ATLANTIC CITY - With the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino's
expected closing, Donald Trump, whose name is emblazoned on the casino and who
once owned three of the gambling palaces here, said he can't help but feel bad
for the resort he helped build.
In an interview Monday, Trump also predicted that an
oversaturation of casinos would mean more closings in other places, including
the Philadelphia area.
Trump endured multiple bankruptcies as head of Trump
Entertainment Resorts Inc., and he and his name will always be linked with
Atlantic City even if his share of the casinos is now only about 10 percent.
Trump Plaza's owners issued layoff notices to 1,600
employees Monday and said the casino would close Sept. 16. The closing would
leave just one Trump-brand casino in Atlantic City, the Trump Taj Mahal. The
former Trump Marina was sold in spring 2011 and became the Golden Nugget
Atlantic City Casino Hotel under restaurant-chain owner Landry's Inc. of
Houston.
"I'm very sad for Atlantic City. I spent many years
there, as you know," Trump said from New York City less than two hours
after Trump Plaza employees were issued layoff notices. "But I have not
been involved for many years.
"I have nothing to do" with Trump Plaza's closing,
he said. "Different people own it."
At the beginning of 2014, Atlantic City had 12 casinos. The
Atlantic Club closed in mid-January, and two others - Revel and Showboat - have
threatened to close, both by summer's end, if they do not find buyers. Showboat
issued layoff notices about two weeks ago to its 2,100 workers.
"I feel badly, but Atlantic City is a different place
now," Trump said. "What's happening in Atlantic City is happening all
over the country. The United States is becoming one big casino.
"Atlantic City is getting clobbered. Seventy-five
percent of the casinos in Atlantic City are bankrupt or going through
bankruptcy. The other 25 percent are on respirator. This is going to happen in
[the Philadelphia area] and Pennsylvania, too, you watch.
State governments think casino revenue is "the panacea,
but it's not the panacea when everyone is doing it."
Trump began building his casino empire here with Trump
Plaza, on the 50-yard line of the Boardwalk, in May 1984. His second casino,
the Trump Marina, opened in June 1985 in the Marina District.
Trump's crown jewel and flagship, the billion-dollar Taj
Mahal, opened on the northern end of the Boardwalk on April 2, 1990, as the
most expensive casino ever built in Atlantic City.
Source: Philly.com
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