Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal has always been in news for something or the other reasons. This casino has always been a centre of attraction and all time favourite of many gamblers and indeed the property had its name in the casino industry. However things didn’t go well for it and finally after living on borrowed time owner Carl Icahn filed papers seeking regulatory permission to close the property forever.
Owner and management of Trump Taj Mahal had already made announcement of its closure way back on August 4. Now billionaire Carl Icahn’s management team has filed a formal petition asking the New Jersey division of Gaming Enforcement for permission to close the casino and to approve plans to wind down table games, disconnect slot machines, store unused liquor and destroy cards, dice and gambling chips.
This petition for the closure of the property indicates that the billionaire is pretty serious about closing the Taj Mahal and he says “losing millions of dollars a month while the city’s main casino workers union carries out a strike against it.”
Since Icahn announced on Aug.4 his plan to close the casino and went nearly a month without formally asking regulators for permission to do it, some strikers began questioning whether Icahn was truly planning to close it or whether the shutdown was just a threat or bluff to get the striking union to accept the casino’s final offer. However the petition was filed on Sept.2 but wasn’t made public by the state until Friday.
The Taj Mahal plans to close at 6 a.m. on Oct.10 but it will begin winding down some table games on Sept.26. This lavish property was inaugurated by Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee in 1990 one of the three casinos he once owned here. But Trump cut most ties with Atlantic City in 2009 aside from 10 percent ownership stake in the Taj Mahal’s parent company in return for the use of his name.
With the closure of the Taj Mahal will leave Atlantic City with seven casinos as recently as 2014 it has 12. Four AC casinos were shuttered in 2014. The survivors have begun posting improved revenue and profit leading many analysts to suggest a right sizing of the Atlantic City market which was overdue. Let us see in future how many of them survive and mint profits to scale themselves.
