through October.