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Donald Trump has a long history in Atlantic City. During the big boom period of New Jersey's gambling capital, Trump built the Taj Mahal (now the Hard Rock Casino and Resort) and also ran the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino.

The hotel and casino remain open 24-hours a day. In-room dining is available 24 hours on Saturday and Sunday, 7AM - 12PM and 5PM - 12AM Monday through Friday. After 10 p.m., Borgata will offer takeout from Bread + Butter, Noodles of the World, and Lobby Bar. Beverage service on the casino floor is prohibited between 10 p.m. ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday postponed the resumption of indoor dining, and banned drinking and smoking at Atlantic City's casinos as they reopen this week, causing.

At the time, the Taj Mahal was one of the most impressive casinos on earth. Trump invested $1 billion in the monstrous casino, and it was poised to be the most luxurious casino in the U.S.

Both of Trump's casinos went bankrupt. And many contractors and employees fell on hard times as a result.

But how much of this has to do with the up-and-down nature of the casino industry, and how much with Trump's business practices?

Read to get the details below.

Table of Openings and Closings of Trumps Atlantic City Properties

Trump Plaza (1984-2014)

Trump Plaza (a casino and hotel) was Trump's first and more successful business venture in Atlantic City. Trump Plaza would grow to have 906 hotel rooms. The casino contained over 86,000 square feet of gaming space.

Breaking ground, then filling it, then breaking it again

Trump seized upon the opportunity during the height of the casino boom in Atlantic City. He struck a deal with the Holiday Inn company to build the casino and hotel buidling. Harrah's was already at the marina and looking to expand, so the deal was made that Harrah's new casino would be in Trump Plaza.

Despite the fact that Trump was having his building constructed by Holiday Inn and the casino organized by Harrah's, he was slow to break ground. In his Art of the Deal, Trump wrote that had his builders dig a hole, to satisfy Holiday Inn inspectors, and then fill it again when they left.

Trump Plaza's First Years

Trump Plaza cost $210 million to build. When it opened on May 15th, 1984, it was the largest casino in Atlantic City.

While it had a rather strong beginning, by 1990 Trump Plaza was having serious financial problems. In part, this was due to competition from none other than Trump's Taj Mahal.

After seeking a backer for years, the Trump Plaza closed in 2014, laying off around 1,000 employees.

Trump Plaza and Scorsese's Casino

Gambler Akio Kashiwagi lost $10 million in baccarat at Trump Plaza in 1990. Not long after, Martin Scorsese's made it the subject of his film, Casino (1995).

Trump's Taj Mahal (1990-2016)

Trump's Taj Mahal opened with some serious publicity. It was declared the Eighth Wonder of the World. Indeed it was covered with marble, enormous glass walls, and onion domes. Modeled after the white marble Taj Mahal in Agra, India, Trump's Taj Mahal was no less visually spectacular.

Funding the Taj Mahal

The Taj was financed with $700m worth of 'junk bonds.' Junk bonds are high-risk, high-yield loans given to companies with low-credit ratings. This meant the Taj had to come up with $94m a year just to pay off its debts, and $1m a day to be profitable

Trump and Unpaid contractors

“You have to be very rough and very tough with most contractors, or they’ll take the shirt right off your back.” --- Donald Trump: The Art of the Deal

'Atlantic City fueled a lot of growth for me'

- Donald Trump, to New York Times (June 11, 2016)

At the opening of Trump’s Taj Mahal in 1990, he owed $70 million to various contractors. While the casino was not a complete failure, it did not make the kind of money it needed. By 2016, the casino had closed completely bankrupt.

