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Tropicana Employee Layoff hits home...
Damato May Challenge Gormley?
Despite a general consensus that the casino industry in Atlantic City is thriving, the Tropicana Casino Hotel created some market uncertainty when it terminated 140 employees in October. Many of the employees had long tenures with the casino hotel and left with much heartache. Particularly after they read a quote in The Press of Atlantic City in a story wriiten by casino beat reporter Joe Weinert. In Weinert's story, Tropicana spokeswoman Maureen Siman indicated the layoffs were due to job performance issues. The laid-off employees had been told that job performance had nothing to do with the layoffs. Many of the employees had more than 10 years of experience with the casino hotel.
And from the strange-but-true Insider category: When one of the laid-off Tropicana employees returned home Friday morning after receiving the news of the termination on Friday Oct. 11th, the employee had a voice message from Tropicana president Pam Popielarski asking that employee to join the Tropicana's new VIP Locals Only Club at the casino.
"I was in shock," the employee said. "Here I had just lost my job, and I get a message from my former employer asking me to join a Tropicana VIP Club."
The Tropicana has been using Popieleraski's mass voice messages to market its new locals only program.
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Politics as "unusual"
The politcal winds are howling with the news that Paul D'Amato might challenge Bill Gormley in the Republican primary in June for Gormley's state senate seat in Trenton. The Insider has learned that D'Amato is seriously considering the challenge, as Gormley is most vulnerable in his own party. Gormley has also been vulnerable for supporting New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey's building moratorium, which led to a march on Trenton this month by area builders. Gormley was severely hurt when he learned that D'Amato was even considering running against him. There is still no official word from D'Amato, but there's some fire to all this smoke. Should D'Amato run and lose, it might be political suicide for him, as Gormley takes no prisoners when he vanquishes an opponent. But there are some very influential Republicans who want D'Amato to challenge Gormley because of his often Democratic ways. Stay tuned.
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Uneasy Feeling
There were some icy stares between the Trump table and the Borgata table at the MBCA Installation dinner at the Trump Taj Mahal, during which Donald Trump was honored in October. The reason? Well, the Boragata has lured away Trump Marina golden boy Larry Mullin to be its vice president of marketing, and sources tell The Insider that the Donald was not too happy about it. The Borgata and Mullin will set their sights on some of the major players at the Marina. Nothing like competition in the land of slots and dice. The MBCA dinner was like a Who's Who of Atlantic City as that organization continues to upstage the Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce. The iciest stare of the night was between Mullin and Trump CEO Mark Brown. Fight nice, dice boys.
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Borgata update...
Speaking of The Borgata, can you believe how much money the new company is spending on recruiting employees? From billboards to full page adds, The Borgata is recruiting like a college football coach trying to build a national championship team. Already 10,000 applicants have applied for The Borgata jobs.
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Media Watch...
Along the media beat, The Insider gives a tip of the hat to NBC TV 40 and the job the new news director, Ted Greenberg, is doing with the station. The entire look of the news program has been improved by Greenberg's arrival as it just has a more professional look and feel.
Maybe Greenberg can help improve salaries at the station as well. Did you ever notice that on Fridays, budding anchor talent Michelle Dawn Mooney is never there?
That's because Mooney moonlights as a supper singer at the Ram's Head Inn in Absecon on Fridays to supplement her income. Mooney continues to improve and will not be long for this market. Most of the talent at TV 40 knows it is what it is when it comes to salaries in this market.
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Boardwalk Hall notes...
Look for a major fight with Evander Holyfield to happen in Atlantic City in December at Boardwalk Hall. And speaking of Boardwalk Hall, attendance at Boardwalk Bullies games has started to pick up. The Bullies are hoping that things will continue to grow with the season when winters sets in on the Boardwalk. The team has been excellent on the ice and looks to be one of the best in the ECHL.
The Insider
acinsider@acinside.com
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