Ex casino president rebuffed in bid for early return

John Curran

Thursday, May 8, 2003 | 10:02 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- A former casino president banned from the business for lying about his compulsive gambling was dealt another setback Wednesday.

Despite impassioned pleas from his lawyer and endorsements by compulsive gambling counselors and casino executives, the state Casino Control Commission balked at letting Gary DiBartolomeo return to work in a casino hotel.

DiBartolomeo, 48, of Margate, asked for permission to work in a non-casino job -- in convention sales, food and beverage or some other hotel operations function -- but regulators said it was too early in his five-year ban to consider reinstating him.

"In my judgment, two years is too short a period of disbarment for the serious regulatory infractions that occurred in this case," commission Chair Linda Kassekert said. "Simply stated, lying to regulators is a very serious matter that cannot be tolerated."

DiBartolomeo was president of Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino but stepped down from the $362,000-a-year job after four months amid an investigation into his gambling.

A former player development executive, he got hooked on the blackjack tables and roulette games he played alongside the high rollers he was paid to woo to casinos.

He was warned by regulators to quit gambling in 1995 as a condition of his license renewal, but he violated the restriction more than 22 times, betting up to $1,500 per hand and racking up six-figure losses during visits to casinos in Nevada, Connecticut, Mississippi, the Bahamas and Monte Carlo.

Regulators cited the lies and cover-ups he engaged in to hide his activities when they revoked his license in 2001, saying it was dishonesty -- not his gambling addiction -- that made him unfit to hold a license.

On Wednesday, DiBartolomeo lawyer Lloyd Levenson pleaded with the four-member panel to give the disgraced former executive a non-credential hotel employee registration.

"He will have nothing to do with the casino unless and until some future date when you find it appropriate for him to have a position connected to the casino," Levenson said. "This is purely bread on the table. There's no ulterior motive."

DiBartolomeo hasn't gambled in 3 1/2 years, has faithfully attended Gamblers Anonymous meetings and has spoken to high school students about the perils of gambling since his license revocation, Levenson said.

Since then, he has run gambling junkets to casinos in Puerto Rico and Aruba and lived off the proceeds of a severance package and his children's college funds.

Now nearly broke, he is working selling time shares, but wants to return to the casino industry, said Levenson.

Levenson submitted letters of reference for DiBartolomeo from Park Place Entertainment Corp. Chairman Wallace Barr, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts CEO Mark Brown and Dennis Gomes, president of resort operations for Aztar Corp., which owns the Tropicana Casino Resort.

No dice, regulators said.

"The key point is that none of these individuals is ultimately responsible to the public for the protection and operation of the casino industry in New Jersey," said Deputy Attorney General Gary Ehrlich.

Alluding to DiBartolomeo's tearful description of himself at a 2000 hearing as "the David Copperfield of compulsive gambling," Ehrlich said "even the David Copperfield of compulsive gambling cannot make his past so easily vanish ... two years is simply not long enough to pronounce his rehabilitation a success or to assure public confidence in the regulatory process and casino operations."

Afterward, DiBartolomeo said he was disappointed, but vowed to continue with his recovery and apply for reinstatement again next year.

"I'm behind the eight ball now, and I'll probably have to sell my house, but I'll prove to the commissioners that I'm living proof, you can recover from this illness," he said.