New York Local News

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) ― Bedbugs and roaches. Overflowing toilets. Bathrooms that reek of urine. Muddy floors, grimy slot machines, and long, long waits for a drink or a jackpot payout.

A long-awaited report by state casino regulators paints a dismal picture of cleanliness and service at the Tropicana Casino and Resort. These complaints come not from an outside agency, but from the casino's own files of correspondence from customers.

The complaints were among information Tropicana management wanted to have excluded from a hearing that started Tuesday before the state Casino Control Commission on whether the casino should have its license renewed.

Management and the casino's largest union have been locked in a bitter battle over massive job cuts at the Trop since new ownership took over in January. Nearly 900 jobs -- roughly one-quarter of the Tropicana's work force -- have been eliminated since it was purchased by Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex Corp.

Those staffing reductions and the impact they have had on service are at the center of the Trop's relicensing hearing.

"The facility is filthy, to the point where it's driving customers away," said Bob McDevitt, president of UNITE-HERE Local 54, which represents about 1,300 Tropicana workers and unsuccessfully sought to intervene in the hearing as an interested party. "They seem to think they can do it on the cheap, which is something you can't accomplish.

"We're in grave competition from (slots parlors in) Pennsylvania and New York," McDevitt said. "This is not a time to strip-mine your operation."

But company owner William J. Yung III testified that cleanliness problems were caused by a union sick-out, and were limited to a three-week period earlier in the year -- an assertion contradicted by the state report, which chronicled complaints from March to August.

He said the cleanliness complaints were due to "a situation where the union decided there was going to be a sick-out. For about a three-week period, half the people wouldn't show up for work.

"When the cleaners saw their job was getting done by someone else, they came back, and the issue went away," Yung told the commission.

Now, he said, "The service level at the Tropicana is vastly superior, and the cleanliness is better than it was when we took over."

Afterward, McDevitt was livid that Young had blamed the union for problems keeping the casino clean.

"That is an absolute lie, and it goes to the heart of why we're opposing the company's license," he said. "There was no sickout. That's an affront to every worker there.

"Harrah's doesn't have a union problem; the Borgata doesn't have a union problem," he said. "The only company in a tailspin in Atlantic City is the Tropicana."

The patron complaints were compiled in a report by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement, which said it had serious questions about the Tropicana's ability to meet a state requirement that it operate a "first class facility."

Among complaints: A hotel guest said there was no mouthwash or shampoo in his room, which had not been vacuumed and had used coffee stirrers and paper on the floor when he checked in. Another hotel guest found mud on the bathroom floor, and no towels there. Three others were irate because their rooms were infested with bedbugs. One woman said that in each of the last three times she stayed at the Trop, the toilet in her room overflowed.

There was more: two frequent guests complained that public restrooms were "just plain filthy" and reeked of urine. A hotel guest said he could write his name in the dust on the furniture and TV screen in his room. And many slots players told of waiting from 30 to 45 minutes to have slot machine jackpots paid out.

Complaints continued in April and May, when one longtime patron wrote to the casino's former president to complain that two restaurants there "have little gnats flying around the tables while people are eating."

Yung said the dispute with the union has hurt business at the Trop, though he could not say how much. But he said a steady stream of negative press reports has scared some customers away.

"People start to believe the lie," he said.

Yung said he quickly rehired some of the laid-off slot machine attendants once he learned that payouts were taking too long. He said no further layoffs are planned, but could not rule them out if business conditions worsen.

He also said the Tropicana is no longer considering selling The Quarter, its retail shopping attraction. The possibility was floated last week during the company's conference call to discuss earnings.

The relicensing hearing is expected to last until the end of next week.

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