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Showing posts with label Atlantic City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atlantic City. Show all posts

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Icahn to surrender Trump Taj Mahal License - Not for Sale




ATLANTIC CITY — Casino gaming might not be returning to the shuttered ... Icahn told the Associated Press that the casino is not for sale right now.



Carl Icahn was not bluffing when he said the Taj would close unless industrial action was halted. The casino was shuttered in the early hours of ...



Billionaire investor Carl Icahn plans to surrender the casino license for his shuttered Trump Taj Mahalcasino and wants to make sure that anyone who ...


ATLANTIC CITY -- Atlantic City's mayor is calling on billionaire investor Carl Icahn to sell the shuttered Trump Taj Mahal casino, saying his struggling ...


New Jersey gambling regulators revealed Tuesday that the casino petitioned the state Division ofGaming Enforcement on Dec. 22 for permission to ...




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Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Atlantic City Approves Financial Recovery Plan




Atlantic City Approves Financial Recovery Plan

State Lawmakers Considering Plan This Week

by Brian Pempus  |  Published: Oct 27, 2016 



Atlantic City officials are trying to prevent a state takeover of city finances in a plan approved this week. Lawmakers in New Jersey’s Assembly Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday to vet the proposal.
Atlantic City has about $500 million in debt, thanks in part to its gambling industry contracting from a $5.2 billion market in 2006 to $2.56 billion in 2015. Five casinos have closed over the past three years.
More than 100 public employees will be laid off under the plan. A major component is being able to settle a tax issue with Borgata, the city’s highest grossing casino.
Borgata is owed $150 million in tax refunds, and Atlantic City is planning on being able to settle for about $100 million. The casino hasn’t formally accepted the settlement.
According to the Associated Press, other parts of the plan to pay off the debt include selling the Bader Field former airport site for $110 million and issuing $105 million in bonds.
The idea is to reduce its budget by about 20 percent by 2021.
State lawmakers have until Nov. 1 to approve the proposal. If they don’t, New Jersey would assume control of Atlantic City finances for a period of five years.

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Sunday, October 16, 2016

40 years later, was A.C.'s casino gamble worth it?





In this photo, gamblers sit at slot machines at the Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City, N.J. A measure approved by a New Jersey Assembly ...

... staunchest opponents of the ballot question that would amend the state Constitution to permit casino gambling outside the seaside gambling resort.




New documents obtained by the Associated Press show groups that oppose and support the November 8th casino expansion question have spent ...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Atlantic City casinos saw a revenue decline in September, led by a large drop in earnings at the now closed Trump Taj Mahal.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & VIDEO ON LINK

40 years later, was A.C.'s casino gamble worth it?


