Atlantic City will once again have eight casinos when the casino formerly known as the Trump Taj Mahal reopens Memorial Day weekend.

The casino has been re-branded as Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, after Hard Rock International, owned by Florida’s Seminole Indian tribe, bought the casino for just four cents on the dollar. Donald Trump built the casino nearly 30 years ago for $1.2 billion, but it sold in 2017 for just $50 million. The Taj closed in October 2016.

Hard Rock said it’s spending nearly $400 million on renovations to the casino.

The Taj re-opened its storied poker room in May 2016, but the reboot was short-lived. With 48 poker tables, the Taj’s poker room was the second largest in the city behind Borgata. Hard Rock has yet to announce whether or not it will have a poker room.

The Taj was the highest grossing in the city until the opening of Borgata in 2003, but it was the worst performing at the time it closed. The property won $116.5 million from gamblers from January to August of last year, a 7.9 percent decline compared to the same period a year prior.

“We are excited to be part of this revitalization of Atlantic City creating thousands of jobs to help local employment,” Jim Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International, said when the deal to buy the casino was announced. “We are 100 percent convinced Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic City will be a success.”

Four Atlantic City casinos closed in 2014, and the Taj made it no. 5 two years later. Atlantic City was once home to 12 casinos, the same number as in neighboring Pennsylvania.

 

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