After a tough three years, in which more than 11,000 people lost their jobs in the Atlantic City casino market with the closure of five gambling establishments, things are finally starting to look up.
The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, which operated formerly as the Taj Mahal, as well as the former Revel Casino Resort – now the Ocean Resort Casino – have filed for operating licenses to run online gambling services. Both casinos are also hiring thousands of employees, many of who lost their jobs when casinos shut down in the period from 2014.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement confirmed that the Ocean Resort and the Hard Rock Casino have both filed applications for online gambling services. If they receive the go-ahead, this will bring to seven the number of Atlantic City Casinos that provide internet gambling to New Jersey residents.
This week, the former Trump Taj Mahal started interviewing for new employees as it intends to open its doors in the summer as the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Over 1,600 former employees of the Taj were invited to submit their applications for jobs, and a record 1,400 did so.
All in all, the Hard Rock Casino hopes to provide 3,000 new jobs in Atlantic City.
The Ocean Resort will be adding thousands of its own to the mix, significantly improving the resort city’s unemployment rates in the casino industry.
The Courier Post Online ran an article where Hard Rock hopefuls were interviewed. One such woman, Monica Weekes, told the publication that she had worked at the former Taj Mahal since it was opened by the then-real estate mogul, the present day President Donald Trump in 1990. The casino-hotel closed its doors in 2016 and will reopen later this year.
Weekes said: “When one door closes another opens, and Hard Rock is that door for me. I can’t wait to show them what I’ve got.”
Matt Harkness, the president of the Hard Rock agreed with the president of the casino workers’ trade union, Bob Devitt that the former workers gave excellent service for decades.
“There’s institutional knowledge that comes from having worked here before,” he said. “That’s very valuable to us.”
