More grief for Uncle Carl; Bluhm backs down

Carl Icahn has won his gambit to take over Trump Taj Mahal but that doesn’t mean he and Unite-Here are all lovey-dovey. Although Icahn earlier called Trump Entertainment Resorts the most distressed company he’s ever seen, he’s giving CEO Bob Griffin a reprieve and $15 million a year to fix up the Taj, starting with its exterior. However, slapping a new coat of paint on this house of cards won’t address the labor turmoil. Unite-Here continues to appeal the revocation of health benefits and pension contributions. Griffin and Icahn were so petty they even took away workers’ paid lunch breaks.

Icahn has positioned all of this as a necessary survival mechanism and has repeatedly threatened to close the casino if the courts don’t give him his way. The union planned a rally outside the Taj yesterday to give Icahn and Griffin some grief. Since the sight of pickets could scare away customers — and free-falling Taj Mahal could use every patron it can get — the casino issued a statement scolding, “Taj employees do not benefit from this type of disruptive conduct.” Perhaps, but there’s something very wrong at the Taj and it’s not the workforce.

Meanwhile, an Icahn flunky called Trump Plaza “a very valuable piece of real estate” and said that various options for it were being considered. (Remember, Griffin tried to fob it off on Stockton University.) Fine, but the last thing Atlantic City needs right now is another dowdy casino, so Icahn’s people need to think outside the slot box.

* It was business as usual at Aria today, with the Kirk Kerkorian photo tribute replaced on the I-15 video billboard by the usual carousel of ads for high-end retail and fine dining. Memories are short here but at least a few people haven’t forgotten just yet.

* Rush Street Gaming is beating a hasty retreat in Schenectady after a downsized design for its $300 million casino landed with a thud. A consultant for Neil Bluhm‘s company said the new, mall-like look was a consequence of going from a “cutting edge, contemporary, slick building” to a “more historical, contextual” design. Plan C will be some amalgam of the two, which sounds worse yet. The reviled design was supposedly an effort to harmonize the casino with the older look of Schenectady itself. However, it would appear that bolder modernity is what the local planning commission wants to see. As one concerned citizen put it, “There are just other ways to reflect this community in a way that is more forward-looking and that can have an historical reference.” The casino will have 1,150 slots and 66 tables when complete.

* A plan by Maryland casino operators to tighten slot holds got a quick slap across the face from the Baltimore Sun. Remember, nobody held a gun to the heads of Cordish Gaming, Penn National Gaming or Caesars Entertainment and forced them into paying a 66% tax rate on slots (subsequently lowered to 60%). They did it of their own free will, only too eager to get a foothold in the Free State, although they’re having a keen fit of buyer’s remorse now. And tightening the slots will bring the state an extra $200 million a year in taxes, a difficult proposition for politicians to resist, especially with disappointing returns from Horseshoe Baltimore preventing property-tax relief. Casinos already dodged one bullet this year when an increase on table-game taxes died in the Legislature. But if there’s enough moolah in it for lawmakers, a ratcheting up of the slot holds may be something on which casinos and legislators can agree.

* Here’s a really good idea, being put into practice. S&G heartily endorses this, especially the idea of a lecture series named after the late Bob Faiss.