Trump Taj Mahal. Trump taj mahal Trump Taj Mahal era: 1990–2016. Construction of what was originally known as the Taj Mahal commenced in 1983 by Resorts International, owner of the neighboring Resorts Casino Hotel, with an estimated budget of $250 million.The Taj. Taj mahal online casino taj mahal online casino AdSee & do more with a day-by-day itinerary!Employees of the prior Trump Taj Mahal casino resort, who picketed the property for over three months in 2016, eventually received their settlement checks coming from the labor dispute with the last owner of what currently operates as Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Taj Mahal is a 5-reel, 10-line online.
[toc]The Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City
has closed its doors for the last time, as unions and owner Carl Icahn failed to reach an agreement over pay and benefits.Closing the doors did not go smoothly, as some of the 3,000 casino workers who have just become unemployed tried to wedge them open as they picketed outside the casino.
Chuck Baker, who has been a cook at the Taj Mahal since it first opened in 1990, led the pickets in a moment of silence. He told ABC:
“This didn’t have to happen. To [Icahn], it’s all just business. But to us, it’s destroying our livelihoods and our families. You take away our health care, our pensions and overload the workers, we just can’t take it.”
Icahn’s friend and the original builder of the casino, Donald Trump, expressed a similar sentiment to the Associated Press:
“I felt they should have been able to make a deal. It’s hard to believe they weren’t able to make a deal.”
Everyone, even the unemployed workers, is claiming victory
Carl Icahn made it clear to workers when they went on strike in early July that he had pumped $350 million into the loss-making property, and wasn’t going to invest another $100 million unless he got the pay and benefit deal he wanted.
Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union said:
“The workers made a choice that they weren’t going to accept benefits and terms of employment worse than everyone else’s. I applaud them: For the first time in 30 years, workers stood up to Carl Icahn and made him throw in the towel.”
His words were echoed by Tina Condos, who has also worked at the Taj since its first day in business:
“We stood up to a billionaire and told him we wouldn’t take it. I hope it gives him pause before he tries to come in and do this to anyone else. We feel like we succeeded here.”
The surviving casinos in New Jersey can breathe a sigh of relief that there is a little less competition for them in what is a currently a brutal competitive environment.
The authoritative ratings agency Fitch has forecast that at least four casinos will close if the November referendum on North Jersey casino expansion passes. The industry has now lost 11,000jobs since 2014 as casinos have failed to make sustainable profits.
[show-table name=cta-tropicana]A victory perhaps, but a Pyrrhic victory
Everyone involved may be claiming their part in the Taj Mahal closure as a victory, but it sure looks like a win that hurts.
The New Jersey labor market has few jobs available to ex-casino workers that will pay as well. Most will have to exit the industry and find work in another field.
Local 54 is probably going to lose a lot of members as workersmove on to other sectors, and Carl Icahn will have to take a huge write-off for a business which he has failed to provide with a “path to profitability.”
One extra empty building on the Boardwalk won’t improve the attractiveness of Atlantic City as a holiday resort.
When Trump first built the Taj Mahal, he called it the “eighth wonder of the world.” Well, the world is back to seven wonders and none of them carry the Trump brand. Even Hillary Clinton will come out of this a winner.
In July, she held a rally outside the shuttered Trump Plaza in AC, following up with a support visit to the Trump Taj Mahal’s striking workers.
A big business billionaire making thousands of middle-class workers unemployed for short term financial gain is meat to her marketing machine. With Trump so closely associated with the property, she has been given a valuable bad news story to use against the Donald.
Image credit: Jon Bilous / Shutterstock.com
This week's installment of Inside Gaming begins with a report on the industry's speculation about how it will be affected once president-elect Donald Trump takes office, tells of the new owner of an old Trump casino now looking to unload, and shares news regarding a Florida ruling affecting blackjack and other games.
Gambling Industry Ponders President Trump's First Moves
The inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump is less than a month away. Earlier this week Wayne Parry of the Associated Press explored what might be in store for the country's gambling industry once the first U.S. president ever to own a casino enters the White House.
In the past Trump owned three different casinos in Atlantic City. Both the Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal are now closed, while in 2011 he sold the Trump Marina, now operating under the new ownership as the Golden Nugget. Trump also owned another riverboat casino in Gary, Indiana, sold to Majestic Star Casino LLC in 2005.
In particular, those within the industry and other observers are most curious to learn how a Trump administration 'will handle three major issues: internet gambling, sports betting and daily fantasy sports.'
Where Trump may land regarding internet gambling remains to be seen.
Prior to Trump's victory in November, our Matthew Kredell opined that 'The 2016 Presidential Election May Not Affect Online Poker.' There Kredell noted Las Vegas Sands Corporation chairman and billionaire Sheldon Adelson's support of Trump, as well as now vice president-elect Mike Pence's previous support of the Adelson-backed Restoration of America's Wire Act that would prohibit online gambling, including online poker.
