Trump Taj Mahal hurts AC earnings

The strike that former workers carried forward contributed to Atlantic City’s decline.

US.- Atlantic City has been suffering major decline in its numbers, but after the shutdown of the Trump Taj Mahal in October, the former gambling capital of the world saw an almost 11 percent decline in gross operating profits.

Atlantic City’s eight operating casinos registered during the third quarter of 2016 a US$212 million gross operating profit, 10.6 percent less than the numbers registered during the same period in 2015. Even though the casinos posted a 4.4 percent increase in operating profit during the first nine months of this year, the shutdown of the Taj Mahal was too important to see good numbers.

Local 54 of the Unite-HERE, Taj Mahl’s workers union, had set the strike after they couldn’t agree with Icahn on a new contract to restore health insurance and pension benefits that were terminated two years ago in bankruptcy court. The Taj Mahal casino opened 26 years ago and it has faced bankruptcy restructurings after enduring chronic declines. Icahn was in charge of the establishment when Trump left it, and bought it out of bankruptcy in 2014. Workers of the casino tried to negotiate their rights since then.