Carl Icahn, who was considered the only person who can save the struggling casino Taj Mahal from closure, provided the venue with the sum of $20 million yesterday. Taj Mahal was supposed to close tomorrow morning but Icahn’s investment changed the plan and the casino is going to be open for an indefinite period of time.
Yesterday, Carl Icahn sent a letter to Trump Entertainment Resorts executives and promised financial support to the casino during the bankruptcy procedure.
In the letter, sent to Trump Entertainment CEO Robert Griffin, Icahn said that many people were going to disapprove of his decision and they would say that preventing Taj Mahal from closure is definitely not a wise investment. According to people familiar with the matter, the most sensible thing Icahn could do was to let the casino close and wait for a while until an agreement is reached.
However, the billionaire admitted that the main reason why he decided to grant the sum to the casino was that he was really concerned about the 3,000 casino workers who were going to lose their jobs.
Icahn’s letter came after lots of disagreements, setbacks and uncertainty about the future of Taj Mahal. Icahn even informed the workers’ union that he was going to give up on the deal and was reluctant to sign the agreement, which had already been inked by the Trump Entertainment executives and union’s representatives.
Bob McDevitt, the president of the workers’ union commented on the baffling situation and said that all Taj Mahal employees were disappointed with the fact that Mr. Icahn’s whims boosted the feeling of instability workers have been dealing with for months. And the worst of all was that the unpleasant situation was going to continue even after the holidays.
It has been two months since workers officially revealed their resentment towards the idea of having their health and social benefits cut. Instead of taking employees’ claims into consideration, Icahn’s company said that they have two options: either to withdraw the court appeal or to have their workplace file for bankruptcy.
However, two closure dates have already been set and Taj Mahal survived. The third one was December 20th, 6 a.m. but Icahn’s letter came just on time to prevent the closure.
Icahn has never hidden that he regrets being involved in Taj Mahal bankruptcy affairs all too often and he confirmed his standpoint once again when he said that he had never been been an investor in such a distressed company like Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc.
The company is currently in the middle of an unprecedented crisis and the tough competition between the casinos makes the revenues go down. Due to the rivalry, the maintenance of a casino resort is getting more and more difficult. Bearing these factors in mind, Icahn said that the closure of four Atlantic City-based casinos is not that surprising and Taj Mahal, which used to be a vibrant and profitable venue, loses $10 million a month.