However Trump's history as a casino owner and a previous statement in support of online gambling from 2011 perhaps might position him differently, should he weigh in on the issue. The AP additionally notes how Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, 'formed a company... to explore the possibility of offering internet gambling in New Jersey before the state legalized it in 2013,' after which the Trumps never applied for a license.
'I have a lot of friends on both sides of this issue,' said Trump to the AP back in September regarding online gambling.
No one from Trump's transition team offered any comment that could tip Trump's hand on the issue. However the AP spoke with Steve Norton, an Indiana-based casino consultant and former casino executive who once worked with Trump back in the 1980s, who 'predicted [Trump] will ultimately oppose nationwide approval of internet gambling, due in part to Adelson's opposition, but said he does not think Trump would move to strip it from states that already offer it.'
As far as sports betting is concerned, the American Gaming Association has already requested Trump's support for several of its core causes, including the approval of sports betting. In a memo to the transition team — available on the AGA website — the organization highlighted a number of priorities including legalizing sports betting, curbing illegal gambling, reforming current tax laws affecting the industry, and more.
Speaking in November 2015, Trump was less ambiguous about not opposing sports betting or daily fantasy sports, telling Fox Sports 1, 'I'm okay with it because it's happening, anyway.'
Norton thinks Trump will be more open to sports betting. 'I believe the positives of oversight, taxing and ensuring fair odds outweigh any negatives,' said Norton. 'Hopefully Mr. Trump will support individual states rights, and help overturn [a federal ban].'
Meanwhile Norton didn't believe Trump would bother with daily fantasy sports, describing it as a 'non-issue' for him.
For more on the industry's thoughts on Trump's potential influence, visit the AP.
Icahn Reportedly Seeks to Sell Trump Taj Mahal
Speaking of Donald Trump's old casinos, over the past year we reported frequently on the final days of the beleaguered Trump Taj Mahal which officially shut its doors two months ago. Prior to the closing, billionaire business magnate Carl Icahn had helped Trump Entertainment Resorts out of bankruptcy earlier this year after making the company a subsidiary of his Icahn Enterprises, thereby becoming the Trump Taj Mahal's new owner.
Now Icahn is reportedly looking to unload the property, largely because of legislation passed by New Jersey lawmakers preventing Icahn from being able to reopen the casino for the next five years. Citing 'a source close to the situation,' The New York Post has reported that Icahn is 'in talks with fellow casino operators about selling control of the recently shuttered Trump Taj Mahal.'
Back in October the New Jersey Senate passed legislation prohibiting anyone closing a casino after the start of 2016 from holding a license to operate it again for the following five years. On Monday the New Jersey Assembly likewise voted 60-17 in favor of the bill, which as written solely applies to Icahn's situation with the Trump Taj Mahal.
The bill still requires Governor Chris Christie's signature to be enacted into law, and while he may veto it there may be enough votes to override a veto.
'If Icahn sells the Taj Mahal outright,' explains the Post (citing a second source), 'it would seem to sidestep the bill, if enacted, clearing the way for a new owner to reopen the casino with non-union workers.'
Taj Mahal Casino Nj
Icahn offered no comment on whether or not he is pursuing a sale.
For more on the matter, check out The New York Post.
Trump Taj Mahal Casino Wiki
Judge Upholds Florida Ruling Allowing Seminoles to Offer Blackjack
On Tuesday a federal judge refused the Florida's governor's request to reconsider an early November ruling that that state violated an agreement with the Seminole Tribe, reports WGCU.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued the order which denied the motion to alter or amend the earlier ruling, his response coming less than a week after attorneys for the Florida Governor Rick Scott and the Department of Business and Professional Regulation had made their request.
At issue is what had been the Seminoles' exclusive right to offer blackjack and other 'banked' card games in the state, part of a 2010 agreement which gave that right to the tribe in exchange for a $1 billion payment to the state. That previous agreement had been for five years and expired in 2015, although it existed as part of a larger 20-year compact between the state and the Seminoles. The offering of such games at other state-regulated pari-mutuel facilities was ruled to have violated that agreement, thereby allowing the Seminoles to continue to offer them.
In his early November ruling, Judge Hinkle sided with the tribe's argument that blackjack and other 'banked' games 'triggered an exception to the five-year agreement,' thus prompting his order 'that the tribe be allowed to continue to conduct the banked games for the remainder of the overall compact's 20-year term.'
Not unrelatedly, a revised compact between the Seminoles and Florida is currently being negotiated, although details of that process haven't been disclosed by either side.
For more on the ruling, see WGCU.
Photo: 'Donald Trump at Hershey PA on 12/15/2016 Victory Tour' (adapted), Michael Vadon, CC BY 2.0.
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History Of Trump Taj Mahal
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