The Taj Mahal came to the brink of closure in 2014 as its parent company went through bankruptcy, but ultimately remained open under the new ownership of Icahn Enterprises.

[8] The Taj Mahal had encountered construction problems, and Crosby's heirs, lacking experience in large development projects, doubted their ability to complete it successfully.

[9] Donald Trump, who owned two other Atlantic City casinos, beat out several other bidders to purchase a controlling stake in the company for $79 million in July 1987.

[18] Trump raised $675 million to finance the purchase and completion of the casino, primarily through junk bonds with a 14 percent interest rate.

[24] In 1991, the Taj Mahal went through a prepackaged bankruptcy, resulting in Trump giving a 50 percent stake in the business to its bondholders in exchange for lowered interest rates and a longer payoff schedule.

[29] During eighteen months after its April 2, 1990 opening,[21] when the Casino was on the verge of bankruptcy, it became the "preferred gambling spot for Russian mobsters living in Brooklyn, according to federal investigators who tracked organized crime in New York City".

[citation needed] In 2013, the Taj Mahal opened the nation's first casino strip club, featuring scantily clad dancers.

[33][34] Trump Entertainment Resorts filed for bankruptcy on September 10, 2014,[35] and announced plans to close the Taj Mahal on November 13 if the casino did not get concessions from its unions.

[38] In filing a revised reorganization plan in a Delaware bankruptcy court, Trump Entertainment Resorts said its board had approved a shutdown of the casino by December 12, 2014.

On December 18, two days before the scheduled closure, UNITE HERE reached a deal with Trump Entertainment Resorts that saved the Taj from closing.

[1] On November 14, 2014, Trump Entertainment Resorts announced that the casino would shut down in December unless its main union, UNITE HERE, dropped its appeal of a court-ordered cost-savings package, which had effectively cancelled the workers' health insurance and pension coverage.

[55] In February 2015, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network settled an investigation of Trump Taj Mahal with the assessment of a $10 million civil fine for "significant and long-standing money laundering violations" which were described as "willful and repeated" contraventions of the record-keeping and reporting requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act.

[58] The casino agreed to periodic external audits to comply with anti-money laundering statutes,[57] and admitted to multiple violations as part of its settlement.

Trump Taj Mahal was "far from meeting" standards required to protect the U.S. financial system "from exploitation from criminals, terrorists, and other bad actors", the Treasury said in a press release.

[61] The Senate subcommittee named Danny Sau Keung Leung, who had been Trump Taj Mahal's vice president of foreign marketing since 2000, as an associate of the Hong Kong-based organized crime group 14K Triad[62] linked to "murders, extortions and heroin smuggling".

[63] He was "known by law enforcement to be linked to organized crime syndicates"[64] and was investigated by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in 1995 with hearings in Atlantic City regarding his "background and character".

"[64] According to an Internal Revenue Service report cited in a 2016 Politifact article by Linda Qui,[62] Trump also worked closely with other members and associates of organized criminal enterprises, including Danny Leung, Felix Sater, Salvatore Testa, and Kenneth Shapiro".

[66]: 20 On May 27, 2009, Ray Kot, a casino supervisor for the former Taj Mahal, was shot and killed while working, by Mark Magee of Norristown, Pennsylvania.