Atlantic City’s Signature Attractions

And you thought the Trump Marina was classy: Ivanka’s pop has sold the Atlantic City casino to a group that plans to turn it into the Margaritaville casino; a KYW 1060 reports the “Maragitaville Marina Resort Casino” is “for those who are fans of the Buffet lifestyle as portrayed in his music.” Indeed! It will be the second Margaritaville hotel; another is under development in Biloxi, Miss.

That’s not all that’s going on in Lannick Siddy. The Borgata’s new $400 million tower is set to open sometime next month. Oh, sorry, not a tower:

Borgata executives resist using the term “tower” to describe The Water Club, preferring instead to call it a “signature hotel.”

Ahh, yes. Signature hotel it is. It will look so classy next to Kahunaville or whatever.

[one of these via Down the Shore with Jen]

Next, you’ll tell me Hooters only hires cute girls

Okay, you all probably know this story by now, but I’ll run with it anyway. As usual, Dan Gross has the scoop on the offical news we all saw coming for a while: The Borgata is being sued for sexual harassment. Er, I’m sorry, for “a sexual and gender-hostile environment and sex discrimination.”

And how! Although males didn’t have uniforms, female “Borgata Babes” were given outfits they had to wear during their job. If they went back and requested a larger size, they were subject to a weigh in. Official rules had female staffers getting a suspension if they gained more than seven percent of their body weight and then being fired if they failed to lose said weight.

The particulars of this suit — in addition to the aforementioned work environment — come from the two plaintiffs, Renee Gaud, 36, and Trisha Hart, 28. Gaud alleges that she told the Borgata she has hypothyroidism and eating disorders, while Hart says she was denied sick time off for illness and her boss praised her pneumonia-related weight loss.

According to Gross, the pair allege that “the only medical leave acceptable to the Borgata was time off to get breast implants, which the complaint says was encouraged by supervisors.”

Obviously, there’s no doubt that “Borgata Babes” face sex discrimination. The job title would tell you that. And the whole “get fat and we fire you” thing is so bad it’s hilarious. But can a company really be faulted for wanting to keep their roster of attractive waitresses attractive? Isn’t that good business, even if they attempted to do it in a rehensible way? I don’t know. Probably not. Eh.

Dan Gross | Ex-servers sue Borgata [DN]