With a name like Taj Mahal, and with Donald Trump behind it, one wouldn’t expect the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City to be exactly…um…modest. Opened in 1990, the Taj occupies 17 acres of prime oceanfront real estate. It is one of the largest casinos in the world, and is known as a poker players’ casino. Its 135,000 square feet house more than 200 gaming tables, of which about 70 are poker tables, not to mention a couple thousand slot machines, 8 restaurants, an arena, a hotel, a health club and much more…including $14 million worth of quarter-million dollar chandeliers.
The Poker Parlor, whose non-smoking status makes it one of the few such poker rooms on the East Coast, provides free poker instruction to beginners and a private elevator to the Poker Snack Bar. Live coverage in the Parlor via a state-of-the-art simulcast facility offers poker, races and keno from around the country.
The Casino, voted “Best Casino” by readers of Casino Player Magazine and open 24 hours, hosts several major poker events. ESPN’s United States Poker Championships have been held here for more than a decade. One of its most notable events was related to a kind a gambling, but not in the standard sense: it was the setting for the competitions presided over by The Donald on “The Apprentice,” and a scene from the classic poker film, “The Rounders,” was shot here.
Daily poker tournaments include No Limit Hold’em, with $20 and $80 buy-ins.
Certainly, the Shah Jahan did not have this in mind when he named the original Taj. He probably wouldn’t mind the opulence, but he certainly would have minded that the penthouse suites, named after such historical figures as Alexander the Great, King Tut, Napoleon, Kublai Khan, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and Cleopatra, do not include him.
