Gambling Hall

Dennis Gomes, 68, co-owner of Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City and a former mob-busting Las Vegas prosecutor whose exploits inspired the movie Casino, died Friday, his son said. The Margate, N.J., resident died at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital of complications from kidney dialysis, said Aaron Gomes, vice president of operations at the casino. Dennis Gomes had developed kidney problems and was undergoing dialysis after breaking his back last year. "Whether or not it was related to his back we will never know, but he ended up having major kidney issues and was put on temporary dialysis," Aaron Gomes said.

On the casino battleground that is the Delaware River waterfront, this is what victory looks like: A school of cool blue lamps hovering over a brand-new blackjack table, surrounded by a metal sea of blinking slot machines, with the music of Smash Mouth on the sound system: "All that glitters is gold. ... " The much-debated, long-delayed SugarHouse Casino is set to open Thursday, the first gambling hall in Philadelphia. All that's left is to cut a ribbon. That reality holds joy or sadness for the people, neighborhood groups, and city organizations that have for years fought for or against the coming of the casino.

Donald J. Trump, the New York developer who on Tuesday became the sole owner of two gambling halls here, visited the Trump Casino Hotel yesterday and predicted little casino growth for the resort and a "very, very bad" time ahead for the weaker gaming companies. "I think the future of Atlantic City for the great facilities is very good," Trump said at an afternoon news conference. "I think the future of Atlantic City for the secondary facilities is catastrophic. I don't necessarily even predict that they can survive.

Archrival gambling moguls Steve Wynn and Donald Trump are eyeing the Atlantis Casino Hotel, but for very different reasons. One wants bets, the other beds. The Atlantis will be without a gaming license come Friday - one week after the New Jersey Casino Control Commission denied a casino relicensing for the first time since gambling began here in May 1978. So shrewd real estate buyers like Wynn and Trump figure they can pick up the property cheap. Atlantis president Jeanne Hood, working for months without an investment banker, reportedly wanted $120 million.

The sale of Resorts International to New York real estate magnate Donald Trump marks the end of the first chapter in the rebuilding of Atlantic City as the East Coast gambling capital of the United States. Resorts was the dominant player in the first decade of the casino era, casting its shadow over not only the gambling industry but also the city itself. Trump may be in much the same position today, but Resorts will be remembered as the company that gambled and won long before anyone else was willing to roll the dice.

At the Garden State Buffet restaurant, a line of 40 hungry gamblers snaked into the hotel lobby, waiting to be seated. Upstairs in the gambling hall, the blackjack tables were busy and low-rollers happily fed quarters into row after row of slot machines. Despite the business-as-usual atmosphere, however, employees at the Atlantis Casino Hotel could not hide their anxiety yesterday as they awaited word on when the failing gambling hall would close. "Things look very bleak," said newlywed James Vandervort, a security guard on the casino floor.

On the Strip, the corporate priests who minister in the temples of chance are waiting. The casino executives wait not for the disciples of odds seeking their reward, for they arrive in ever-growing multitudes at this former desert rest stop that is now a sprawling metropolis of 600,000. From every corner of the Earth they come, drawn by the bedazzling forest of lights that are the Strip's trees of life. Instead, the execs are waiting for Trump. Like Samuel Beckett's characters in Waiting for Godot, they seem certain that Donald Trump exists and that, if not today, then someday, he will come.

Less than a week after Bally Manufacturing Corp. vowed to keep the stylish Golden Nugget Casino/Hotel exactly the same, the corporate hierarchy has started to crumble at the "best little casino on the Boardwalk. " Since Bally purchased the rival casino on Sunday, two of Golden Nugget's top executives - its casino manager and its chief executive officer - have resigned. Boone Wayson, the chief executive officer, resigned yesterday. Those resignations came amid rumors that Charles Meyerson - a $300,000-a- year casino host who is a legend in the gaming industry for drawing the Nugget's high-roller gamblers - was considering quitting within 60 days.

The New Jersey Casino Control Commission voted yesterday to renew the gaming license of the Atlantis Casino Hotel, saying the financially struggling gambling hall appeared to be successfully fighting its way back from the brink of bankruptcy. The commission voted 4-1 to allow the Atlantis to operate in Atlantic City for another year, with several commission members praising the performance of Jeanne Hood, the new casino president. "Mrs. Hood, together with her present team, has already demonstrated her ability . . . to stop the hemorrhaging this company sustained," said Commissioner Joel R. Jacobson.

Gary Israel surveyed the sprawling facility with unabashed pride. It was a bowling center, but not just any bowling center. This was the state-of-the- art 60-lane operation that is an integral fixture of the new Showboat Hotel, Casino & Bowling Center. The bowling center is part of the reason they are calling this everyman's hotel-casino. This one's for "the people" (and that includes families). Middle America. Not just high rollers. Small wonder the Showboat was Atlantic City's No. 1 tourist attraction this week - even though, once again, a planned date for letting the public inside came and went.