ATLANTIC CITY — Steven Perskie thinks about the legacy of legalizing gambling here each time he sees the city’s skyline.
It’s been nearly four decades since Perskie, dubbed “the father of casino gaming,” wrote the law that allowed casinos in the struggling seaside city.
“The question I keep asking myself is a version of: What would Atlantic City have looked like in the last 40 years?” Perskie, 71, said Thursday. “What would Atlantic City look like today? What would the area look like today if we hadn’t done it or if we hadn’t succeeded?”
With the 40th anniversary of the Nov. 2, 1976, passage of the gambling referendum approaching, he isn’t the only one asking such questions.
On Nov. 8, the state will ask voters to again approve gaming, this time in North Jersey. The vote will come in the wake of five casino closings, 10,000 lost jobs and a city repeatedly near default following the opening of casinos in nearby states.
For a great part of the past four decades, Atlantic City casinos created thousands of jobs, millions in tax revenue and billions in capital investments while making Atlantic City an East Coast gambling mecca. Tourism in the city increased five-fold in the first decade. Neighboring communities, such as Egg Harbor and Galloway townships, saw enormous growth as people flocked to the region for work.
But critics say casinos didn’t fulfill all the promises. The gambling halls put small establishments out of business by offering dining, shopping and entertainment all in one building. Gaming tax revenue helped pay for Atlantic City housing and development, but the city still suffers from blighted areas and vacant properties, some right along the Boardwalk.
“It delivered a tremendous amount of jobs, a tremendous amount of revenue. In a lot of ways, a tremendous amount of excitement,” said Bryant Simon, a historian and author of “Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America.” “But I don’t think anybody in 1976 — that night on the Boardwalk it was bone-chillingly cold and people danced to celebrate — imagined what the city looks like now.”
For Perskie, a former state lawmaker and gaming regulator, gambling didn’t accomplish everything it could have. But he said the community wouldn’t have a “small fraction of the economic viability” it has had if the referendum hadn’t passed.
“The legacy is we put thousands of families in a much stronger economic position. We created a very viable industry,” Perskie said. “We created opportunities for people that wouldn’t have ever possibly been otherwise available.”
Indeed, the casinos offered good-paying jobs with benefits. Workers could afford to “buy a home, send away your kids to college and retire with dignity,” said Chuck Baker, a 57-year-old city resident, casino union member and former Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort cook.
But in recent years, as competition increased, casinos told workers they couldn’t afford the labor contracts, Baker said. He blamed “hedge-fund operators” who took money out of the properties and sent it “to New York.”
“That meant more money for the properties,” he said. “They didn’t want to take care of the workers.”
The Taj Mahal closed Monday amid a labor strike over issues including health benefits and breaks.
The Casino Association of New Jersey said the industry has “more than held up its end of the bargain” through the billions it generated in tax revenue and economic impact.
“Perhaps it took five casino closures and the unfortunate loss of some of those economic benefits for many to fully understand the significant economic impact generated by our industry for not only the city and the state, but the regional economy as well,” a statement from the association said. “Even with the right-sizing of our industry, Atlantic City remains one of the largest casino markets in the country and one of the most significant economic engines in the Garden State.”
At its height, the casino industry employed more than 50,000 people, including a quarter of Atlantic City’s population. Gaming-tax revenue for the state peaked at $502 million in 2006, and the city’s ratable base topped off at $20 billion in 2008.
But after five casino closings in three years, the gambling halls now employ about 21,000 workers, annual state gaming revenue hovers around $200 million and the city’s ratable base is down to $6.6 billion. Casinos opening in neighboring states, a consolidation of casino companies and the 2008 national recession have diminished the city’s gambling market.
Good-paying jobs and tax dollars weren’t the only promises of the casino referendum. The Casino Control Act of 1977 was intended to spark the city’s tourism industry and spur urban redevelopment.
But casinos alone reaped the benefits of the subsequent tourism boom, according to a recent report from New Jersey Policy Perspective, a left-leaning think tank. There were 242 food-and-drink establishments in the city before casinos arrived. By 1996, just 142 were left, according to the report.
Casinos have paid more than $4 billion in real estate taxes and funded $350 million in Atlantic City housing and development projects. But the NJPP report said the promise of the city’s urban renewal was largely ignored.
New Jersey created the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority in 1984 and offered casinos two options: spend 1.25 percent of gross revenue on CRDA-issued bonds for urban and economic development, or pay a 2.5 percent tax to the state.
“Casinos chose the first option. But over time, the redevelopment mission was diluted by the Legislature, allowing CRDA to spend money on tourism-related activities that directly benefited the casinos,” the report said.
Ironically, proponents of North Jersey casinos are promising hundreds of millions in gambling tax revenue to redevelop Atlantic City, nearly an identical argument for gambling advocates in 1976.
Perskie blamed “local political forces” for not doing “what had to be done to take maximum advantage of the situation.”
“For each success story there is a failure story, because there are areas of the city that did not receive from city or county or local government the kind of attention, the kind of imagination, the kind of daring thought processes that they were entitled to,” Perskie said. “And as a result, some areas of the city didn’t benefit as they should have.”
In 1977, Gov. Brendan Byrne signed the Casino Control Act in front of nearly 3,000 people outside Convention Hall, or what is now called Boardwalk Hall. A band played “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
But Byrne expressed uncertainty as he signed the law with gold pen after gold pen.
“I do know that this is an historic event,” he said. “But I don’t know if history will view what we have done here with success or failure.”
COMMENT: 
School Of Rock
I think it's quite obvious and safe to say that casinos have been a complete disaster for AC! They put half the longtime local businesses out of business. Were responsible for the greed and speculation that has left 1/3 of AC a vacant wasteland. Crime rose astronomically. Practically all the beautiful buildings in AC have been demolished. Practically zero middle/upper class residents are left...half of AC's population was white when casinos came...now maybe 10% and they're old and being taxed out and AC's population is now practically all government dependent uneducated minorities. The school system is an overpriced failure. Massive, hulking empty casino towers line the Boardwalk while Atlantic County has the highest foreclosure rate and property taxes in the country. If I were Perskie, I'd be ashamed to speak about his role in this epic debacle!


