Oh no, not again!

Trump Taj Mahal is heading back to a familiar bookmark: Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The casino is in violation of certain loan covenants and talks with creditors have proven unfruitful. The one creditor who really matters is Carl Icahn and he’s not interested in converting his debt into ownership. (Smart fella.) Majority owner Marc Lasry now has to engage in the Sisyphean labor of restructuring the Taj’s debt yet again. (And again and again.)

And Imperial Capital analyst Gregg Klein warns, “There is a real good chance [others] could be forced to file.” But none is in the state of Trump Taj, which can’t even pay some of its bills. Nor can the Taj ensure that restructuring talks will be successful. So much for yesterday’s wisdom that Atlantic City had seen the worst of it and was in for a two-year lull.

Since Revel‘s HQ Night Club and HQ Beach Club have dedicated entrances, separate from the casino, operator Idea Boardwalk is suing to have them kept open. (Shouldn’t they have had this particular idea sooner?) The clubs are described as being popular, even if the casino was not. HQ also wants a continuance of its liquor license, since that was the bedrock of its business plan.

* Mohegan Sun got caught in a fib, according to public records obtained by the Boston Globe. While the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority has
implied that it was barred from marketing the Connecticut casino to Bostonians, it turns out that it will be offering high rollers comps in Uncasville of value equal to what they could get in Revere. This applies to the “Greater Boston” area, which is not only defined as including The Hub but southerly parts of New Hampshire. Chalk up one for Steve Wynn, who has long argued that Mohegan Sun will try to export customers to Connecticut, where gaming taxes are lower.

“This assures we will not market in excess of what is appropriate to any customers in that zone, to over-market to them to send them to Connecticut,” said MTGA CEO Mitchell Grossinger Etess, trying to spin the deal as a plus for Boston. Replied local casino analyst Carl Jenkins, “Mohegan Sun may try to pooh-pooh it, but how can you not look at the fact that $1 gambled by a customer in Connecticut is worth more to them than $1 in Massachusetts?”

In Mohegan’s defense, it will be mandated to pollinate its Boston customer database with information on its existing customers. Etess, however, stretched a point when he tried to argue that Wynn Resorts would feed his Las Vegas casinos with customers from Everett, as though a cross-country trip were the equivalent of a 45-minute drive. “We are the only applicant that provides any protection whatsoever in how we’re going to market to the Commonwealth,” he claimed, but it’s a tough sale.

Meanwhile, pro-casino forces are starting to put some daylight between themselves and the opposition, according to a new poll. It shows 59% of
the electorate favoring casinos and 36% opposed, a decisive margin to be sure. Despite opposition by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) and other high-profile political figures, it looks like the industry will pull this one out. And even if the repeal effort should somehow pass, both gubernatorial candidates Martha Coakley (D, pictured) and Charlie Baker (R) favor a legislative solution to create a loophole for MGM Springfield, so close to the verge of starting construction. Two other gubernatorial aspirants would just let it die.