Posted by: admin on Jan 28, 2003 – 10:44 AM
casinos  It was economics that pushed John Ferrucci to start working in casinos more than 25 years ago.
Gambling Magazine

“I had a master’s and seven years experience teaching and I was making $15,000 a year,” said Ferrucci, vice president and general manager of Casino Magic Biloxi. “My first year as a dealer, I made $30,000. Casinos were a real opportunity for me to move up.”

So Ferrucci, who had been nominated as the New Jersey teacher of the year and headed the New Jersey State Teacher’s Association, left chalkboards behind and headed to the felt tables of Atlantic City.

In the late 1970s, when Ferrucci left his job as a vocational business teacher to start working as a blackjack dealer at Caesars Boardwalk Regency, gambling had just come to the Garden State.

Business was wild back then.

“The casinos weren’t open 24 hours a day,” said Ferrucci, sitting back in a leather chair at Casino Magic’s Pinnacle Club, relaxing with a drink after a day’s work. “They would close at 4 a.m. during the weekday and 6 a.m. on weekends so we could clean up, then reopen at 10 a.m. At 9:30, the people would start lining up outside. You just had to open the doors and get out of their way.”

For a green dealer, Atlantic City was a challenge. But the lessons Ferrucci learned helped him succeed in the industry.

“I was dealing blackjack and I had to learn to count to 21,” he said. “It was get tough or die.”

After six months with Caesars, Ferrucci headed over to Harrah’s in Atlantic City. At the time, the company was expanding across Nevada and New Jersey, and Ferrucci climbed the company ladder.

“I started dealing at Harrah’s, then I became a floor person and then I moved up to pit boss,” he said. “I happened to be at the right place at the right time.”

Harrah’s is where Ferrucci said he really learned the casino business, handling everything from games to credit. In 1989, he had an opportunity to run the casino for the Lucayana Beach Resort in the Grand Bahamas.

“One of my bosses at Harrah’s gave me the best advice,” Ferrucci said. “He told me I had a lot of talent, but I needed to take the next step… Sometimes you have to move out of where you’re working to move up.”

Ferrucci spent four years in a casino, then decided to get back to the “real world.” A Minnesota-based casino company was recruiting managers for its properties.

At the time, Ferrucci was looking to move back to the U.S. So he joined and helped the company open gulfport in May 1993. Six months later he went over to help Biloxi open.

Back in those days, the Coast gambling market was just getting started.

“People were running around with $100 bills and they didn’t know the difference between a Big Six wheel and a slot machine,” Ferrucci said. “That’s been the biggest change, how sophisticated the market is now.”

Ferrucci worked as assistant general manager of Biloxi until November 1996, when he got his first chance to serve as a casino general manager stateside.

A group of investors had bought the bankrupt Palace Casino and brought in Ferrucci to help relaunch the East Biloxi casino.

“The opportunity was pretty intriguing,” he said. “We shut the casino down, did a marketing blitz and then re-opened.”

When Ferrucci’s management contract with the Palace expired in early 1998, he went to upstate New York to help the Akwesasne Mohawk tribe open a casino.

“Once the casino was up and running, I felt it was time to go back to Mississippi,” he said.

In early 2000, Biloxi was looking for a new general manager. Jeff Dahl had just left the Casino Row resort to become president of Beau Rivage. Ferrucci was familiar with Pinnacle Entertainment and signed on with the company.

Things have changed tremendously from the days when Ferrucci was breaking into the industry. To get gamblers, casinos have to do a lot more than just open the doors, turn on the slot machines and cut the cards. Advertising and promotion are key expenses, especially in a slow market.

“That’s the one thing that people don’t know about, how slim the profit margins are for casinos,” he said. “We had a very successful year in 2002 and we’re only going to have single-digit growth.”