Booming MD casino lures AC talent with job fair

As if Atlantic City casinos didn't have enough interstate competition. Now out-of-state gaming halls are not only poaching customers, they're poaching talent. But in this instance, it's a good thing. With the closing of the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel next week, nearly 1,600 people will be left unemployed.

Maryland Live!, Maryland's biggest grossing casino, is holding a job fair this week in AC where it hopes to lure the some of the seaside mecca's best to "hundreds of jobs" in the Old Line State. Positions include table games dealers, slot attendants, cashiers, auditors, restaurant workers, and security officers.

Maryland Live opened in early 2012. It had a phenomenally successful December. Revenues for the month topped $52.5 million, up nearly 46 percent over the previous year. The casino grossed $580 million in 2013.

Atlantic City revenues have fallen 40 percent since losing the East Coast monopoly on gaming.

Built on a former parking lot adjacent to a mall between Baltimore and Washington D.C., Maryland Live! is owned by the Cordish Company, the Baltimore-based real estate developer.

"The closing of the Atlantic Club is an unfortunate event that impacts many lives. In this case, however, we have the opportunity to offset some of the job losses," said Maryland Live spokeswoman Carmen Gonzales.

She said Maryland Live plans to open several new restaurants, and possibly a hotel and convention center.

The Cordish Company also is pursuing gaming licenses in other markets, including Massachusetts and Philadelphia, "which will open up even more opportunities for employees should licenses be granted," Gonzales said.

"This is an opportunity for us to target a qualified pool of experienced candidates from our industry within the same geographic region," she said. "We already have a number of employees from South Jersey who have relocated to Maryland as we prepare for further expansion."

The job fair will be open to the general public Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Sheraton Atlantic City. It follows two days of a closed fair with Atlantic Club employees.

According to Gonzales, Maryland Live representatives interviewed more than 100 Atlantic Club employees on Monday and Tuesday and made two dozen on-the-spot job offers to dealers pending background checks, drug testing and licensing. An additional 40 were invited to Maryland for secondary interviews with hiring managers.