At a time, Trump Taj Mahal’s poker room was among the most active in Atlantic City.
The poker room at Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal is set to reopen at 11:00 am EST on Friday morning. The poker tables have been closed for the past 15 months, after the once-ascendant Trump Entertainment Resorts casino was in the bankruptcy process at the time.
The opening of the poker room, which originally was expected to happen in the summer of 2015, is a good sign for the city’s gaming industry. Many questions still surround the city’s future. The Trump Taj Mahal faces questions of its own, as an expected $100 million investment might not materialize.
The casino is owned now by Carl Icahn’s Tropicana Entertainment, which has put the cash into reopening the poker tables. That is good news for Atlantic City’s citywide poker numbers. Even better, it’s good news for the job market in Atlantic City, which has been abysmal over the past two-plus years.
Atlantic City Poker Revenues
The poker revenues have been on a downward spiral over the past 3 years. In 2013, Atlantic City poker rooms generated $43.56 million in revenues. In 2014, the poker rooms saw a $7.2 million decline to $36.32 million on the year. In 2015, the numbers dropped to $31.86 million, a further decline of $4.6 million.
The last full year that Trump Taj Mahal had a poker room, it raked $3.57 million, which accounts for a large percentage of the 2015 decline. That year, the casino finished 4th in the city in poker rake. The leaders were Borgata in a dominating first place at $19.87 million, Bally’s in second place with $4.4 million, and Harrah’s just ahead of the Taj at $3.8 million. Bally’s and Harrah’s are both owned by Caesars Entertainment.
Tony Rodio on the Re-Opening
Tony Rodio, the President and COO of Tropicana Entertainment, said in a statement on May 2 that the casino would give away fifty 32-inch television sets to commemorate the re-opening.
He also said, “This is an exciting time for Trump Taj Mahal and we want our players to be a part of it. 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.”
Mr. Rodio did not mention how many tables the new poker room would hold. In its previous incarnation, the Trump Taj Mahal poker room had 48 tables. That made their operation the second largest in the city to Borgata.
Site of Rounders
At a time, the Trump Taj Mahal was a glamorous Atlantic City landmark. The 1998 poker film, Rounders, was filmed in the Trump Taj Mahal’s poker room. Starring Matt Damon, John Malkovich, and Edward Norton, the movie is considered one of the events which helped lead to the Poker Boom of 2003.
Carl Icahn’s Pending Investment
Despite the layout for the re-opening of the poker room, Carl Icahn is remaining noncommittal on the long-promised $100 million investment in Trump Taj Mahal. Icahn’s ostensible reason for the pullback on his promise is the upcoming November 2016 vote on North Jersey casinos. If voters statewide support the North Jersey plan, two casinos would be licensed for areas 70 miles or more north of Atlantic City. The likeliest areas for those casinos would be the Meadowlands and Jersey City.
Carl Icahn has said he would not make the investment, if North Jersey casinos are approved. He said that it would make no business sense to invest such money in the property, under those conditions. Gaming experts have predicted that more casinos would close in Atlantic City, if North Jersey casinos were approved.
Online Poker Revenues
Online poker remains a factor compared to the brick-and-mortar casinos’ poker games. The combined total for New Jersey’s online poker rooms totaled $29.06 million in 2014, while that total dropped to $23.82 million in 2015.
Trump Taj Mahal does not have an online presence, so the return of its land-based poker room should have no impact on that niche. The return of PokerStars to New Jersey should have a significant impact, though, so the 2016 online poker statistics are expected to jump significantly.
