CasiNotes: With 'dealertainers,' Trump Plaza aims to draw youthful set

ONCE UPON a time, Trump Plaza was a jewel in the crown of the East Coast's gambling monopoly.

In the late 1980s, the midtown gaming hall was, for lack of a better description, the Borgata of its day. Such was its prestige that cartoonist Garry Trudeau chose it as the location for a series of "Doonesbury" cartoons that imagined a comeback concert by an in-hiding-for-a-decade Elvis Presley.

It was also the casino that sponsored Mike Tyson's championship boxing matches at what was then Convention Hall. The prefight party before the Tyson-Michael Spinks bout of June 1988 remains the most star-studded soiree in casino-era history - guests included Jack Nicholson, Paul Simon, Warren Beatty; Madonna and then-hubby Sean Penn, and Democratic presidential primary candidate Jesse Jackson, who was accompanied by a phalanx of Secret Service agents, several network news crews and Oprah Winfrey.

Those days are long gone for the Plaza and it's pretty safe to say they are not coming back any time soon. But its new general manager, Eddie Llambias, believes the Plaza has plenty to offer, especially to those who were children during the casino's golden age.

First of all, noted Llambias (pronounced Lam-BEE-as), the casino has valuable assets, physical and otherwise. In the accent of his native London, he said that when he arrived a few months ago, he found the Plaza "a bit dated but nevertheless well-maintained and clean." More importantly, he added, are the human attributes on both sides of the gaming tables and slot machines.

"It has an abundance of immensely loyal customers. And I saw a work force that [collectively] had been here for more years than I ever expected to find. That's very unusual in the markets I've worked in." Llambias' resume includes casino-executive jobs in Las Vegas, Biloxi, Miss., and, most recently, Freeport, Bahamas.

Llambias has turned his attention toward creating a new excitement at Trump Plaza. By the way, this is pretty much a Trump property in name only these days; "The Donald" owns but 10 percent of corporate parent Trump Entertainment Resorts and has no official input into the company's day-to-day operations.

Because Llambias is working on a proverbial shoestring, there are no blockbuster entertainment bookings or celebrity-chef eateries on the horizon. But he does have a few ideas he's ready to roll out that could make a significant difference in his property's bottom line.