- At the time, four of twelve casinos in Atlantic City had closed and Trump Taj Mahal would have been the fifth if it were to close. 38 In filing a revised reorganization plan in Delaware bankruptcy court, Trump Entertainment Resorts said its board had approved a shutdown of the casino by December 12, 2014.
- The new, much more luxurious and modern, casino opened off the Atlantic City boardwalk in 2003. Much of Taj’s casino action went to The Borgata over the next few years. Taj Mahal was once known as the poker room capital of the East Coast, but this title quickly shifted to The Borgata. There were more games running, more space, nicer tables.
- W hen Donald Trump opened the towering Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City in March 1990, he declared it “the eighth wonder of the world” and joined in the celebrations at a launch.
The Trump Taj Mahal is about to become the fifth Atlantic City casino to close its doors for good in 3 years. Its closure will signal an end to the Trump casino brand once and for all. The Trump Taj Mahal had been in trouble for years, along with the rest of cash-strapped Atlantic City, where five casinos have closed since 2014, including Trump Plaza. Of the seven that remain.
Trump Taj Mahal is a casino that has a long and storied history. At one point in time, it was not only the crown jewel of East Coast gambling, but also one of the most popular casinos in the whole world. The casino bearing the name of Donald Trump opened with an extravagant party, befitting of the Trump mantra that everyone would come to know. Performers like Michael Jackson attended the grand opening, and it seemed like Taj Mahal Atlantic City was going to be an unstoppable force. In reality, Atlantic City was nowhere near its peak (that would be reached in 2006), and Trump did not have the proper wherewithal to run an efficient casino. A long and troubled history over the past few decades will end with a final nail in the coffin this September.
Troubles Through the Years
Financial and operational struggles have been just about the only thing consistent in the history of Taj Mahal AC. Just a year after its opening in 1990, Trump was forced to enter into a prepackaged bankruptcy where he would be forced to give away half of his entire stake in the casino. It was five years after this move that Trump would eventually buy the property outright. At this time in 1996, its value was under $1billion, but the reality is that this was likely a high number, even in the booming times of Atlantic City in the 90’s and early 2000’s.
Peak and Downfall
During the early 2000’s, Atlantic City was seeing tremendous gaming revenue and visitor numbers. These numbers were so large that Taj actually expanded its presence by adding an entirely new tower, known as The Chairman Tower, in 2006. Fittingly, 2006 would also be the best year that AC would experience in its history. After this, however, everything began to go downhill, both in AC and especially with Taj Mahal itself.
The Borgata was the worst thing that has happened to Taj Mahal in the last decade. The new, much more luxurious and modern, casino opened off the Atlantic City boardwalk in 2003. Much of Taj’s casino action went to The Borgata over the next few years. Taj Mahal was once known as the poker room capital of the East Coast, but this title quickly shifted to The Borgata. There were more games running, more space, nicer tables, and a higher end atmosphere. At one point featured in movies, Taj Mahal’s poker room went from being the premier in the East Coast to outright closed by 2014.
When the majority of their poker action left, so too did many of their gamblers and visitors. There was little benefit to staying at or coming to Taj Mahal if a tourist could instead stay at The Borgata. Outside of being on the boardwalk itself, Taj Mahal did not have many selling points.
By 2014, Taj Mahal would enter its first round of bankruptcy. As has been the case in each bankruptcy instance, the dispute was between Taj management (now operated by Tropicana), and their employee unions. The bankruptcy would go back and forth from pending closure to promises of a prosperous future. By early 2016, things were looking up at Taj Mahal, as its primary backer (Icahn Enterprises) led the company out of bankruptcy. The good news did not last for long, however.
