The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, formerly the Trump Taj Mahal, is an integrated resort on the Boardwalk, owned by Boardwalk 1000, LLC, a joint venture between Hard Rock International and Edgewood Properties, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States.
The casino was inaugurated in 1990 by its owner, Donald Trump, and was built at a total cost of nearly $1billion. Original restaurants at the Taj Mahal included Hard Rock Cafe, Sultan's Feast, Dynasty, Il Mulino New York, Moon at Dynasty, and Robert's Steakhouse. It was also the home of Scores, the country's first in-casino strip club. The Taj Mahal came to the brink of closure in 2014 as its parent company went through bankruptcy, but ultimately remained open under the new ownership of Icahn Enterprises. In 2015, the Taj Mahal admitted to having "willfully violated" anti-money-laundering regulations for years and was fined $10 million. It was the highest penalty ever levied by the U.S. federal government against a casino. On August 3, 2016, it was announced that the Trump Taj Mahal would close after Labor Day because it was losing millions of dollars each month. It was closed on October 10, 2016.
On March 1, 2017, the Seminole Tribe of Florida through its Hard Rock International brand, and the Morris and Jingoli families, announced its purchase of the facility and conversion to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino brand. It reopened on June 27, 2018, a day earlier than planned. The Etess Arena, named for a Trump Organization executive who was responsible for conducting boxing matches in Atlantic City, and was intended to host major events upon completion when he was killed in an October 1989 helicopter crash, is a performance venue at the resort, now known as Hard Rock Live at Mark G. Etess Arena.
History 1983–2016: As Trump Taj Mahal
Construction commenced in 1983by Resorts International, owner of the neighboring Resorts Casino Hotel, with an estimated budget of $250million. Resorts head James Crosby said it might be named the United States Hotel, in reference to the city's first major hotel.
After Crosby's death in April 1986, Resorts International became a takeover target. The Taj Mahal had encountered construction problems, and Crosby's heirs, lacking experience in large development projects, doubted their ability to complete it successfully. Donald J. Trump, who owned two other Atlantic City casinos, beat out several other bidders to purchase a controlling stake in the company for $79million in July 1987. Trump was appointed chairman of Resorts International, and said he would complete the Taj Mahal in about a year. Because New Jersey law prohibited anyone from owning more than three casinos, Trump planned to close the original Resorts casino and operate it as a hotel annex to the Taj Mahal.
As the total budget had ballooned to $930million, Resorts sought to raise $550million to complete the Taj Mahal, but struggled to find the financing. With the company claiming to be near bankruptcy in early 1988, Trump made a tender offer to buy all outstanding stock for $22a share, stating that he was willing to personally finance the construction but only if he owned the entire company. Television producer Merv Griffin made an unexpected offer to purchase the company for $35 a share, sparking a highly publicized takeover battle, with Trump and Griffin filing lawsuits against each other.
The two ultimately reached a settlement, which was executed in November 1988, with Griffin purchasing the company, and Trump purchasing the Taj Mahal from the company for $273million. Trump raised $675million to finance the purchase and completion of the casino, primarily through junk bonds with a 14% interest rate. The casino opened on April 2, 1990 with of gaming space, claimed to be the largest casino in the world, though this was disputed by the Riviera, and billed itself as the "eighth wonder of the world." An elaborate grand opening ceremony was held three days later. In 1991, the Taj Mahal went through a prepackaged bankruptcy, resulting in Trump giving a 50 percent stake in the business to its bondholders in exchange for lowered interest rates and a longer payoff schedule.
In 1996, Trump's new publicly traded company, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, purchased Taj Mahal in a transaction that valued the property at $890million. In the 1990s, Trump's Taj Mahal casino was "the world's largest, most flamboyant casino" and Trump took on an "enormous amount of debt" to launch it. During eighteen months after its April 2, 1990 opening, when the Casino was on the verge of bankruptcy, it became the "preferred gambling spot for Russian mobsters living in Brooklyn, according to federal investigators who tracked organized crime in New York City". In 1998, Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network announced that Trump Taj Mahal Associates had paid a civil money penalty of $477,000for failing to file reports required by the Bank Secrecy Act. In 2001, the building hosted the UFC 31 and UFC 32 events, which were the first UFC cards held during the leadership of Dana White.
The Taj Mahal was the highest grossing casino in the city until the opening of The Borgata in 2003. On October 2, 2008, the Chairman Tower opened, bringing the complex to over 2,000 rooms. In July 2013, the Taj Mahal opened the nation's first casino strip club, featuring scantily clad dancers.Augenstein, Seth. "Nation's first casino strip club coming to Atlantic City" in The Star-Ledger (July 4, 2013). Retrieved August 27, 2013.
