Donald Trump’s casino company, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection less than two years ago, already finds itself in another bind.

Trump Entertainment Resorts, based in Atlantic City, N.J., is struggling against competition from new slot parlors in neighboring states. It recently lost out on a chance to expand beyond Atlantic City. And it has had to weather rumors that its chief executive is on the way out.

On top of all that, the company still carries a burdensome debt load, despite the bankruptcy reorganization in 2005.

With a movement to unionize dealers under way and a casino smoking ban looming, Trump Resorts could find itself in a deeper hole. Of all the casino companies operating in Atlantic City, analysts say, Trump’s company is the most vulnerable to the changing business climate because it has no casinos outside the resort to cushion the impact.

Enter Merrill Lynch. Trump Resorts, which has three casinos in Atlantic City, announced two weeks ago it had hired the firm to help evaluate strategic options, including, those familiar with the move said, selling one casino or even the entire company.

But bond covenants and other issues could make a sale expensive – and therefore difficult, industry analysts said.

Trump Resorts has worked to shore up its Atlantic City holdings since it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It assembled a new management team and embarked on a $500 million plan to renovate its casinos, including a much-needed hotel tower currently under construction at the Taj Mahal. The $250 million project is due to be completed in the third quarter of 2008.

But the company’s momentum stalled after Trump Resorts was passed over for a Philadelphia slot parlor in December, just as other Pennsylvania gambling venues opened and started chipping away at the Atlantic City market.

Prudential Securities analyst Joel Simkins said Trump Resorts has reached the point where it could go only so far on its current path.

“That’s the kind of shame in all of this,” Simkins said. “They’ve done a very nice job in starting to turn around the operations and getting the margins in the right direction. They’re just being handcuffed here.

“It’s a laundry list of headwinds.”

Trump Resorts’ shares are down roughly 20 percent since it lost out on the Philly license. Meanwhile, revenue at the three Trump casinos – the Taj, Trump Plaza and Trump Marina – decreased by an average of 3.5 percent during the first two months of the year, in line with an overall decline among Atlantic City casinos of 3.8 percent.

While casino executives have said privately they are hopeful March will prove to be a better month, the resort still has to prepare for more Pennsylvania slot parlors, including two due to open in Philadelphia in the next several years.

Meanwhile, rumors have abounded that Trump Resorts’ chief executive, Jim Perry, is leaving. The talk reached such a pitch that Perry, who replaced Trump as chief executive after the company emerged from Chapter 11, addressed the rumors in a recent conference call with investors. He said in February his contract has no end date.

“My intention was to see this through until there was a perception of success with the company,” Perry said. “When that is achieved, there is a wife and family in California waiting for me to return, and I will when we have achieved those goals.”

Both Perry and Trump, who is the company’s chairman and largest shareholder, declined comment.

The Trump casinos have had a turbulent history in Atlantic City. They individually went through bankruptcy proceedings in the early 1990s before Trump pulled them together and went public in 1995 to raise cash. Ten years later, a crushing debt load of $1.8 billion put the company back in Chapter 11.

But when it emerged in May 2005, Trump Resorts still was carrying $1.25 billion in debt, as well as a $500 million line of equity. And its bond agreements now limit Trump’s options.

The company is prohibited from increasing its debt too much, and is allowed to invest no more than $50 million of equity outside the Atlantic City market. The Philadelphia slot parlor license Trump Resorts lost out on met those requirements.

Since then, Trump Resorts has dropped plans to build a casino on the Mississippi Gulf Coast because of concerns over the project’s financial return. And company executives have long since stopped talking about scoping out possibilities in Macau, the Chinese enclave dubbed the Las Vegas of the East.

Since the company hired Merrill Lynch, Atlantic City has been buzzing about the prospect of life without the Donald, who has been in Atlantic City for more than two decades, longer than any other Atlantic City mogul. But a sale of one or all of the casinos would be tough, analysts said.

For months, Trump has been weighing the sale of the Plaza to casino magnate Steve Wynn, which would give the company much-needed cash to open a casino outside New Jersey. But the recent resignation of state Sen. William Gormley – who was key in brokering the deal – has left it in limbo, people familiar with the negotiations said. And while there has been regular talk of parties who are interested in Trump Marina, no firm offer has surfaced.

One obstacle to a sale: A buyer would have to pay a premium on the price of the company’s bonds. And Trump has veto power over the sale of any of the casinos. If he waives that right, the company would have to give him up to $100 million for personal tax liabilities he would incur as a result of the sale. That could make the price too high to make a deal workable, industry analysts said.

A buyer for the entire company may be even harder, because “no one will want to be faced with the same problem as Trump, which is over-exposure to Atlantic City,” said Morgan Joseph analyst Adam Steinberg.

Still, analysts said something needs to be done.

“There will be a major recapitalization of Trump at some point, in our view, and the only two questions we believe are how long before it occurs and for what reason,” J.P. Morgan analyst Mario Kontomerkos wrote in a recent report.

Steinberg said investors need to look at Trump Resorts as a long-term investment.

“Near-term, there’s some challenges to Atlantic City,” he said. “Longer-term, it’s still an attractive market.

“It’s not like it was before (the last bankruptcy filing),” Steinberg said. “There’s more trust in this management. I think nothing seems to be insurmountable like it was before.”