Illuminated letters advertising the casino's name on its front and back facades burned out and were never replaced. One only had to walk from the parking garage through a glass-enclosed walkway over Pacific Avenue to the casino and be enveloped in searing heat that approached 100 degrees from the sun beating down on the glass to experience the property's frantic cost-cutting moves air conditioning the area was one of the expenses that was deemed non-essential. They really seemed to give up about five years ago.' It was so sad to see it get a little worse every year. This year the Plaza bar was closed and the 24 hour cafe closed at 2 p.m.
'This year they had no bedspreads and they totally gave up on the ice machines. He says its decline was obvious over the last seven years.
Jim Redmond is a 60-year-old from Montreal who loves Atlantic City and regularly stayed at Trump Plaza.
Its owners, Trump Entertainment Resorts, let it deteriorate in recent years, particularly after a sale for the bargain-basement price of $20 million to a California firm fell through last year. Despite its prime location at the heart of the Boardwalk and the end of the Atlantic City Expressway (its motto has been 'The Center Of It All'), gamblers have been abandoning Trump Plaza for newer, ritzier casinos for years.