Trump's bankruptcy meant that several contractors were never paid for their work and materials. Below are some claims for unpaid debts to contractors:

• $2 million to Robert Morrison of the Molded Fiber Glass Co. for creating onion domes
• undisclosed amount to Michael MacLeod, sculptor of elephant statues
• $1.2 million for the paving stones leading up to the Taj to Mario Paone
• $1.1 million to Marty Rosenberg for floor-to-ceiling curtain walls of glass
• $3.9 million owed to John Millar, marble supplier
• more than $500,000 owed to landscaper Herman Caucci
• $580,000 owed to Frank Lundy for overseeing construction clean-up
• $232,000, George Jenkins, the bathroom partition man who had to lay off his brother

The contractor who made the Taj's eye-catching onion domes claimed $2 million in losses. The contractor who supplied the Carrara marble from Italy ended up filing for personal bankruptcy. The contractor who put in the bathroom partitions had to lay off his brother.

Marty Rosenberg, who was installing floor-to-ceiling curtain walls of glass, was owed $1.1 Million.

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Competing Atlantic City Casinos

Although the Trump Taj Mahal was deeply in debt and filed for bankruptcy, thus leading to Trump losing many of his assets, Atlantic City continued to boast huge revenues. By the early 2000s, revenues hit $4 billion.

Trump’s reign in Atlantic City came to an end in 2004, when his consolidated company Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts filed for bankruptcy, with Trump resigning as chairman.

Many other Atlantic City casinos' revenues saw constant growth throughout Trump’s public battle against bankruptcy. These revenues would only see a decline following the 2008 recession.

Sources

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — America’s casinos are recovering from months of closures necessitated by the coronavirus outbreak, having regained 81% of the gambling revenue they saw in the third quarter of last year, the casinos’ trade association said Monday.

But that recovery is threatened in places as the virus continues to surge throughout the country. Sunday night, Michigan’s governor ordered numerous businesses including casinos to shut down for three weeks, and Atlantic City’s top casino last week laid off or cut the hours of 422 workers in response to restrictions imposed by New Jersey’s governor.

Also on Sunday, Washington’s governor also banned indoor service at restaurants and bars.

The American Gaming Association released a report on gambling revenue at the nation’s casinos during the third quarter of this year — the time when most casinos reopened after four months or more of being shuttered during the first wave of the virus outbreak.

It found that the industry won over $9 billion in the third quarter of this year, which is 81% of the amount it won during the same period a year earlier, when there was no virus and casinos were operating normally. Virtually all casinos in the U.S. are operating with some restrictions on the amount of people they can accommodate and the type of operations they can conduct amid the pandemic.

The report found that nationwide gambling revenue is down 36.5% in the first nine months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

“Our industry continues to prioritize the health and safety of our employees, customers, and communities above all else,” said Bill Miller, the association’s president and CEO. “While these quarterly results are promising, the reality is a full recovery is dependent on continued public health measures to control prevalence rates” of the virus.

Jacqueline Grace, president of Atlantic City’s Tropicana casino, said she is not surprised the industry regained as much of its previous revenue as it did in the third quarter.

“People are looking for opportunities to escape what is happening around us,” she said. “Coming to a casino is entertainment, and people still want to be entertained.”

Grace said one of the biggest challenges the industry is facing is “the continued uncertainty.”

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“You have to ensure compliance, whether it’s your team members or your customers,” she said. “That’s a new aspect of the job.”

In a recent conference call to discuss third-quarter earnings, Bill Hornbuckle, president and CEO of MGM Resorts International, said the industry continues to deal with the pandemic, and has been forced to abide by restrictions.

But he also said September “was an exceptional booking month for the future. It’s the best booking months we’ve had in seven. And so I think the tell is is that people are still booking into the future.”

The report said more than 100 casinos reopened between July and September with 902 commercial and tribal casinos operational by the end of the third quarter.

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Five states actually won more in the third quarter this year than they did in the same period last year: Arkansas, up 3%; Mississippi, up 2.8%; Ohio, up 7.5%; Pennsylvania, up 3.8%; and South Dakota, up 6.1%.

Revenue from slot machines was $5.87 billion for the quarter, down 19.3%, and table games revenue was $1.57 billion, down 31.2%.

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