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Monday, August 8, 2016

Trump's Presidential Campaign Has Stifled Traffic to His Hotels and Casinos & Trump Taj Mahal Closing







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Sunday, August 7, 2016

Massachusetts: Are ya watching? How the Trump Taj Mahal closure could sway casino expansion vote


In order to 'SELL' casino gambling in Massachusetts, UNION WORKERS were transported from Atlantic City to testify on Beacon Hill about the GREAT JOBS OFFERED, GREAT PAY, GREAT BENEFITS, GREAT RETIREMENT, GREAT HEALTH CARE...... 



 Massachusetts Unions bused and paid union members to full auditoriums and hold signs of support. 

 Don't count on it!   


The impending closure of Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal casino may help bolster the arguments of both sides in a referendum over putting casinos in ...


After managing to remain open as multiple casinos closed up shop along the once iconic Atlantic City boardwalk, Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort will ...





Atlantic City, once the U.S. East Coast's only casino gambling site, is struggling to pay its bills and has until November to devise a fiscal recovery plan ...



Since he began his run for the White House last summer, the number of people visiting the array of Trump hotels, casinos, and golf courses has been ...



How the Trump Taj Mahal closure could sway casino expansion vote





Posted: Friday, August 5, 2016 1:00 pm

Associated Press |



ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — The impending closure of Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal casino may help bolster the arguments of both sides in a referendum over putting casinos in northern New Jersey.

Proponents say the state is already losing business to casinos in nearby states and needs new ones closer to these customers.
Opponents argue that Atlantic City's casinos are already so fragile that three or more may close when faced with new in-state competition.
Billionaire owner Carl Icahn says he will shut the Trump Taj Mahal down after Labor Day, because it is losing millions of dollars a month. Atlantic City's main casino workers' union has been on strike against the casino since July 1. The closure would leave Atlantic City with seven casinos.
Voters in November will decide whether to add two new casinos near New York City.
"The news of the Taj Mahal closing is tragic, and it just magnifies the importance of defeating this referendum," said Debra DiLorenzo, chairwoman of the No North Jersey Casinos Coalition, which includes Atlantic City-area business and casino interests.
Her group released a study in the spring predicting that three to five Atlantic City casinos could shut down when faced with new in-state competition. That would be on top of the four others that closed in 2014. The group also predicted the loss of 23,000 to 30,000 direct and indirect jobs from these new closings.
Jeff Gural, who operates the Meadowlands Racetrack just outside New York City and wants to build a casino there with Hard Rock International, said the Taj Mahal closing proves the main point of north Jersey casino proponents: That Atlantic City's casino market is crumbling and its former customers are spending their money in other states.
He also cited the $200 million a year that north Jersey casinos would send to Atlantic City to help revitalize it.
"It's so illogical it's just ridiculous, letting all this revenue leave the state," he said. "Not only are we going to help seniors and the state as a whole, which is not doing that great, but we are going to help rebuild Atlantic City."
Sen. Paul Sarlo, who represents the Meadowlands district a few miles from Manhattan, said Atlantic City-area politicians need to "get their heads out of the sand" and stop fighting the prospect of new casinos in New Jersey.
"The pending closure of the Trump Taj Mahal should serve as a wake-up call for Atlantic City officials to take advantage of the benefits of casino expansion," he said. "Expanding New Jersey's gaming sector to North Jersey will provide financial resources so that Atlantic City can invest in economic expansion. The city has the opportunity and the ability to become a destination resort that doesn't rely on casinos alone."
Moody's Investors Service says casinos near the Taj Mahal, including the Tropicana, Bally's and Caesars, could benefit from its closure. But the agency predicted any such gains would be short-lived, citing the expansion of the Sugarhouse Casino 60 miles away in Philadelphia, the expected opening of a second Philadelphia casino by 2018 and the prospect of two new north Jersey casinos.
Donald Trump once owned three Atlantic City casinos, but cut most ties with the city by 2009. The Republican presidential nominee's final stake in Trump Entertainment Resorts was wiped out in bankruptcy court when Icahn took over in March.



Since he began his run for the White House last summer, the number of people visiting the array of Trump hotels, casinos, and golf courses has been ...

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