1,600 Jobless After Atlantic City Casino Closes

AP
Updated
Atlantic Club Closing
Wayne Parry/APDealers at the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel hug each other in the seconds after the casino shut down, early Monday, Jan. 13, 2014, in Atlantic City, N.J.



By Wayne Parry

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - At a minute past midnight, Debra Wagner was suddenly unemployed.

A housekeeper for 23 years at the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, she was one of 1,600 workers who lost their jobs early Monday when the struggling casino shut down, the victim of a glut of casinos in the northeastern U.S.

Just a few hours after a handful of remaining customers and last-shift workers counted down the casino's final five seconds, Wagner stood in line with hundreds of others at a union hall, hoping to score a $20 supermarket gift card and some help in filling out unemployment paperwork.

Advertisement