Billionaire Carl Icahn has received approval from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission to take over Atlantic City’s troubled Taj Mahal casino making it the second casino he now owns in the resort along with the Tropicana casino resort.
But Icahn remains in a battle with the city’s main casino workers and has warned that he is ready to close the Taj if the union continues to fight to restore worker’s health benefits in court.
The Taj Mahal was allowed during bankruptcy proceedings to terminate worker’s health and pension benefits. The union—Unite Here of Local 54—has challenged those bankruptcy rulings in federal court.
Icahn is trading $292 million in debt he holds on Trump Entertainment for ownership of the company. He has said he will invest as much as $100 million to keep the Taj Mahal afloat after bankruptcy.
Trump Entertainment CEO Robert Griffin told the Associated Press that once the bankruptcy case is over, the casino can focus on winning back customers.
“There is a perception among our customers that we are going to close,” he said. “They don’t know if they come back next month whether we’ll be open.”
Griffin said a quick infusion of $40 million from Icahn will be used to refurbish the property.
“We believe, when you pull into the Taj Mahal, it’s dirty, it’s dated, and it needs to be freshened up,” he said. “You still see dirt on the side of the building, things that need to be cleaned up. I feel very strongly that the Taj Mahal will do well.”
But it is unclear if Icahn will move while the threat of Local 54’s legal challenge is hanging overhead. The union challenge—which is in federal appeals court—is the last issue that must be decided before Trump Entertainment can move out of bankruptcy.
Icahn said Wednesday he can improve the casino if the union’s challenge is unsuccessful.
“Although Local 54 seems fixated at all costs on damaging the Taj, and risking its closure and the loss of almost 3,000 jobs, I am optimistic that we can eventually achieve at the Taj what we’ve achieved at Tropicana,” he said in a press statement.
Earlier, Icahn released a letter sent to union employees at the Taj charging that Unite Here has been lying repeatedly to them and operates the union’s pension fund like a Ponzi scheme. Icahn said his company is conducting a private investigation of the union. Icahn has sent several such letters to employees in the past few months.
The union quickly responded with its own letter saying that it will continue to fight to protect worker’s health and pension benefits.
“It is not OK that you stripped us of our health insurance,” the letter read. “It is not OK that you ripped away our retirement security. It is not OK that you have made it so that, on average, we make almost $12,000 less in pay and benefits. It is not OK that you hide in your penthouse while you destroy peoples’ lives. It is not OK that you are trying to profit from turning us into the working poor.”
Icahn will also take control of the closed Trump Plaza casino, but no decision on what to do with that building was announced.
