Last month, we explored how a hotel that opened in 1919 as the Ambassador became the framework for the Tropic-ana. In 1988, the casino, re-named TropWorld, added a theme park called Tivoli Pier, but this new identity didn’t last.

The Tivoli concept was predicated on the assumption that the resort would be a general leisure destination. But quarter slots proved more crucial to the bottom line than a Ferris wheel. With a 1996 expansion that added 600 hotel rooms as well as casino space, the theme park theme ended, and the Tropicana name returned.

Those additions gave the Tropicana the state’s largest hotel. But even before the blue tape was down, the resort’s owners acquired land for another expansion with more hotel rooms, a major concert venue, convention facilities and parking. Aztar executives hoped to tailor a new Tropicana that would capitalize on market growth.

By this time, the Tropicana in Atlantic City was Aztar’s flagship. Its Las Vegas property was in a holding pattern, with major improvements deferred while the company considered a redevelopment plan.

Ironically, then, when Aztar finally announced concrete plans to expand in Atlantic City, the company looked for guidance to Las Vegas. Seeing the non-gaming revenues Vegas Strip properties enjoyed, Aztar hoped to penetrate the market for overnight visitors who would also come for non-casino attractions.

The company slated the expansion’s opening for 2003, coinciding with the debut of the Borgata. Despite this luxurious expansion, the Tropicana didn’t neglect its day-tripping, slot-playing customers. A 2001 promotion, the “Chicken Challenge,” let slot club members test their mettle by playing tic-tac-toe against a Leghorn hen, with $10,000 at stake. The game was so popular,  people waited in line as long as 30 minutes to play. The chicken only lost five times in three years, but there was never a shortage of challengers.

Ground broke on the expansion in April 2002. Work was halted by a collapse in the parking garage that claimed the lives of four construction workers and injured 20 more. The accident slowed work on the project, and other developments proved less than favorable for the casino’s prospects. The prospect of legal slots in Pennsylvania and Maryland cast doubts on the growth potential of Atlantic City just as the Tropicana was betting $245 million on the city’s future.

In 2004, the Tropicana finally unveiled its expansion, which included a Latin-themed shopping and dining center, the Quarter. Connected to the casino by a sky bridge, the Quarter featured nine restaurants (including Vegas favorites Red Square, the Palm and P.F. Chang’s), 26 shops, and the 500-room Havana Tower. With 2,129 guest rooms, the Tropicana was once again the largest hotel in Atlantic City.

Aztar execs proclaimed the Quarter a success, but they soon faced a challenge more daunting than the conquistadors who vanquished the Aztecs: investment bankers with an appetite for mergers and acquisitions.

Throughout 2005, speculation about buyers for Aztar swirled throughout the city.  In March 2006, the company entered into a merger agreement with Pinnacle Entertain-ment, a prominent riverboat operator, in which Pinnacle would acquire all Aztar stock for $38 a share. No sooner had the ink dried than Colony Capital Acquisitions, a private equity firm that today owns the Atlantic City Hilton and Resorts, offered $41 a share.

Not to be outdone, Ameristar, another regional operator, chimed in with a $43 bid. By late April, Columbia Sussex, a private hospitality operator, had also entered the fray. The share price climbed to $48, and Columbia Sussex ultimately won the bidding war with an offer of $50 per share.

At $2.75 billion for the Atlantic City and Las Vegas Tropicanas, as well as three smaller casinos, some industry analysts believed Columbia Sussex had overpaid. Indeed, the company’s subsequent administration in Atlantic City was marked by cost-cutting measures that drew the ire of New Jersey regulators. In 2007, the Casino Control Commission declined to renew the company’s gaming license, effectively taking the casino away from its owner.

In December 2007, the commission appointed former state Supreme Court Justice Gary Stein as the property’s conservator. Originally, Stein hoped to get as much as $1 billion for the casino (in fact, he rejected bids of $850 million and $950 million), but as the economic situation deteriorated in Atlantic City—and nationally—a buyer failed to materialize.

After nearly 18 months of limbo, former Sands owner Carl Icahn and other bondholders (who together held $1.4 billion in Tropicana debt) acquired the property for $200 million—$85 million less than the final cost of the Quarter expansion.

With its ownership finally stabilized, the Tropicana was at last free to look to the future. Its new owners are no doubt hoping for a less tumultuous reign than their predecessors.

By David Schwartz

David G. Schwartz is the Director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a noted author, speaker and consultant. You can learn more about his work at http://www.dgschwartz.com.