Dicey bid for bull may be outta luck

BY DANIEL DUNAIEF
DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER

Get ready for a bullfight on Wall Street.
Casino Fortune, one of the world's largest online gambling sites, said yesterday it's ready to ante up more than $5 million to put its name on "The Charging Bull," the 7,000-pound bronze sculpture near Wall Street.

But city officials, who can veto the sale, may be uneasy about letting a gaming business put its logo beneath a statue whose image has been closely linked with capitalism and the stock market.

State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer "doesn't like this industry," said Sue Schneider, the publisher of Interactive Gaming News. "He's been successful at trying to make life miserable" for the online gambling businesses.

Spitzer's office declined to comment.

The city and artist Arturo Di Modica will have to approve the buyer, who will have to donate the bull and keep it in its current home at Bowling Green.

"There'll come a time when Casino Fortune won't go quietly into the night," said a spokesman for the company. "They'll fight for something they truly want."

Casino Fortune, which has 2 million American customers, and offers roulette, blackjack, slots, poker and other games, has been rebuffed in other ventures.

National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern reportedly described the company's bid for the Cleveland Cavaliers as "irrelevant."

Some critics suggested Casino Fortune's bids have been nothing more than attempts to get attention.

"Obviously, we don't mind any publicity we receive from making these bids," Dennis Rose, Casino Fortune's president, told the Daily News from Trinidad. "There's cynicism to the industry itself, [but] these bids are serious."