2014 bankruptcy and closure Trump Entertainment Resorts filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 9, 2014, and announced plans to close the Taj Mahal on November 13 if the casino did not get concessions from its unions. The sister property, the Trump Plaza, closed permanently on September 16, 2014.
Workers from the casino marched to Mayor Don Guardian's office on the morning of November 3, 2014to ask him to reconsider granting concessions, which the casino said were necessary to remain open. About 1,000 employees signed a petition calling on the mayor and other officials "to do everything possible" to keep the casino open. At the time, four of twelve casinos in Atlantic City had closed and the Trump Taj Mahal would have been the fifth if it were to close. In filing a revised reorganization plan in a Delaware bankruptcy court, Trump Entertainment Resorts said its board had approved a shutdown of the casino by December 12, 2014. The shutdown date was later pushed back to December 20. On December 18, two days before the scheduled closure, the labor union UNITE HERE! reached a deal with Trump Entertainment Resorts that saved the Taj from closing. The same day, billionaire Carl Icahn committed $20million in financing for the Taj.
On November 14, 2014, Trump Entertainment Resorts announced that the casino would shut down in December unless its main union, UNITE HERE, dropped its appeal of a court-ordered cost-savings package, which had effectively canceled the workers' health insurance and pension coverage. However, it was revealed that the closing was to happen because it had not received the state and local tax breaks it sought.
In February 2016, Trump Entertainment Resorts exited bankruptcy and became a subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises. The casino retained the name "Trump Taj Mahal," though Donald Trump no longer held any ownership stake. In April, another Icahn affiliate, Tropicana Entertainment, took over the property under a management agreement. Icahn also stated he would withhold a planned $100-million investment into the property if New Jersey approved casinos in the northern region of the state.
On October 10, 2016, the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel and Casino officially closed its doors amidst chaos of casino workers on strike. After the closing on that date, one UNITE HERE's leader raised the possibility that the casino would remain closed over the winter but will reopen in the spring of 2017 as a non-union facility, an attempt that he said would try to prompt a union boycott.
2018–present: Redevelopment as Hard Rock On March 1, 2017, Hard Rock International announced plans to spend $300million to purchase the resort and renovate it into the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, after the cancellation of a previous project of the same name in September 2012 because of financial problems from marketing conditions. It reopened as the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City on June 27, 2018.
In November 2018, the Hard Rock announced a plan to launch both online and retail sportsbooks in the following year. In January 2019, the online sportsbook was launched making it the 10th sportsbook app in New Jersey. On January 25, 2020, Scores Nightclub officially closed down, and on February 1 of that year, Robert's Steakhouse would follow.
On June 15, 2022, UNITE HERE union members voted overwhelming in favor of a strike if their agreement is not made by July 3. UNITE HERE Local 54, which represents workers at the casino as well as other casinos in Atlantic City demanded a raise in wages to help cover financial setbacks from the pandemic and increases in living costs.
Money laundering Over its years of operation from 1990 to 2016, the Trump Taj Mahal was, according to National Public Radio business correspondent, Jim Zarroli, "repeatedly cited for having inadequate money-laundering controls, not an unusual charge in the gaming business".
In February 2015, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network settled an investigation of the Trump Taj Mahal with the assessment of a $10 million civil fine for "significant and long-standing money laundering violations" which were described as "willful and repeated" contraventions of the record-keeping and reporting requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act. It was the highest penalty ever levied by the U.S. Federal Government against a casino.
The casino agreed to periodic external audits to comply with anti-money laundering statutes, and admitted to multiple violations as part of its settlement. The U.S. Treasury made note of casino violations dating back to 1998, when the Trump Taj Mahal paid a $477,700 fine for violating currency transaction requirements, as well as violations in 2003, 2010, and in 2012, for which the company was "repeatedly warned". The Trump Taj Mahal was "far from meeting" standards required to protect the U.S. financial system "from exploitation from criminals, terrorists, and other bad actors", the Treasury said in a press release.
In 2017, CNN obtained access to U.S. Treasury Department documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) which included the 1998 and the 2015 settlement.
Controversies Alleged organized crime links A 218-page U.S. Senate Subcommittee report, "Asian Organized Crime: the New International Criminal", released in 1992linked Trump's businesses to Asian organized crime.