Icahn and Taj Mahal Closing
Carl Icahn was said to be the savior of Taj Mahal, When the city and investors had effectively given up on the property, Icahn agreed to put a virtually endless supply of money into the Taj Mahal in the hopes of returning it to its former glory. This process started in late 2014, and it will conclude in September 2016. Multiple on site changes took place (closing The Chairman Tower being one of them), but not nearly enough was done, and the casino continued to bleed money. Carl Icahn says that he has lost around $100 million in his efforts to revive the Taj Mahal. In our opinion, not nearly enough was done to encourage a real turnaround for the casino, and as a result the final end is now in sight.
Future of Taj Mahal and Atlantic City Closed Casinos
In the past several years, Atlantic City has seen a number of casino closures, including Trump Plaza, Showboat, Revel and AC Hilton. The closure of Taj Mahal will mean another several thousand employees will lose their jobs, and another large vacant building will take up space on the AC boardwalk. Eyesore aside, it is certainly a sign of the times. AC has fallen well behind the competition, both in Las Vegas and among its nearby competition in Philadelphia, Maryland and other cities. While it is not impossible for the Taj Mahal to once again be saved at the last minute, this time it looks more improbable than ever.
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Taj Mahal Casino Atlantic City Close
Donald Trump called it the Eighth Wonder of the World. Now it's just another failed Atlantic City casino.
Taj Mahal Casino Atlantic City Nj
The Trump Taj Mahal finally closed its doors just before 6 a.m. Monday.
The last guests at the hotel checked out on Sunday, and some of the last gamblers at the casino were cashing in their chips while its namesake was debating Hillary Clinton, facing his own increasingly long odds.
Trump himself no longer owned anything more than the name attached to the Taj's grandiose neon minarets. In its last days, the casino was controlled by the financier Carl Icahn.
Icahn called it a 'sad day for Atlantic City' and for the 3,000 workers at the Taj. But he said he couldn't reach an agreement with striking union workers and could no longer run the casino without hemorrhaging money.
The union, representing about 1,000 of the Taj's workers, reached deals with four other casinos in the city just before the Independence Day weekend, including another casino owned by Icahn. But Taj workers went on strike July 1.
'Despite our best efforts, which included losing almost $350 million over just a few short years, we were unable to save the Taj Mahal,' Icahn said in a statement Monday.
The Trump Taj Mahal had been in trouble for years, along with the rest of cash-strapped Atlantic City, where five casinos have closed since 2014, including Trump Plaza. Of the seven that remain, two, Bally's and Caesar's, have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The Taj opened in April 1990 and had financial problems almost immediately, according to an analysis by CNN of documents Trump filed with state gaming authorities.
Trump financed it with junk bonds and could not cover their payments with profits from the gaming operations. On four of the Taj's first 16 days of operation, its bank account contained less than $0, with deficits as deep as $1.7 million, according to a New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement report from 1990.
The state approved a $65 million bailout in 1990 because of fears that closing it would cripple the Atlantic City economy. The Taj filed for bankruptcy the next year, allowing it to shed hundreds of millions in debt. It was the first of four trips through bankruptcy court for Trump's casino operations.
Even after reorganization, the Taj continued to struggle with debt payments, posting net losses of $121 million between 1992 and 1995, according to company filings with the SEC. The company turned an operating profit all four years but ended up in the red because of interest payments.
The Taj was included in bankruptcy filings in 2004 and again in 2009. Trump gave up his CEO position in the 2004 bankruptcy. He unloaded the casino in the 2009 reorganization but continued to lease his name to Trump Entertainment Resorts, the company that ran the Taj and Trump Plaza.
And Trump, the man, eventually sued Trump, the company, to try to take his name off the casinos. He complained in his lawsuit that the Taj and Trump Plaza had been allowed 'to fall into an utter state of disrepair' and were unworthy of his 'superior reputation.'
Taj Mahal Casino Atlantic City New Jersey
'We have a very high standard,' Trump told CNNMoney in 2014. 'And they didn't meet it.'
-- CNN's Lorenzo Ferrigno, Brian Vitagliano and Amanda Wills contributed to this report
CNNMoney (New York) First published October 10, 2016: 9:27 AM ET