Donald Trump will be returning to The White House in short order. The former president is now set to be a two-time president after defeating Democratic rival Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Trump is the first president to return to the role after previously being voted out since Grover Cleveland in 1892.
Amid a maelstrom of reporting on the seismic global and domestic changes that may come with the new administration, the U.S. gambling business has been quite far from the major concerns of most journalists writing think pieces on the incoming President.
Trump has promised sweeping changes across the board. He has said he will overhaul international trade and foreign policy, deport millions of immigrants, increase investment in fossil fuels and cut green energy schemes, allow states to roll out abortion bans, and implement a domestic law and order crackdown.
With all that on the moneyline for the U.S. in the near future, many might forget that Donald Trump is also the first president to have literally owned a casino. Several of them, in fact.
Trump Cards
Trump owned three casino hotels in Atlantic City from 1984 until 2009, and has owned a few casino hotels in Las Vegas.
Although things were booming in Atlantic City in its late ’80s heyday, the $1 billion Trump Taj Mahal opened in 1990 and went bankrupt by 1991. He continued to own Trump Plaza and the Trump Marina into the late 2000s, although revenue declined consistently at both before he sold.
He also presided over the legalization of sports betting while last in the Oval Office. New Jersey successfully opened the floodgates for legal U.S. sports betting while Trump was president from 2018 to 2020, although his administration officially opposed the move.
That history in the gambling world has given Trump plenty of friends in the industry. He is heavily backed by a list of famous figures in the sector, including Miriam Adelson, owner of Las Vegas Sands, Las Vegas casinos investor Carl Icahn, and Red Rock Resorts owners the Fertitta Brothers.
Plenty of those names haven’t just supported from the sidelines. They put their money on the table for a Trump victory. Adelson donated $75 million to a Trump Political Action Fund. She also endorsed him in a write-up in the Las Vegas Review-Journal – one of Nevada’s biggest news outlets – which she owns.
Implementing Policies
So, what does all that gambling business experience teach us about what an incoming Trump presidency might mean for the sector? Well, that might be nicely summed up in this quote from 2016.
“President Trump, his administration, and Congress will unquestionably implement policies that will directly impact our industry for years to come,” said a representative from the largest trade group, the American Gaming Association, in 2016.
Which is mostly a non-statement that may as well have said, “The president will make changes that have effects,” for all the specificity present.
What that doesn’t say is what kind of policy impacts a Trump administration might have on the gambling business. And that’s because, well, nobody really knew then. And nobody really knows now.
Trump has not really had any clear policies for the gambling sector beyond intervening in things he is personally interested in.
Trump said he supported legal sports betting many times, or at least each state’s right to make their own decision. However, when it came to his long-term associate New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s fight to repeal the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018, the Trump administration opposed the repeal.
PASPA was eventually rolled back, and legal sports betting spread across America in the following years. Something Trump has on occasion spoken on as if he was involved.
While president in 2019, he also apparently worked closely with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Seminoles on their tribal gaming compact negotiations. Interestingly though, a clause was included in the compact that related to a potential site Trump Organization was considering for a casino resort.
Other than those two instances, Trump did little else in terms of direct gambling policy throughout his previous presidency.
Policy Affects
On the other hand, gambling is very much discretionary spending for most Americans, meaning the business is very linked to the state of the national economy. And that is something Trump’s campaign ran heavily on.
Those supporting Trump from the gambling business won’t be financially immune to market changes as a result of his policies, whether the outcome be good or bad.
Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands has seen stock prices fall some 5% in the last three months, as the odds of a Trump victory grew shorter. Some investors fear that Trump’s proposed global trade tariffs could spark a trade war that would negatively affect Sands’ casino business, which is mostly based in Asian markets.
It could also affect international jet-setting high-limit gamblers, who win and lose fortunes on Las Vegas baccarat tables and are responsible for a fair share of Sin City’s gambling revenues.
However, those who support Trump consistently cited the economy as one of their top concerns, and that they trusted him on this issue. So clearly, many Americans believe that the stock market boom of his last presidency may come again. For the casino business, that could mean more disposable income for high-limit gamblers to lose.
On that front, Trump has promised to eliminate the federal tax on tips. That’s a policy that may have helped him win the crucial swing state of Nevada, where a large percentage of workers in the service industry rely on tips.
That policy is supported by Nevada politicians across the aisle, and interestingly, trade unions.
Economically, Trump’s relationship with unions has been touchy over the years. Out of his gambling business friends, most of them are staunchly anti-union – the Fertittas, the Adelsons, and Icahn have all historically opposed the strong gambling and hospitality business unions.
Casinos also often have high levels of immigrant labor, especially in hospitality and housekeeping. So much so that the AGA asked Trump to not enact harsh immigration laws in 2016 (as well as asking his administration to back the effort for legal sports betting, which it did not.)
Trump has now promised to deport millions of immigrants. Although he has said the focus will be illegal migrants, it’s highly possible that some casino workers and their families could be caught up in any mass deportation process.
Outside of economic policy, a Trump presidency is unlikely to hold much promise of combating climate change, which will also continue to affect physical casinos in the U.S. Trump has called human-caused climate change a fraud and a hoax.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
