I'll only say that Donald Trump said that because he is an idiot. Run through the laundry list of quotes he has for any city, person or government entity... he's a dope and, from what I recall, his project was always unlikely to happen during the boom. The bust simply put the nail in that coffin.
Furthermore, there were only ever allowed to be 2 casinos in the city and 2 casinos a Las Vegas stripe does not make.
All of that said, you are right, Philly does not always make itself the most friendly to development and to having a comprehensive city plan. So I hear ya there. The bigger argument is for a better business climate and cheaper building costs. That would easily get us all what we want