{"id":14633,"date":"2014-09-24T11:49:02","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T19:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14633"},"modified":"2014-09-24T11:49:02","modified_gmt":"2014-09-24T19:49:02","slug":"icahn-to-rescue-taj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/icahn-to-rescue-taj\/","title":{"rendered":"Icahn to rescue Taj?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Always unpredictable, Carl Icahn<\/strong> has thrown Trump Entertainment Resorts<\/strong> a lifeline. He’s talking about making a $100 million purchase<\/a> of\u00a0the failing property, rolling his $286 million marker into equity … but he’s demanding what are described as “sizeable concessions” from \"Icahn<\/a>both Atlantic City<\/strong> and local Unite-Here<\/strong>. The latter’s Robert McDevitt<\/strong> had earlier stated a preference for dealing with Icahn rather than Trump’s Robert Griffin<\/strong>, but he may change his mind shortly, based\u00a0on what Icahn demands. If history at the Icahn-owned Tropicana Atlantic City<\/strong> is any guide, similar pension\u00a0concessions will be demanded at the Trop, rolling the employees into a 401(k)<\/a> instead of the existing pension plan. “Minus the need to pay $38 million in annual debt service, minus the corporate overhead of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. and without the drag of ailing Atlantic City sister Trump Plaza<\/strong>, the Taj Mahal could turn a profit,” reports the Wall Street Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The city will be requested to cut the assessed value of the property, shaving $50 million off the property-tax bill.\u00a0Icahn\u00a0drives hard bargains so, depending on his terms and on McDevitt’s willingness to capitulate, the Taj could still go dark in mid-November. TER has contended in the past that it’s just a scheme to funnel customers to the Trop<\/a>. However, with the Taj, Uncle Carl would have casinos at both ends of the Boardwalk.\u00a0Besides, Icahn’s is the most “george” bid on an Atlantic City casino we’ve seen in years.<\/p>\n

* Looking ahead to the November elections (in which casino-related ballot questions appear in six states), Deutsche Bank<\/strong> analyst Carlo Santarelli<\/strong> sees \"8-ColoradoCoil42-single-BGv1\"<\/a>no territorial expansions of gambling. He foresees a proposal to add racinos in Colorado<\/strong> going down to defeat, noting that proponents have been vastly outspent by the opposition, led by Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong> and Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

He writes, “new supply will come in the form of one off projects and expansion projects in existing markets, with the exception being in Massachusetts<\/strong> …\u00a0we expect the Golden Nugget Lake Charles<\/strong>, MGM National Harbor<\/strong>, and the recently opened Horseshoe Baltimore<\/strong> to be the most relevant.”<\/p>\n

* As though to vindicate Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>‘s radical decision to close Harrah’s Tunica<\/strong>, the August\u00a0gaming-revenue figures from Mississippi<\/strong> are out and the northern casinos are down 9%<\/a>. A 5% gain in revenue from the coastal casinos ameliorated the negative impact, making the state -2% year over year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Always unpredictable, Carl Icahn has thrown Trump Entertainment Resorts a lifeline. He’s talking about making a $100 million purchase of\u00a0the failing property, rolling his $286 million marker into equity … but he’s demanding what are described as “sizeable concessions” from … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,82,27,26,7,85,84,72,112,11,35,30,21,169],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14633"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14635,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14633\/revisions\/14635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}