Tuesday’s announcement that Atlantic City’s Revel Casino
Hotel will cease operations and shut down Sept. 10 just adds to the staggering
amount of casino workers who will soon be out of work.
If the $2.4-billion casino does closes its doors on Sept.
10, it would leave 3,200 people unemployed. When Trump Plaza closes this fall,
900 people will be out of work, and when the Showboat Atlantic City closes
later this month, 2,000 people will lose their jobs. That's 6,100 workers
looking for new jobs.
Securing a job will be difficult because other properties in
Atlantic City are already at capacity, experts say, so workers will most likely
have to look to other states with thriving gaming industries, such as
Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and Maryland.
"We're talking about hundreds and hundreds of dealers
if all three properties close," said Saverio R. Scheri III, president and
chief executive of WhiteSand Gaming LLC, a consulting firm with offices in
Atlantic City. "They'll be lucky if 25 or 50 of them find jobs in town.
Now, where are they going to go? They'll go to Philadelphia — Valley Forge
Casino Resort, SugarHouse Casino and Parx Casino."
Revel Entertainment Group LLC doesn't have the luxury of
moving employees around to other properties because it simply doesn't own any.
For example, if it were Caesar Atlantic City Hotel and Casino that was closing,
Caesars Entertainment Corp. could send its displaced employees to Harrah's or
any of their other properties.
Experts say finding a job after the three casinos close will
be difficult because of the type of work certain casino employees do.
"Some of them will [find a job]. It's actually an
art," said Alan Woinski, president of Gaming USA Corp, a consulting firm
in Paramus, N.J. "Everywhere you go, the big concern is that you have
inexperienced dealers, and professional gamblers [will] start taking advantage
of them."
As to how it will affect Atlantic City, Sheri said
"that’s a significant amount of rent, mortgages, and people buying gas and
groceries going away because they’re forced out of the state."
Woinski said there's possible work when the Horseshoe Casino
Baltimore opens later this month in Baltimore, and when the Hollywood Gaming at
Mahoning Valley Race Course opens in Cleveland on Sept. 17.
"Atlantic City to Baltimore won't be a big difference,
but it's still uprooting families," Woinski said. "It depends on if
you want a career change."
But for other workers who are not dealers, like waitresses
and waiters, Woinski said they will mostly likely be forced to work at
restaurants or clubs, which will create competition.
"Whenever you have an uptick in unemployment, people
start getting more aggressive looking for work," Woinski said. "It depends
on what they'll look for. The kid who used to work after school in McDonald's
may be displaced by the casino worker who need something in between jobs. ...
It will be a trickle-down effect on the economy."
Maryland is calling
Maryland Live! Casino has already reached out to the
soon-to-be-unemployed workers. The Hanover, Md.-based casino held job fairs
earlier this month at the Sheraton hotel across the Atlantic City Convention
Center with the hope of recruiting experienced workers.
The casino held a similar recruitment event in January when
The Atlantic Club shut down. They hired 50 Atlantic City workers, spokeswoman
Carmen Gonzalez told CBS Baltimore.
“Atlantic City has
proven to be an excellent source of qualified candidates for us,” Howard
Weinstein, the casino’s senior vice president, told CBS Baltimore. “The
workforce provides a pool of experienced talent for available positions across
all departments.”
The news of the casinos' closures seem to have not have
affected the Philadelphia region yet, it seems.
“It's too soon to tell what impact, if any, this may have on
the Philadelphia market," said Wendy Hamilton, general manager of
SugarHouse Casino.
Hamilton could not immediately confirm whether SugarHouse
Casino was making similar recruitment efforts.
Source: Philadelphia
Business Journal
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