Public Gets a Look at Trump’s Expansive Atlantic City Casino

Sightseers, gamblers and news media invaded the Taj Mahal casino Monday on the first day Donald Trump’s billion dollar gambling extravaganza opened its doors to the public.

But gamblers could bet only with play money while state gaming authorities assess the operations.

Approval for real gambling is expected by Wednesday or Thursday, when Trump officially opens the Taj at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The casino is the size of two football fields and the decor could be described as gaudy, glittery, ostentatious, tasteless or just plain mind-boggling.

It is filled with tons of white marble imported from Italy, 24 Austrian chandeliers, each with 5,000 pieces of cut crystal, nine huge stone elephants sprinkled with sparkling marble dust and 70 multicolored minarets and onion-shaped domes on the outer walls.

Trump told visitors the casino was the biggest and best gambling den in the world and would flourish as soon as it gets its license.

The Taj Mahal is Atlantic City’s 12th gaming hall and Trump’s third in the city.

“In the long term, the Taj will be good for Atlantic City,” Trump said. “In the short run, it will bring a lot of people here who haven’t visited Atlantic City for years. But in the intermediate term, for some of the casinos, it’s going to be competitive.”

The casino is 120,000 square feet and contains 3,000 slot machines and 160 gaming tables.

The entire property covers 17 acres next to the famous Atlantic City boardwalk.

It has 1,250 rooms, including a lavish penthouse suite that rents for $10,000 per night.

The complex employs 6,500 people, many of whom are required to dress in the sort of costumes one might have found in the real Taj Mahal some 300 years ago.

“It’s certainly lavish,” said Charles Filo of Woodbridge, N.J., a retired truck dispatcher who comes to Atlantic City two or three times a week to play at the crap tables.

“I’ll give it a try when I can get some real action and if I like it, I’ll come back.”

The real bottom line for the Taj, which needs a daily casino win of $1.3 million to break even, is how many Charlie Filos can be attracted from the other casinos.

“There’s a risk here, it is just not clear which casinos are at risk,” said Thomas Carver, president of the New Jersey Casino Assn., a trade group.

The highest grossing Casino in Atlantic City last year was Trump Plaza, with a daily casino win of $838,000.

A stock market analyst who follows the casino industry was fired recently after Trump complained that the analyst’s stock reports were overly critical of the new casino.

Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott Inc. fired gaming industry analyst Marvin Roffman.

The company said Roffman had been dismissed for twice violating Janney Montgomery policy and withdrawing a written apology to Trump he had signed.

Another hurdle facing the Taj and the rest of the industry is the downturn in casino revenues.

In the first two months of 1990, revenues fell to $420.1 million compared with $422.3 million in the first two months of 1989.

“If the Taj is the main attraction in Atlantic City, it should be able to break even, at worst. The wild card is that Atlantic City showed weakness in revenue growth,” said Richard Reubenstone, a junk bond analyst.