Billionaire Halts Trump Casino's Dynamite Auction

Well, never mind. The Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, NJ, will still be dynamited, but you won't be able to bid for the chance to do the honors. The city was planning to auction off the chance to press the button for the demolition, but now the auction house involved has called it off after the owner of the casino, conservative billionaire Carl Icahn, sent it a cease and desist letter. The auction was going to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club of Atlantic City, and Icahn says he will donate $175,000 to the organization instead, NBC Philadelphia reports. The auction house had hoped to raise $1 million.

Demolition has long been in the cards for the empty casino in heavy disrepair, but Icahn says the "spectacle" involved in the auction could endanger people, with debris possibly hitting any crowd that might gather. A new date for the implosion has yet to be announced, the AP reports. Donald Trump cut most of his ties with Atlantic City in 2009, beyond leaving his name on three casinos in the gambling haven for a 10% fee. The Trump Plaza closed in 2014, and Icahn took ownership of the former Trump casinos out of bankruptcy court in 2016, the year Trump was elected president. (More Atlantic City stories.)