The 2,010-room Trump Taj Mahal Casino Hotel in Atlantic City has been shuttered, leaving its 3,000 workers jobless. The gaming resort was opened by Donald Trump in 1990; its parent company went through bankruptcy in 2014, at which time investor Carl Icahn took over the sprawling Boardwalk casino. The property's closure came about because Icahn and Local 54 of the Unite HERE union failed to reach a deal to restore health-care and pension benefits that had been taken away from the workers in bankruptcy court.
A strike by the union, the longest against a casino in Atlantic City, led Tony Rodio, president of Tropicana Entertainment, which runs the Taj Mahal, to announce that the company could no longer operate the money-losing property. "Currently the Taj is losing multimillions a month, and now with this strike, we see no path to profitability," Rodio said in August.
With the closure of the Taj Mahal Casino, the number of gaming resorts in Atlantic City drops to seven, as the 1,400-room Revel, 1,300-room Showboat Atlantic City, 906-room Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, and 804-room Atlantic Club Casino also have ceased operations.