Wee-hours opening planned at newest AC casino resort

John Curran

Wednesday, July 2, 2003 | 9:31 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Odds are, you'll have to get up pretty early to be there when the first dice roll at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.

New Jersey's first new casino hotel in 13 years is expected to open at 3 a.m. Thursday, betting that a wee-hours start time will limit the crush of eager gamblers.

"It's going to be the morning of July 3, we just haven't decided the time," said Rob Stillwell, spokesman for Boyd Gaming Corp., the casino's operator. "We'll know come tomorrow. It's a minute-by-minute thing."

Regulators have been told to plan for a 3 a.m. opening of the 2,002-room casino-hotel, which is located in the city's marina district, near Trump Marina and Harrah's Atlantic City.

On Wednesday, some of the casino's 5,000 employees were undergoing last-minute uniform fitting adjustments while others were participating in system tests or eating test meals in some of the $1 billion casino's 11 restaurants.

Boyd Gaming Chairman William S. Boyd, meanwhile, was in New York to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

The casino-hotel, a joint venture of MGM MIRAGE and Boyd Gaming Corp., will be the first new property in Atlantic City since Trump Taj Mahal opened its doors in 1990.

State regulators were also scrambling to be ready for the opening, which was scheduled to occur in stages over two days.

Media and dignitaries were to be given tours beginning Wednesday, while the public opening and other events were planned Thursday.

"We have approximately 45 people directly involved in the opening, and they are working 24 hours a day, watching the various functions," said Kerry Hand, spokeswoman for the state Division of Gaming Enforcement.

The casino held live tests Thursday and Saturday -- for invited guests only -- and regulators were still analyzing data from them, Hand said.

But actual openings can be extremely difficult for a casino, between traffic jams, lines of gamblers waiting at the door, opportunistic cheats and superstitious gamblers who believe slot machines are looser in a new casino.

"Openings are hell, plain and simple," said Adam Fine, editor-in-chief of Casino Player magazine, a consumer publication.

"They are among the most difficult experiences that any executive team can be put through. No one knows exactly what's going to happen. You're dealing with question marks everywhere. You can be 100 percent confident, and then the first glitch sets off a chain reaction that leads to others," said Fine.

Boyd Gaming officials may know that as well as anybody.

Last year, when they debuted slot machines at Delta Downs racetrack, in Vinton, La., overwhelming crowds led to internal controls problems, including payment of slot jackpots by unauthorized employees.

Nine days later, regulators closed Delta Downs -- for 18 hours.

Card cheats and other scammers are also a concern, according to Capt. David Grusemeyer, head of the New Jersey State Police casino bureau.

"There's always the cheats that want to test it out," said Grusemeyer.

State police have participated in training sessions for Borgata security guards, giving instruction on prosecution of underage gamblers -- the legal age is 21 -- prostitutes and cheaters, he said.

He said Borgata was well prepared for the opening. Borgata officials believe they are, too.

"You're talking about an extremely large operation, with 5,000 employees," said Stillwell. "There's going to be some i's that need to be dotted and t's that need to be crossed. But when we open, it'll be 100 percent complete."