After a closure that lasted much longer than previously expected, the once-great poker room at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, NJ, is set to reopen at 11AM today, but its future is still a bit murky.
The poker room was closed last February and, at that time, people were told that the iconic room – featured prominently in the seminal poker movie Rounders – would reopen during the summer of 2015. That reopening would drag out considerably later but now, under the auspices of Tropicana Entertainment, the chips will clatter and the calls of “all-in” will once again be heard.
“This is an exciting time for Trump Taj Mahal and we want our players to be a part of it,” Tony Rodio, the President and Chief Operating Officer of Tropicana Entertainment, said in a statement regarding the reopening of the Taj poker room earlier this month. “Our strategy is to put our customers’ interests at the heart of every decision we make as we return the Taj to its rightful place as a leading gaming and entertainment destination.”
As a part of that “player friendly” atmosphere, the Taj Mahal poker room is giving away 50 32-inch televisions throughout their reopening weekend and the next two weekends to celebrate. While players hang out and see if they were able to take one of those televisions home as a prize, they’ll be able to participate in all the usual accoutrements of a poker room – Texas and Omaha Hold’em (No limit and pot limit, no word on limit games) Seven Card Stud and the different hi/lo variations of the games.
Stepping out of the poker room, the Taj has also added in 250 new slot machines for players to take their shot. These games are from some of the bigger names in the industry such as Bally, IGT, Incredible Technologies and Konami. Finally, the Taj Mahal is offering one Trump One member a $1 million payday in their $1 Million Winning Ticket Game, which will run from June 3 through September 18. Daily drawings will be held five times per day to qualify people for the chance at winning a million dollars come this fall.
However, it may all be for naught. While the Taj Mahal may be in operation and the poker room may be active once again, the future of the once-mighty player in the Atlantic City casino scene isn’t known. Its previous ownership, current Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s namesake Trump Entertainment Resorts, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2014 and threatened to close the doors to the property in December of that year. It was only through the bailout of fellow billionaire Carl Icahn and his organization, Icahn Enterprises, that the doors to the Taj stayed open.
Icahn turned over the operations of the Taj Mahal to another one of his acquisitions, Tropicana Entertainment, after the bankruptcy case was resolved with Trump Entertainment Resorts (Icahn purchased the Taj for $300 million) and that group was folded into the Icahn empire. But recent moves in the state of New Jersey – including the opening of online casino gaming and poker and the possibility of opening up new casinos outside of the traditional (and legalized) Atlantic City area – have caused Icahn to issue veiled threats regarding the Taj Mahal.
In March, amidst the discussion in the New Jersey Legislature regarding gaming expansion, Icahn threatened to withhold a planned $100 million in improvements he was planning to make on the Taj Mahal and insinuated he could close the property outright. “It would not be judicious to proceed with those investments while gaming in north Jersey is an open issue, (so) we will have to wait to see the outcome of those proposals,” Icahn stated in March to the Associated Press.
While he has put enough money into the property to bring it up to speed – as witnessed by the opening of the poker room again – Icahn seems more interested in using the Taj Mahal as a bargaining chip than its long term success. For now, however, poker players can once again revel in having the room back that once welcomed the fictitious “Mike McD” and his bluff against Johnny Chan.
