The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City (formerly Trump Taj Mahal) is a

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

and hotel on the

Boardwalk A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway built with wooden planks that enables pedestrians to cross wet, fragile, or marshy land. They are also in effect a low type of brid ...

, owned by

Hard Rock International Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a British-based multinational chain of theme restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and r ...

, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The casino, originally known as the ''Trump Taj Mahal,'' was inaugurated by its then-owner

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

in 1990, and was built at a total cost of nearly US$1 billion. Original restaurants at the Taj Mahal included

Hard Rock Cafe Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a British-based multinational chain of theme restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and r ...

, 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 Icahn Enterprises L.P. is an American conglomerate headquartered at Milton Tower in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida. The company has investments in various industries including energy, automotive, food packaging, metals, real estate and home fashion. ...

. In 2015, the Taj Mahal admitted to having "willfully violated" anti-

money-laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

regulations for years and was fined $10 million. It was the highest penalty ever levied by the

U.S. federal government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fed ...

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 The Seminole Tribe of Florida is a federally recognized Seminole tribe based in the U.S. state of Florida. Together with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, it is one of three federally recognized ...

through its

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.

History

Trump Taj Mahal era: 1990–2016

Construction of what was originally known as the ''Taj Mahal'' commenced in 1983 by

Resorts International Resorts International was a hotel and casino company. From its origins as a paint company, it moved into the resort business in the 1960s with the development of Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and then expanded to Atlantic City, New Jersey with ...

, owner of the neighboring

Resorts Casino Hotel Resorts Casino Hotel is a hotel and casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Resorts was the first casino hotel in Atlantic City, becoming the first legal casino outside of Nevada in the United States, when it opened on May 26, 1978. The resort com ...

, with an estimated budget of $250 million. 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.

, who owned two other Atlantic City casinos, beat out several other bidders to purchase a controlling stake in the company for $79 million 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 $930 million, Resorts sought to raise $550 million 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 In corporate finance, a tender offer is a type of public takeover bid. The tender offer is a public, open offer or invitation (usually announced in a newspaper advertisement) by a prospective acquirer to all stockholders of a publicly traded corp ...

to buy all outstanding stock for $22 a share, stating that he was willing to personally finance the construction, but only if he owned the entire company. Television producer

Merv Griffin Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 he hosted his own t ...

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 $273 million. Trump raised $675 million to finance the purchase and completion of the casino, primarily through

junk bonds In finance, a high-yield bond (non-investment-grade bond, speculative-grade bond, or junk bond) is a bond that is rated below investment grade by credit rating agencies. These bonds have a higher risk of default or other adverse credit events ...

with a 14 percent interest rate. The casino opened on April 2, 1990. With of gaming space, it claimed to be the largest casino in the world (though this was disputed by the

Riviera ''Riviera'' () is an Italian word which means "coastline", ultimately derived from Latin , through Ligurian . It came to be applied as a proper name to the coast of Liguria, in the form ''Riviera ligure'', then shortened in English. The two areas ...

), 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 Pre-packaged insolvency (a "pre-pack") is a kind of bankruptcy procedure, where a restructure plan is agreed in advance of a company declaring its insolvency. In the United States pre-packs are often used in a Chapter 11 filing. In the United King ...

, 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. Trump's new publicly traded company, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, purchased the Taj Mahal in 1996, in a transaction that valued the property at $890 million. 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". The Taj Mahal was the highest grossing casino in the city until the opening of

The Borgata Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa is a hotel, casino, and spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International. The casino hotel features 2,798 rooms and is the largest hotel in New Jersey. Borga ...

in 2003. The Chairman Tower opened in 2008, bringing the complex to over 2,000 rooms. In 2013, the Taj Mahal opened the nation's first casino strip club, featuring scantily clad dancers. On Monday, October 10, 2016, the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel and Casino was shut down after the chaos of casino workers on strike. The Hard Rock Cafe remained open.

