Atlantic City’s Taj Mahal casino likely to close

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Billionaire investor Carl Icahn says the struggling Trump Taj Mahal casino “will almost certainly close.”

The would-be purchaser of the casino told the Associated Press on Thursday that the casino’s finances are dire.

Four of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos have closed this year, and the Taj Mahal would be the fifth.

Icahn, sounding very much like a man growing tired of the whole topic, said that even though he won’t back out of a deal he made with owner Trump Entertainment Resorts to acquire the Taj Mahal and pump $100 million into it, he wishes he never answered the phone when the company first called him about it.

“One overriding fact is perfectly clear: The Taj is quickly running out of money and will almost certainly close,” Icahn said. “Reprehensibly, the union, instead of working with, and trying to help, the company to keep the Taj alive, is instead doing everything to destroy the possibility of saving the jobs of over 3,000 employees.”

Union members said they will picket outside the casino today to protest a court-ordered termination of health care and pension plans.

Trump Entertainment has declined to comment. It had threatened to close the Taj Mahal on Nov. 13 if it didn’t get a judge to free it from making health care and pension payments for the casino’s workers. It now promises to keep the casino open at least through November.

Atlantic City’s casino revenue has fallen from $5.2 billion in 2006 to $2.86 billion last year, and it will be considerably less this year with the closures of at least a third of its casinos.

Trump Entertainment Resorts acknowledges its finances are dire but says it is doing everything it can to preserve the Taj Mahal and the jobs. It previously warned it was in danger of running out of money in early December, before it got a bankruptcy court judge to cancel its contract with the casino workers’ union. The move saves the company $14.6 million a year.