Can Sports Betting Do for Atlantic City What Donald Trump Couldn’t?
By Patrick McGeehan, The New York Times
June 25, 2018
(T)he Trump Taj Mahal, the biggest gambling venue on the boardwalk, (opened) with great fanfare and at a cost of $1.2 billion in 1990, only to have it collapse into bankruptcy the following year. After years of decline, it shut down in 2016, seemingly consigned to symbolize the ruinous excess here during the Trump era.
But now, less than two years later, the old Taj, stripped of its faux minarets, concrete elephants and any evidence of the Trump name, is about to reopen as the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
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These revivals are scheduled just as New Jersey’s casinos scramble to cash in on another way of separating gamblers from their savings: wagering on sporting events. The Borgata casino started taking bets on sports on June 14 and others, including the Ocean Resort, are rushing to install sports books in prominent spots on their casino floors. Adding a popular form of gambling could help draw customers during the dreary winter months.
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New Jersey became the second state — Nevada was the first — with a legal casino when Resorts International opened on the boardwalk in 1978. But a gaming license has not always been a sure thing. In a race to cash in, Mr. Trump and his competitors often borrowed more than they could pay back.At one point, this small city had 13 casinos, three of them controlled by Mr. Trump. But each of his properties fell into bankruptcy and he eventually withdrew from the business. Caesars Entertainment, which still owns three casinos here, had been saddled with about $25 billion in debt before it went into bankruptcy in 2015.
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