Gaming | Icahn: NJ bill would prevent Taj Mahal’s reopening or sale

Billionaire Carl Icahn’s Atlantic City management team is holding out the possibility of reopening or selling the shuttered Trump Taj Mahalcasino, but says a bill pending in the New Jersey Legislature would make it impossible to do either.
The New Jersey state Senate is to vote today [Macau time] on a bill that would effectively punish Icahn for shutting down the Taj Mahal on Oct. 10, stripping him of a casinolicense for the property for five years.
Tony Rodio, who ran the Taj Mahal for Icahn, said the proposed bill would prevent the company from reopening the casino and restoring lost jobs.
Many union workers say they suspect the company will try to reopen the Taj Mahal in the spring as a nonunion facility following a 102-day strike by Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union that lasted until the casino’s final day.
Rodio, who also runs the Tropicana for Icahn, said in a statement Wednesday that the billionaire saved that casino when it was in danger of closing six years ago.
“Punishing Mr. Icahn by revoking his ability to reopen the Taj or making further investments in Atlantic City for five years, as well as restricting his ability to sell the Taj, is unconscionable especially in light of his record in saving the Tropicana,” Rodio said. “It is particularly ill-advised because with this legislation Carl Icahn’s ability to further invest in Atlantic City has been constrained and the possibility of creating additional jobs, as he did at the Tropicana, has been seriously limited.” AP