Using the power of the blogosphere, Carl Icahn opened an extra-large can of whup-ass on Unite-Here Local 54 today. While he fleetingly alluded to the ineptitude of Trump Entertainment Resorts management (“The bottom line is that, even without making 
exorbitant contributions to the UNITEHERE Health plan, the Taj Mahal is currently losing millions of dollars every month …”), Trump spent most of his letter putting a beatdown on Local 54 President Robert McDevitt. Noting that the local’s health plan had racked up a $140 million profit over the last five years (a much better financial track record than that of the Taj), Icahn wrote that “your union leadership continues to demand that the Taj make exorbitant contributions.”
This motivated him to liken Local 54 to a Mob protection racket that “would demand grocers pay for protection or suffer bricks being thrown through their store windows.” McDevitt’s weapons, he said, were “strikes, picketing, boycotts and other attacks to deter customers from patronizing the Taj Mahal … Is it any surprise that in this environment a third of Atlantic City’s casinos went under last year alone? Things are so dire that it will be hailed a success if the $2.4 billion Revel finally sells for less than 5% of its cost!” (You could say Icahn was pretty worked up.)
Icahn mocked the Local 54 health plan as “murky, opaque” and said that, as a diversionary tactic, McDevitt’s people had made him the issue when “I am today one the many losers in 
this bankruptcy.” He added that paying into aforesaid health plan would make it impossible for him to reinvest in the Taj itself. “I have received numerous letters and phone calls from employees of the Taj Mahal thanking me for committing to lend the Taj Mahal the necessary funds to stay open and urging me to do whatever is necessary to save their jobs,” Icahn said, striking one of the few conciliatory tones.
It remains to be seen whether his effort to drive a wedge between McDevitt and the rank and file is successful. Not if Taj bellman Carl Wallinger has anything to do with it. Contending that a third of his salary now goes toward his cancer-stricken wife’s health insurance, Wallinger fumed, “I’m tired of Mr. Icahn’s false choice between health insurance and profitability. You know what is abhorrent? When one of the richest men in the world steals my health care and then calls me a mobster.” Guess that blog posting didn’t go over so well with him.
* Indiana‘s amphibious casino industry took another baby step onto dry land yesterday. A bill which would permit casinos to come ashore (and give them tax credits for doing so, along 
extending free-play tax credits) passed the first of two state Senate committees that must approve it. The vote was unanimous. “We’ve never done something extremely bold. … even knowing that we’re having competition coming in — so perhaps this year is the year that we can do that,” said state Sen. Ron Alting (R, right), sounding a cautiously hopeful note. The bill already passed the full House with an overwhelming majority.
Bill sponsor Rep. Tom Dermody (R) warned of the peril from slot routes in Illinois, and from new casinos to the east and northeast. “By doing nothing, by ignoring the problem, jobs will continue to be lost, revenues will continue to decline,” he testified. And, in a refreshing turn of events, some senators complained that the tax credits weren’t big enough. When was the last time you heard that said by lawmakers about casino legislation? If you said “never,” go to the head of the class.
Despite progress in the Lege, the bill could still be ixnayed by Gov. Mike Pence‘s veto pen. Any effort to tailor the bill to Pence’s liking is stymied by Pence’s coy refusal to define what is, in his mind, an unacceptable “expansion” of gambling in the Hoosier State. “I am open to common-sense reforms in business practices that allow these businesses to remain competitive in an increasingly competitive marketplace across the Midwest,” was as helpful as Pence got, adding, “We’ll continue to monitor it as it moves through the legislative process, and if it gets to my desk we’ll make a decision at that time.”
For god’s sake, yes, Mike. Don’t do today what you can put off until next month.
* Never take Donald Trump at his word. The Trump Taj Mahal pitchman’s lackeys are saying he “will not” return to his NBC-TV sitcom, leaving the semantic door open for a change of heart. What’s the over/under on Trump making a last-minute decision that he needs NBC more than America needs him?
