2016-10-10washingtonpost.com

Donald Trump opened his Trump Taj Mahal casino 26 years ago, calling it "the eighth wonder of the world. But his friend and fellow billionaire Carl Icahn closed it Monday morning, making it the fifth casualty of Atlantic City's casino crisis.

The sprawling Boardwalk casino, with its soaring domes, minarets and towers built to mimic the famed Indian palace, shut down at 5:59 a.m., having failed to reach a deal with its union workers to restore health care and pension benefits that were taken away from them in bankruptcy court.

Nearly 3,000 workers lost their jobs, bringing the total jobs lost by Atlantic City casino closings to 11,000 since 2014.

...

The Taj Mahal joins the Atlantic Club, Showboat, Trump Plaza and Revel in the growing club of Atlantic City casinos that, since 2014, have succumbed to economic pressure brought about in large measure by competition from casinos in neighboring states. The city now will have seven casinos.

David Cay Johnston skewers Trump over this and his Atlantic city involvement in general:

Monday at dawn marks the end of the Donald Trump era in Atlantic City, the New Jersey seaside resort from which he extracted hundreds of millions of dollars while doing as little as he could for the town.

About 3,000 workers will lose their jobs when the Trump Taj Mahal casino hotel, a business involved in six bankruptcies and one privately negotiated deal to escape paying the debts Trump ran up, closes.

... It was a foolish strategy, as various stock analysts (one of whom Trump got fired) and journalists reported at the time, because Trump competed against himself and added much more casino floor space and hotel rooms than the market needed.

He lured Akio Kashiwagi, who gambled at the rate of $14 million an hour, to his casinos twice and managed to lose money both times because he didn't listen to what his advisors told him.

...

Instead of investing in his casinos with ever nicer rooms, developing ties to customers the way Harrah's casino did and focusing on bigger future profits, Trump took cash out fast. At one point he got an illegal $3.5 million loan from his father just to keep from having to close Trump's Castle. Casino regulators could have revoked his lucrative license but instead fined him $30,000, less than some high rollers wagered on a single bet at the baccarat and craps tables.



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