Veteran Las Vegas, Atlantic City casino host Colucci dies at 63

Friday, March 15, 2002 | 9:28 a.m.

Robert J. Colucci, a longtime Atlantic City and Las Vegas Strip casino host who developed a telemarketing system to seek out new players, died Tuesday at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center. He was 63.

Services for Colucci, who worked for the Sands hotel in the early 1990s and later at the New Frontier, will be 10 a.m. Monday at St. Joseph Husband of Mary Catholic Church. Visitation will be 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday at Palm Mortuary-Jones.

Burial of the Navy veteran will be at Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery after a noon graveside services Monday.

Colucci worked more than 20 years as a casino host and marketing executive. In Atlantic City he developed promotions and handled accommodations for hotel guests. Colucci became known for his skill at attracting new players to the casinos by utilizing a monthly telemarketing program, which he developed.

Born Aug. 3, 1938, in Camden, N.J., Colucci attended the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School in Philadelphia, where he earned a master's degree in business management.

He was a former city councilman in Hammonton, N.J.

Prior to coming to Las Vegas in 1989 Colucci was executive casino host at Harrah's Marina, Resorts International and the Golden Nugget, all in Atlantic City. From 1987 to 1989 Colucci was a senior casino marketing executive for Caesars World Properties, which at the time operated Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

In 1990 he took a casino host job at the Sands, where the Venetian now stands. Between stints at the Sands and Frontier, Colucci worked for a time share sales agency selling blocks of Las Vegas hotel rooms and gaming packages at discounted prices.

Colucci is survived by his wife, Maria Colucci, and two sons, Robert Colucci and Michael Colucci, all of Las Vegas; three daughters, Kimberly Forsman and Cristina Colucci, both of Las Vegas, and Lisa Leto of Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; and two grandchildren.