The Trump Taj Mahal casino is closing its doors, throwing some 3,200 employees out of work.
Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, no longer owns the business, having lost his stake in it through a series of bankruptcy proceedings.
For those in state capitals who think gambling is going to save the economies of distressed areas, this should be a warning.
The billion-dollar project was beset by troubles before it even opened. Donald Trump opened it with great fanfare in 1990; in 1991, billions of dollars in debt (Trump was personally nearly $1 billion in debt as well) it went into its first bankruptcy, during which Trump lost half of his ownership in the business. It went into bankruptcy again in 2004 — after an intervening Trump bankruptcy, this time of the Plaza Hotel — and then again in 2009 as part of the Trump Entertainment Resorts bankruptcy. Eventually, the Trump Taj Mahal became a subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises.
There were other problems, including a federal money-laundering case involving “willful and repeated” violations dating back to the 1990s.
So, that’s that.
Atlantic City is a wreck, and the casino business is not helping it. It is the worst sort of crony capitalism, as shown by, among other things, Governor Chris Christie’s daft attempt to save Revel, “the deepest money pit Atlantic City has ever seen,” not to mention New Jersey’s rather generous approach to collecting taxes on Trump casino properties.
Once all the costs are accounted for (including things like law enforcement and additional social-services burdens) it is not clear that Atlantic City or New Jersey has come out one dime ahead for its involvement in the gambling racket.
That’s no way to save a city.
However the election turns out in November, Atlantic City is going to have serious problems, as are a number of similar American cities. Trump thought the solution was a casino-cum-strip-joint; it’s not clear that Hillary Clinton has any better ideas.