Qualla: Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino

Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino: Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit OnMyWayTo @flickr from Sayreville, NY, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. On the morning of February 17, 2021, the two-tower silhouette of the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino - a defining piece of the Atlantic City Boardwalk skyline for thirty-seven years - collapsed in roughly fifteen seconds into a cloud of brown dust that drifted west toward the Convention Center. Officials had originally planned to auction the right to push the detonator, with proceeds going to the Atlantic City Boys and Girls Club. Carl Icahn's lawyers, who owned the building, killed the fundraiser. The implosion went forward anyway. Among casino-watchers it had been a long time coming. Trump Plaza had been closed since September 2014, vacant and decaying since then, with chunks of its facade occasionally falling onto Pacific Avenue. Donald Trump himself had sued in 2014 to have his name taken off the building because the property had fallen below the standards required by his licensing agreement. The building wore his name anyway until the moment it came down.

Image: OnMyWayTo @flickr from Sayreville, NY, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino: Harrah's Boardwalk, Briefly

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ron Miguel, CC BY 2.0. The Trump Organization broke ground on the property in June 1982. Harrah's, then the gaming division of Holiday Inn, joined the project a month later as the operating partner. Trump would oversee construction; Harrah's would run the place after opening. The casino was branded Har...

Image: Ron Miguel | CC BY 2.0

Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino: The Million-Dollar Hands

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:TonyTheTiger, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Trump Plaza casino floor was the site of one of the most famous high-roller stories in modern gambling history. In May 1990, the Japanese real-estate magnate Akio Kashiwagi - then estimated to be worth over a billion dollars - sat down at a baccarat table at the Plaza and pla...

Image: User:TonyTheTiger | CC BY-SA 3.0

Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino: Vera Coking's Holdout

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0. One of the more revealing stories in Trump Plaza's history involved a small three-story rooming house at 127 South Columbia Place owned by Vera Coking, an elderly widow who had bought the property in 1961. In 1993, Atlantic City's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority began c...

Image: Farragutful | CC BY-SA 4.0

Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino: The Long Decline

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Daniel Barcelona, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Trump Taj Mahal opened a mile up the boardwalk on April 2, 1990, and immediately began cannibalizing Trump Plaza's customer base. The Plaza barely averted bond default in 1991 by taking out a $25 million mortgage on its parking garage. A prepackaged bankruptcy followed in Mar...

Image: Daniel Barcelona | CC BY-SA 3.0

Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino: The Empty Lot

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tallguy0187, CC BY 3.0. On July 12, 2014, Trump Entertainment Resorts announced the property would close on September 16 unless a buyer materialized. In early August, Donald Trump filed suit to have his name removed from the facility, citing disrepair in violation of his licensing agreement. Trump Plaza...

Image: Tallguy0187 | CC BY 3.0