Icahn files formal request to close Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal casino

Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal is officially living on borrowed time after owner Carl Icahn filed papers seeking regulatory permission to close the property forever.

On Friday, New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) confirmed that Icahn’s Trump Entertainment Resorts (TER) had formally requested the regulator’s permission to shut down the Taj Mahal as of Oct. 10 at 6am.

The Taj Mahal’s roughly 1k unionized workers have been on strike since the July 4 holiday weekend in an attempt to force Icahn to reinstate the pension and health benefits they lost in 2014 after Icahn assumed ownership of the bankrupt property.

Early in August, TER announced that negotiations with the Unite-Here union had reached an impasse and that the property would close after Labor Day. The union saw this as a negotiating play and adjusted its demands accordingly, but Icahn insisted his mind was made up.