Hard Rock era: 2018–present

On March 1, 2017,

announced its purchase of the Trump Taj Mahal property, and officially reopened as the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic City, on June 27, 2018. In November 2018, the Hard Rock announced a plan to launch both online and retail sportsbooks in 2019. In January 2019, the Hard Rock launched its online sportsbook, making it the 10th sportsbook app in New Jersey. In January 2020, Scores Nightclub officially closed down. One month later, in February 2020, Robert's Steakhouse closed.

Bankruptcy

Trump Entertainment Resorts filed for bankruptcy on September 10, 2014, and announced plans to close the Taj Mahal on November 13 if the casino did not get concessions from its unions. A sister property, the Trump Plaza, did close in 2014. Workers from the casino marched to Mayor Don Guardian's office on the morning of November 3, 2014 to 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 Trump Taj Mahal would have been the fifth if it were to close. 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 shutdown date was later pushed back to December 20. On December 18, two days before the scheduled closure, UNITE HERE reached a deal with Trump Entertainment Resorts that saved the Taj from closing. The same day, billionaire

Carl Icahn Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American financier. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach. Icahn takes la ...

committed $20 million in financing for the Taj. In February 2016, Trump Entertainment Resorts exited bankruptcy and became a subsidiary of

. The casino retained the name "Trump Taj Mahal", though Donald Trump no longer held any ownership stake. In April, another Icahn affiliate,

Tropicana Entertainment Tropicana Entertainment Inc. was a publicly traded gaming company that owned and operated casinos and resorts in Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Missouri, New Jersey and Aruba. Tropicana properties collectively had approximately 5,500 ro ...

, 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 Monday, October 10, 2016, the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel and Casino was shut down. After the closing on that date, one UNITE HERE leader raised the possibility that the casino would remain closed over the winter but will reopen in Spring 2017 as a non-union facility, an attempt that he said would try to prompt a union boycott. On March 1, 2017,

announced plans to spend $300 million to purchase the resort and renovate it. It re-opened as the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City on June 27, 2018.

Labor disputes

On November 14, 2014, Trump Entertainment Resorts announced that the casino would shut down in December unless its main union,

UNITE HERE UNITE HERE is a labor union in the United States and Canada with roughly 300,000 active members. The union's members work predominantly in the hotel, food service, laundry, warehouse, and casino gaming industries. The union was formed in 2004 by ...

, dropped its appeal of a court-ordered cost-savings package, which had effectively cancelled 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. 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—1990–2016—the Trump Taj Mahal was, according to NPR 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 The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury that collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat domestic and international money laundering, terr ...

settled an investigation of 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 The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 (BSA), also known as the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, is a U.S. law requiring financial institutions in the United States to assist U.S. government agencies in detecting and preventing money laun ...

. 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 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". 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 Treasury Department documents under the

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...

(FOIA) which included the 1998 and the 2015 settlement.

Links to organized crime

The 1992 U.S. Senate Subcommittee 218-page report entitled "Asian Organized Crime: the New International Criminal", linked Trump's businesses to Asian organized crime. Specifically the Senate subcommittee named Danny Sau Keung Leung, who had been Trump Taj Mahal's VP Foreign Marketing since 2000, as an associate of the Hong Kong-based organized crime group

14K Triad The 14K (十四K) is a triad group based in Hong Kong but active internationally. It is the second largest triad group in the world with around 20,000 members split into thirty subgroups. They are the main rival of the Sun Yee On, which is the ...

linked to "murders, extortions and heroin smuggling". Leung worked at Trump Taj Mahal from 1990 to 1995. He was "known by law enforcement to be linked to organized crime syndicates" and was investigated by the

New Jersey Casino Control Commission The Casino Control Commission is a New Jersey state governmental agency that was founded in 1977 as the state's Gaming Control Board, responsible under the Casino Control Act for licensing casinos in Atlantic City. The commission also issues lic ...

in 1995 with hearings in Atlantic City regarding his "background and character". "Mentions of Trump businesses" were "sprinkled throughout the 1992 Senate report on "Asian organized crime in the United States". "Crime bosses who ran the Chinatown bus system put together trips to Trump businesses in Atlantic City. her people with links to organized crime booked shows at Trump venues and in 1987, one was indicted on a charge of providing kickbacks to executives at Trump Castle." According to an Internal Revenue Service report cited in a 2016 '' Politifact'' article by Linda Qui, Trump also worked closely with other members and associates of organized criminal enterprises, including Danny Leung,

Felix Sater Felix Henry Sater (born Felix Mikhailovich Sheferovsky; russian: Фе́ликс Миха́йлович Шеферовский; March 2, 1966) is a Russian-American mobster, convicted felon, real estate developer and former managing director of ...

