"We're all feeling a little betrayed," Showboat cook Curtis Wade said. "We're all walking around in a fog today. We worked really hard to try to keep it operating, and we're still profitable. We still don't understand why we were the one targeted to close, and nobody has given us an answer on that. There are too many jobs being pushed out of Atlantic City due to corporate greed."
Wade will be among the thousands of workers showing up at the Atlantic City Convention Center on Wednesday for a mass unemployment filing.
The Showboat's owner, Caesars Entertainment, closed the still-profitable casino to reduce the number of casinos in Atlantic City, which has been struggling with plunging revenue and increased competition in the saturated northeastern U.S. casino market.
The Showboat stopped admitting new customers at 3 p.m. Sunday. At 4 p.m., security guards emerged to tape to the glass doors paper signs that read, "Closed."
Inside the casino, recordings urged customers to patronize Caesars Entertainment's three remaining casinos in Atlantic City: Caesars, Harrah's and Bally's.
Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman wrote in a letter to employees that the Showboat has been in business in Atlantic City for 27 years and Caesars was proud to operate it for 16 years.
"I want to thank the Showboat Atlantic City team for their dedication, professionalism, and commitment to our guests -- both throughout the years and especially over the past several weeks," he wrote.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/31/showboat-closes-after-27-years-in-atlantic-city/?intcmp=latestnews
Atlantic City is going through what Vegas went through a few years ago. Now, Vegas is somewhat thriving, but the casinos, for the most part, have huge debt that they will have to pay off.
And when the next recession hits Vegas in another couple of years, if not earlier, we will have thousands of casino employees looking for jobs as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment