Atlantic City's Trump Plaza casino appears to be closing this fall, with notices expected to be delivered to over 1,000 employees this week.
CBS New York reported late last week that state Sen. Jim Whelan (D-Northfield) was informed that the company plans to issue federally required Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices as early as Monday, which will state that the company may close in 60 days. Trump Entertainment Resorts said that operations are likely to be terminated "on or shortly after Sept. 16, 2014."
"I’ve been back and forth between being depressed and angry all day," said Whelan, who is a former mayor of Atlantic City.
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"I’d love to stand here and tell people — particularly the employees — don’t worry, we’re going to fight, we’re going to save your jobs; this, that and the other. I’d be lying."
Roger Gros, the publisher of global gaming business magazine, also confirmed to reporters that he's heard about the planned closure.
The city has struggled financially since the Atlantic Club closed in January. Showboat Atlantic City Hotel and Casino folded shortly after, followed by Revel, which has filed for bankruptcy twice. Trump Plaza was the worst-performing casino in the city during the month of May.
The Atlantic Club closure cost 1,600 workers their jobs. At Showboat, 2,100 will be unemployed by the end of August. Revel has 3,100 workers who could lose their jobs if it is not sold during the bankruptcy proceedings.
According to The Associated Press, the head of Atlantic City's main casino workers' union has called on state lawmakers, asking them to head off a "pending catastrophe" that will affect the state's tourism industry and tax collections.
Bob McDevitt, president of local 54 of the Unite-HERE union, said, "While this is a personal tragedy for every family involved, it is also a crisis for the state. We expect Trenton to react with more than just sympathetic sound bites; we demand action equal to the magnitude of this pending catastrophe."
Trump Plaza opened in 1984, but Donald Trump himself has limited his dealings with the casino since.
"I let them use my name, but I have nothing to do with it," Trump told the AP on Saturday. "Atlantic City has suffered for years. Many mistakes were made by government, tremendous mistakes, including no reinvestment in town; they would take casino revenue and put it in places that had nothing to do with Atlantic City. I got out seven years ago; my timing was tremendous."
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