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New DGE Rule Could Cause Many to Lose Casino Jobs

Posted on April 12th, 2011

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The continuing development of casino deregulation could be having an impact on the number of jobs casinos provide to local residents. Here in Atlantic City, the first jobs feeling the threat are casino floor supervisors who will no longer be necessary in a revised gaming setup that does away with table games supervisors, pit bosses and similar functions. The Department of Gaming Enforcement last Wednesday posted on its website “emergency regulations” that are meant to save casinos millions of dollars that typically goes to staffing costs. The move is part of a concerted effort to streamline the gaming laws in the state and more are expected to come as new regulations and developments become available.

For now, Gaming Enforcement spokeswoman Lisa Spengler refused to confirm how many people are expected to be lose their jobs. The new regulation comes into full effect on April 13; on that date, casinos are required to re-align their staffing needs by employing a casino manager to take care of overseeing all casino operations and games, staff casino clerks, slot attendants, floor persons and the supervisors dedicated to being on the floor and managing the little details as they happen during shift operations. These cover all table games, including poker. The new policy empowers casinos to move beyond the recommended staffing requirements to hire more for positions that are not listed by the Department of Gaming Enforcement. It also does not limit the Department from ordering workers that will be tasked to take care of property supervision.

In this new scheme where pit bosses are no longer present, individual casinos will still have the option to retain them and operate as before, however seeing as it is no longer necessary under the policy, there is also nothing preventing the casinos from letting them go. Remarked Carl Zeitz, an independent consultant who also was a former member of the Casino Control Commission, there will be fewer eyes watching the tables when the pit boss originally assigned to watch the floor person and the dealer, are taken out. “So what has been touted as deregulation is beginning to look like un-regulation. This is beginning to be a self-regulated industry under this kind of change,” he said.

Zeitz was also frank in citing other concerns pertaining to the proposed changes as indicated in the emergency regulations. First off, he wonders how the changes were agreed upon and ratified if they were not done in public. From there, concerns regarding requesting for the change as well as the deliberation process, who were interviewed and what where the arguments for or against the case come into fore. “The Casino Control Commission would never have done these as an emergency. Why is it an emergency not to have pit bosses in Atlantic City? To do this out of the public’s sight is outrageous. That’s why we need the commission. That’s why we had the commission,” said Zeitz.

The Casino Control Commission was the former watchdog for the gambling industry in the state but it was later dissolved and most of its powers transferred to the Department of Gaming Entertainment. The latest change is just one in a long list of sweeping alterations that saw 115 CCC inspectors lose their jobs. That was because the state’s previous gaming regulation required an inspector present for every casino – something that is now no longer practiced. The spokesman for the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort Tina Belluscio said there were no immediate plans to use the change from the deregulation to the casino’s advantage and adds it has not been discussed yet. “It’s a brand new rule,” she said. “Hilton has no plans to change anything at this time.”

This was seconded by David Coskey, the vice president of marketing at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa who says hasty moves are not part of the Borgata’s way of doing business. Roger Gros, publisher of the Global Gaming Business Magazine based out of Las Vegas remarked that the change was simply part of adaptation to newer technologies in security and monitoring. “The old requirement that pit bosses and supervisors oversee a certain number of tables is outdated. You don’t see that in other jurisdictions anymore,” Gros said. “I think [it] brings the industry up to industry standards and will not have any negative impact, for the most part, for the people who oversee those tables.”