Hooked casino exec gets his day in court, blames lies on disease

John Curran

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2000 | 5:13 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - The disease made him do it, Gary DiBartolomeo says.

Too bad, says the state. Allowing the admitted pathological gambler to keep working in casinos now would be like excusing a drunken driver for causing a fatal crash just because he's an alcoholic, the state says.

The battle lines were drawn Thursday as the former president of Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino went before state regulators in a bid to keep his casino license.

The state Division of Gaming Enforcement says DiBartolomeo, 45, should be banned from working in New Jersey casinos. The agency says his history of lying, gambling beyond his means and defying regulators' orders to stop make him untrustworthy.

DiBartolomeo quit his $325,000-a-year job on Tuesday to focus on treatment for his addiction. But he is fighting to retain his license to work in casinos, saying he should not be barred from earning a living because he has a mental illness.

His case is being heard by a state Casino Control Commission hearing examiner, who is expected to accept five days of testimony before making a recommendation to the full commission.

The proceeding got under way Thursday with DiBartolomeo's lawyer and a deputy attorney general framing the dilemma in starkly different terms before a hearing room packed with lawyers, casino officials and co-workers who came out to support DiBartolomeo.

Calling compulsive gambling "the dirty little secret of this industry," lawyer Mark Sandson said the commission's decision in the case will have ramifications far beyond DiBartolomeo, sending a signal to other casino employees who've been hooked by the action that surrounds them.

DiBartolomeo hasn't gambled in over a year, is in counseling to beat his problem and admits he has one, Sandson said.

"The real question to be answered by this hearing is: If a pathological gambler is in recovery, can he work in the gambling industry in New Jersey? If the answer is no ... we should all just go home," Sandson said.

He said banning DiBartolomeo from casino work because of his illness would be like banning an AIDS victim from working because he or she had AIDS.

But Deputy Attorney General James Fogarty, representing the Division of Gaming, said DiBartolomeo was more like a drunken driver who causes a fatal accident and then blames his alcoholism. He must be held accountable anyway, Fogarty said.

The issue is not compulsive gambling, he said. It is DiBartolomeo's repeated defiance of commission orders and his history of deceit, he said.

DiBartolomeo lacks the "good character, honesty and integrity" required of key license holders under New Jersey law, according to Fogarty, who said DiBartolomeo's lies - to his wife, to his counselors, to regulators, to his employer - speak louder than his proclamations of recovery.

"Behavior is how you judge character, not words or well-intentioned testimonials from friends and colleagues who say they know him," Fogarty said. "Actions speak louder."

And DiBartolomeo's actions speak loudly, he said. Confronted with evidence of his gambling by casino regulators in 1995, DiBartolomeo agreed to quit and seek treatment as a condition of his license renewal, Fogarty said. He did neither.

He ran up huge gambling debts and then scrambled to pay them off, lying to cover up for himself, Fogarty said.

DiBartolomeo didn't take the stand in his own defense, but he is expected to at some point. On Thursday, he sat between his lawyer and a lawyer for Park Place Entertainment Corp. throughout the proceeding, his wife, Joan, seated in the gallery behind him.

Thursday's only testimony came via videotape, with an addictions expert who treats DiBartolomeo saying he fits the profile of a pathological gambler.

DiBartolomeo needs to gamble with increasingly high stakes to be satisfied, he tried several times to stop, he chases his losses in hopes of recouping them and he lies to cover up, according to Dr. Joseph Volpicelli, a psychiatrist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Volpicelli, who is treating DiBartolomeo with medication and counseling, said the former executive is in recovery and could safely return to his job without suffering a relapse.

The hearing resumes Friday with testimony from Edward Looney, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey.