Tropicana Casino And Resort Adding Bustier-Clad Dealers
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) -- Soon it might be more difficult to concentrate on the cards at one Atlantic City casino.
The Tropicana Casino and Resort is creating a new "party pit" near its Rumba Lounge nightclub where female blackjack and roulette dealers will wear bustiers and stockings.
It's part of a trend in the nation's second-largest gambling market to sex things up as the competition for the gambling dollar grows ever fiercer.
Steve Callender, the Tropicana's vice president of casino operations, said the casino is in the process of hiring dealers "with great personalities that look nice" to work in the new pit. Existing dealers will not be required to wear the revealing costumes.
The new pit will be right next to the Rumba Lounge, a nightclub on the casino floor where scantily clad dancers work two V-shaped stages on weekend nights.
"We want to extend that energy onto the casino floor, and we think this is just the thing," he said.
The six blackjack and two roulette tables in the "party pit" will debut over the July 4th weekend.
They come on the heels of revealing flapper costumes that female cocktail servers at Resorts Casino Hotel must wear. Those outfits already have generated two lawsuits from older female workers who say they were fired after being deemed insufficiently sexy in the new costumes.
The Resorts costumes are part of the casino's new roaring '20s theme, and feature extremely low-cut backs and black fishnet stockings.
The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa began the trend years ago with its scantily clad waitresses that it dubbed "Borgata Babes." That promotion, too, led to a lawsuit from several female servers, alleging the casino humiliated costumed waitresses by imposing weight limits, encouraging breast augmentation surgery and emphasizing looks over job performance.
The suit was settled in 2008 but terms were not revealed.
The "Borgata Babes" wear cleavage-baring bustiers, high heels and tight-fitting bolero-style jackets. Their annual calendar was a best-seller before being discontinued a few years ago.
Dealers in skimpy outfits are a fixture on the Las Vegas Strip. Women in one section of tables at the Treasure Island wear bikinis, while Planet Hollywood advertises a "Pleasure Pit," with dealers in lingerie and dancers atop small stages behind them.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
