A former Ocean Casino Resort’s executive has rolled out claims that he got fired by the Atlantic City casino resort as an act of revenge for her raising concerns that a falsified document was filed by the gambling operator with New Jersey’s gaming division. According to a whistleblower lawsuit that was filed on September 22nd, the director of the state agency suggested to the operator to part ways with her.
In a complaint, the ex-senior vice president of the Ocean Casino in Atlantic City, Loretta Pickus, also shared that she faced discrimination based on her gender and was told she should have not been so harsh at the time when she raised her complaint. A copy of the complaint before it was officially filed in the Superior Court was obtained by the USA TODAY Network Atlantic Group.
Ms. Pickus said in an interview for the news hub it was disappointing that women in the gambling industry were still facing ingrained prejudice and sexism.
Loretta Pickus served as a casino executive for a long time, spending over 20 years working for the casino empire of President Donald Trump. In 2008 he represented Ivanka Trump at the time she was awaiting the approval of state authorities to join the Trump Entertainment Resorts’ board. Then, in 2013, Ms. Pickus became part of Revel Casino as an executive at the time it prepared to be sold after its bankruptcy and remained with the gambling venue through the following ownership succession until was renamed Ocean Casino Resort.
Ocean Casino Failed to Comply with Requirements Regarding the Surveillance Director’s Approintment
The lawsuit allegations unveiled by the former casino resort executive are based on a disagreement regarding state regulation and whether the individual named director of surveillance by Ocean Casino in 2019 was appointed on a permanent or temporary basis.
If the gambling operator names someone temporary surveillance director, the existing law requires the casino to find someone to take over the job on a permanent basis in a period of four months. The complaint said that Mark Evans was appointed at the position of surveillance director in January 2019 by the audit committee of the Ocean Casino. Half a year later, in June 2019, the casino received information, according to which staffing deficiencies occurred in the department led by Mr. Evans.
The casino launched an internal probe and found that its performance suffered something called suspected deficiencies. Then, according to the complaint, a new surveillance director was hired by the audit committee of the Ocean Casino Resort after the findings emerged.
Then, at the next meeting of the casino’s audit committee that took place in July 2019, one of the members shared he was unwilling to see a record reflecting Mr. Evans’ hiring and demolition because there would be less liability for the company in case it had been identified only as an appointment on a temporary basis. As a result, the company submitted some documents to the New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement that falsely implied that the audit committee was not consulted by the casino’s management in January regarding the appointment of Mr. Evans and he took over the position on a temporary basis.
According to the lawsuit, Ms. Pickus complained to Terry Glebocki, the chief executive officer of the casino, who recommended her to use alternate language to correct the minutes. She did what she had been told but her proposal to correct what she considered misleading and false minutes was rejected by the committee.
Ms. Pickus Claims She Was Dismissed as Form of Revenge
An investigation by the gaming enforcement division commenced in August, with Ms. Pickus providing the January meeting minutes to the agency, with the documents showing Mr. Evans was appointed at the position of surveillance director. Cory Morowitz, chairman of the Audit Committee chairman, and the committee member Fred DeVesa explained in emails they had not read the minutes from the January meeting before the ones from the meeting in July were submitted.
According to the complaint, Mr. Morowitz had also described their relationship with Ms. Pickus as a “toxic” one.
The director of the gaming and enforcement department, David Rebuck, approached the gambling operator in November regarding the compliance issues. At the time Ms. Pickus shared with the casino leadership that she was concerned that she would be targeted for her previous actions.
She was also cut out of a meeting with the company’s senior executives. At the time, Ms. Pickus was the only member left of the previous casino venue’s management. According to the complaint filed by her, she faced accusations that Rebuck’s agency had encountered some problems while dealing with her during the bankruptcy of the Revel and the casino company should have part ways with her.
She was fired in January 2020, with the gambling operator telling her that the discharge was because of the comments made by her at the meeting of the audit committee that took place a few days earlier. At that meeting, she once again asked to have the meetings from the July 2019 meeting corrected.
