Taj Mahal on Nixing Stockton Deal: ‘You Do Not See a College on the Las Vegas Strip’

The parent company of Atlantic City's Taj Mahal Casino says their  objection to Stockton University bringing a campus to the shuttered Showboat Casino is the risk of underage students trying to gamble.

Stockton's president Herman Saatkamp announced Tuesday that Trump Entertainment Resorts is threatening to invoke a 1988 legal covenant that restricts use of the Showboat property next door to the Taj to being a first-class casino-hotel.

Saatkamp said Wednesday that he had believed the covenant would not be an issue and that he remained hopeful the university’s Showboat plan can proceed.  “This is important — and I want to emphasize — our first preference is to build the island campus, and that’s still a clear possibility,” Saatkamp said in an interview.

If the university can’t develop a campus at the site, others may be interested in acquiring the property. Reports say Stockton has already been approached about the prospect of selling the Showboat property.

Here is the Taj Mahal's statement concerning their opposition to the Stockton campus plan, released on their website on Wednesday...

"We wanted to take this opportunity to set the record straight on the Stockton/Caesars sale of the Atlantic City Showboat Casino.

In 1988 Showboat, Resorts and Taj all agreed to provide for a cluster of casinos at the north end of the Boardwalk, on or near the former Urban Renewal Tract, to create greater customer traffic for all three properties. To that end, the three agreed that Showboat would always be operated as a first class casino hotel and the three properties would be inter-connected by skyways. This agreement was memorialized in a written agreement that was publicly recorded in the Atlantic City property records.

In mid-December of 2014, Caesars asked the Taj to voluntarily waive the casino/hotel covenant to permit Stockton College to acquire Showboat and convert it into a college campus. We advised that because the Taj is in bankruptcy, as a matter of our fiduciary responsibilities to our creditors, we could not waive our valuable rights under this covenant without obtaining bankruptcy court approval and without receiving appropriate consideration. We were not offered any consideration for this waiver. This was over three months ago.

The facts are that our company does not think having a college next door to the Taj is good for our company. Having kids under 21 who will attempt to gain entry to the casino and engage in activities reserved for those only 21 and older would create numerous problems we do not want and could damage the Taj’s ability to attract customers and regain its financial health.

You do not see a college on the Las Vegas strip.

Both Caesars and Stockton elected to proceed with the Showboat sale even though they were fully aware that we could not waive the casino/hotel covenant as they were asking.

No further comments will be given at this time. Thank you."