NJ casinos closed Wednesday

[PokerT]

NJ casinos closed Wednesday, victims of state budget stalemate
By JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press Writer
Published: Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Updated: Wednesday, July 5, 2006

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - Slot machines will go silent. Dealers will be sent home. Racetracks will close and lottery ticket terminals will remain shut down.

Beginning Wednesday, all bets are off here.

Barring a last-minute breakthrough, Atlantic City's 12 casinos will evacuate their gambling areas for the first time ever at 8 a.m., their hand forced by stalemated talks over a state budget in Trenton.

The casino-hotels, which employ about 46,000 people and attract millions of gamblers and vacationers every year, will remain open, but the blackjack tables, roulette wheels and slot machines will be empty, along with state parks and horse racing tracks also being closed.

Up to 15,000 casino employees would be thrown out of work by the closings, and that number could double if the casinos remain closed through the weekend, according to Robert McDevitt, president of Local 54 of UNITE HERE, a labor union that represents rank-and-file casino hotel workers.

"They're going to lose a lot of money," said Jerome Harper, 42, of Philadelphia, who was playing a Triple Cash slot machine at Resorts Atlantic City on Tuesday. "It's bad. Why close it down when you could just do your job and put the budget together? That's what they're paid for."

At odds with his fellow Democrats, Gov. Jon S. Corzine last week ordered all non-essential state government operations halted, including the New Jersey Lottery, road construction projects and state agencies.

Among the state employees furloughed are the casino inspectors who keep tabs on the collection, counting and certification of the money won by the 12 gambling halls. Without them, the casino's can't operate because the state would have no way to ensure that it receives its 8 percent share of the casino revenue pie.

The casinos, which have a $1.1 billion payroll and spend billions more on goods and services, contribute about $1.3 million a day to state coffers via the 8 percent tax.

But they can't do that if they're closed, an irony not lost on gamblers.

"This is what brings the money in," said Bertha Arrington, 57, of Baldwin, N.Y., who was playing the slots nearby.

It would be the first time casinos have been forced to close since Resorts opened its doors in 1978 as New Jersey's first casino-hotel.

In the intervening years, they have always managed to keep the doors open, even if it meant shoveling snow, fortifying entrances with sand bags to protect against Atlantic Ocean waves or putting CEOs to work flipping burgers during labor strikes.

The prospect of closing scares city officials, who say the all-at-once evacuations of gambling areas in the buildings could cause public safety problems, with thousands of gamblers leaving the island city simultaneously.

"It's uncharted territory," said Joseph Corbo, president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, which on Tuesday made another unsuccessful court challenge aimed at staving off the closings. "We'll obviously try to control it as best we can under the circumstances."

Mark Sandson, a lawyer for the casinos, told Judge William C. Todd III that about 1 million people were in the city Tuesday and that the casinos and the city needed more time to plan for the closings.

"They've never had a situation where they had to empty out 12 casinos and 18,000 hotel rooms all at one time," Sandson said.

Police Chief John Mooney said the sudden evacuation of the casinos could lead to problems with drunken driving, street crime and ultimately labor unrest. If the closings last, casino workers who aren't being paid could make trouble, he said.

"As it is, it's going to be a mass exodus. We'll be running traffic the opposite way it would normally be moving. As it continues, the chance of unrest with people who aren't getting paid and are unable to pay their bills increases and could be trouble in our neighborhoods," Mooney said. "This is a state-created disaster."

Casino executives were busy Tuesday planning for the shutdown - marshaling security plans, drafting letters to give to guests checking in and preparing public-address announcements that will warn gamblers in the hours before 8 a.m.

"You can't just walk in at 8 a.m. and say 'Everyone leave,'" said Alyce Parker, a spokeswoman for Harrah's Entertainment, which has four Atlantic City casino-hotels. "Starting at 5 a.m., we'll do overhead (public address) notices, telling people the state has mandated us to close."

"As it goes on, it's just going to get worse," he said.