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Provisions in Atlantic City Casino Industry Questioned

Posted on November 27th, 2010

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Among the stipulations found in New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s plan to overhaul the casino industry in the state would be to require casinos to pledge $30 million every year to be used to finance a new nonprofit organization to be called the Atlantic City Alliance. The group would be a key body in Christie’s plan for a partnership between public and private sectors, particularly the state and the casinos to give Atlantic City’s lackluster tourist economy a new life.

Robert F. Griffin, president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, explained, “Clearly, what the industry has said is that we are looking forward to participating in a public-private partnership.” The $30 million would be used by the alliance in the promotion of the city and help fulfill a master plan for the proposed state-run tourism district of the governor. The proposed funding for the Atlantic City Alliance used to be casino money that used to be funneled to the state’s financially crippled horse racing industry for racetrack subsidies. The casinos are agreeable to this, as they now realize how advantageous it would be for money coming from them to remain in Atlantic City.

Meanwhile, the bill being discussed by the Senate this week would let the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority take charge of running a tourism district in Atlantic City. The CRDA is a state agency currently tasked to invest casino funds in redevelopment plans throughout the state. Another bill to be considered by the Legislature would allow casinos to run Internet gaming. The tax on revenue of this project will be the one that will potentially fund the racetrack purses, which has funding that has been taken away by the planned ACA. This plan also scraps the current requirement of gaming inspectors to be present on casino floors all the time.

Casino inspector Philip Albanise, a fixture in Atlantic City casinos for eight years, opined that the presence of inspectors on the gaming floor would be missed. While they are known to be a non-partisan group in the casinos, they have also been crucial to keeping peace and order in casinos. He added, “A person can have a problem at a table game Christmas morning — or Sunday at 3 a.m. — and there’s an inspector present there.” Other inspector duties would be their presence in rooms where large amounts of cash from slot machines and table games are accounted for theft to be prevented and make sure that the proper share of tax revenue is set aside for the state. They are in coordination with the surveillance staff of the casino. The bill does not require this part of the inspectors’ duties to be delegated to the Division of Gaming Enforcement.

Jim Wortman, of the University of Houston, who also used to be employed by an Atlantic City casino said that the scrapping of round-the-clock coverage by gaming inspectors is not something that he is comfortable with. He said the proposed legislation would make casinos too reliant on surveillance cameras instead of having actual human presence in the gambling floor. He added, “Without having inspectors in the count rooms, other than having a surveillance camera run by the casinos, how can you maintain and ensure integrity? There is no way.”

Another segment that the current bills and the governor’s plans are trying to remove would be the background checks for licensing, dealers, security officers, slot machine mechanics and other casino floor workers. As of the moment, they undergo a process that includes checks on their criminal and financial background. Litigation and the authenticity of the academic credentials they present are also investigated. Under the proposed legislation, the process would now be applied only to “key” casino employees, such as top executives and supervisors. Dealers and the other gaming employees with licenses in place are just required to be fingerprinted and registered. The proposed registration process would use less extensive background checks and would not check on an employee’s personal finances anymore.

John Russo, a longtime casino inspector, said that the current processes actually lend the industry some credibility. He opined, “In a way, that makes New Jersey citizens comfortable with having an industry once considered corrupt, and even viewed as one that could have a criminal element.”