Like youth, jobs'll fade

ATLANTIC CITY - When the Revel mega-casino opens in May, many of its dealers, beverage servers and other customer service workers will be young, attractive and sexy.

And a policy the casino is implementing will probably keep it that way.

Applicants are being told they will have jobs for perhaps only four years at a time, after which they will have to reapply. That means competing with younger, fresher faces - a requirement that has never been made before in the 33-year history of casino gambling in Atlantic City.

Revel says it is crucial that employees who most often come into contact with guests put the best possible face on the casino.

Jobs subject to term limits of four to six years include dealers, valets, cocktail servers, bartenders and front-desk clerks.

The casino says it will recruit for supervisory positions from among those workers. At the end of the job term, any employee who has not been promoted will have to reapply for the same job.

Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54 of Unite Here, said Revel is violating an unwritten rule that casino jobs are to be long-term employment meant to provide a decent standard of living.

"They're treating their workers like baseball players, but paying them like hot-dog vendors," McDevitt said. "These are supposed to be good, stable jobs, not indentured servitude . . . "

Looks have been an issue.

The low-cut flapper dresses that beverage servers at Resorts Casino Hotel have to wear generated three lawsuits from older women who claim they were fired for being judged insufficiently sexy. The casino denies it discriminated against anyone.