Salvatore Testa Salvatore "Salvie" Testa (March 31, 1956 – September 14, 1984), nicknamed "The Crowned Prince of the Philadelphia Mob", was an Italian-American mobster who served as a caporegime and later acting underboss for the Philadelphia crime family. Te ...

, and Kenneth Shapiro". In 1984, Canadian police had identified Leung as "a major player in Toronto organized crime", yet in 1989, the

granted him the casino "key license reserved for executives" and he began working for Trump Taj Mahal in 1990. At the New Jersey Casino Control Commission hearing in 1994, Trump sent Taj President Dennis Gomes to "testify on Leung's behalf at the hearing

. In spite of an objection of the Division of Gaming Enforcement and the testimony of Canadian police, his casino key license was renewed. "Leung's lawyer, Guy Michael said, that the criminal allegations were "absolutely untrue. In August 2013, Leung requested to be placed on the Casino Key Employee Inactive List in August 2013 "in lieu of complying with the resubmission process".

Shooting incidents

On May 27, 2009, Ray Kot, a casino supervisor for the former Taj Mahal, was shot and killed while working, by Mark Magee of

Norristown Norristown may mean: * Norristown, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Norristown, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Norristown, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Norristown, Pennsylvania Norristown is a municipality with home ...

, Pennsylvania. Magee claimed that he killed Kot because all "casinos cheat gamblers". On August 11, 2010, Magee was sentenced to 30 years without parole, "The Ray Kot Memorial Park" was dedicated on October 16, 2009. On September 18, 2011, a man was shot dead and a woman was wounded during an apparent

carjacking Carjacking is a robbery in which the item taken over is a motor vehicle.Michael Cherbonneau, "Carjacking," in ''Encyclopedia of Social Problems'', Vol. 1 (SAGE, 2008: ed. Vincent N. Parrillo), pp. 110-11. In contrast to car theft, carjacking is ...

inside the parking garage of the casino. The man, 28-year-old Sunil Rattu, and the woman, 24-year-old Radha Ghetia, were held up as they left the casino, and then forced to drive to a nearby alley where Rattu was shot dead, while Ghetia was shot in the upper part of her body. Ghetia was treated for her injuries and later recovered. Just days later, three Camden men were taken into custody ~ of the three, two have admitted the crime and have taken plea bargains with the county attorneys office which includes: one sentence of 40 and the other one for 47 years. On March 24, 2016, three teenagers attending a party in a hotel room on the forty-seventh floor were shot. Seven suspects were arrested in connection with the incident, which was later described as "gang related".

Gallery

File:Trump Taj Mahal.jpg, The Trump Taj Mahal, as seen from the boardwalk File: Trump Taj Mahal and Chairman Tower.JPG, The Trump Taj Mahal, as seen from the boardwalk File:Trump Taj Mahal from Fairfield Resorts 20060627.JPG, The Taj Mahal, as seen from the Fairfield Resorts File:20060627 Trump Taj Mahal from Pacific Avenue.jpg, The Trump Taj Mahal, as seen from just beyond Pacific Avenue File:Taj Mahal Atlantic City New Jersey.jpg, Entrance to the Trump Taj Mahal at night File:Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Atlantic City 01.jpg, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino from the Boardwalk File:Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Atlantic City 02.jpg, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino from the Boardwalk File:Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Atlantic City 04.jpg, The North Tower from the Boardwalk

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic City Casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey Resorts in New Jersey Skyscraper hotels in Atlantic City, New Jersey Casinos completed in 1990 Hotel buildings completed in 1990 Hotels established in 1990 Taj Mahal Hard Rock Cafe 1990 establishments in New Jersey Casino hotels Donald Trump real estate