TORONTO -- Onex Corp. is ready to place a bet on the U.S. gambling industry, with struggling casino icon Tropicana Entertainment LLC a potential target for Gerald Schwartz's buyout firm.
Onex has top-end help in its hunt for a gambling deal, teaming up with Alex Yemenidjian, the former president of Kirk Kerkorian's MGM Grand casino empire. The firm is employing the same strategy in another beat-up business, building products, where Onex has joined with Masonite International Corp. founder Philip Orsino to seek deals.
In gambling, the focus isn't just on the neon and flash of the Las Vegas strip, where the Tropicana is a well-known name in lights, but in more out-of-the-way places. Onex made a bid for Gateway Casinos Income Fund, which runs gambling operations in Western Canada, but fell short in that 2007 takeover battle.
The appeal for Mr. Schwartz is the steady, long-term growth of gambling, which has moved into the mainstream of North American life in recent years with casinos appearing all across the continent.
