ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City has hired Terry Glebocki as its CEO after she served in the job in an interim capacity since August, officials announced Tuesday.
Glebocki has more than 30 years of financial management experience and recently also served as the casino’s chief financial officer.
“I’m so excited about this,” she said shortly before employees were notified of her promotion. “I like to think that I’m qualified for this job, whether I’m a man or a woman. But I do think I bring a different perspective to things. I like when there’s diversity in the team.”
Glebocki previously worked for Tropicana Entertainment and Trump Entertainment Resorts and was chief financial officer at Ocean’s predecessor, Revel.
Revel bled red ink in the just over two years that it was open, and never came close to turning a profit.
Glebocki started her career in accounting. Her casino jobs included internal auditing at Bally’s, serving as vice president of finance for Trump Entertainment and chief financial officer for Trump Plaza, and corporate chief financial officer for Tropicana Entertainment.
“I’m a detail-oriented person,” she said. “I look just as closely at a $1,000 expenditure as I do at a $1 million expenditure.”
Yet she says she and her management team cannot simply cut their way to profitability, focusing on increasing revenue growth.
Projects she will institute at Ocean include changes to the casino floor, designing a new high-limit slots area and a high-end Asian games area.
She also says she reads every social media post she can find from customers about the casino.
“Feedback is important to me,” she said. “If they don’t come, we’re not here.”
Glebocki says she’s ready for the challenges of her new job.
“I work hard,” she said. “Nothing’s ever been given to me; I earned it.”
Glebocki is one of two women to run an Atlantic City casino, and there have been others before her in the city. Karie Hall is vice president and general manager at Bally’s. Though she answers to a regional president, she is in charge of all operations at Bally’s.
Nationwide, female casino CEOs are still relatively rare.
Holly Gagnon is president and CEO of Seneca Gaming, which operates four casinos in New York state. Mary Elizabeth Higgins is CEO of Affinity Gaming, which operates 11 casinos in the U.S.
Diana Bennett is CEO of Paragon Gaming, which operates four casinos in Nevada and Canada, and Ann Hoff is president of MGM Resorts’ Legacy Portfolio, which includes four Las Vegas-area casinos.
Virginia McDowell, former CEO of Isle of Capri casinos in Missouri, which ran 15 casinos before being acquired by Eldorado Resorts, said several other women are running large or multiple casino properties without a CEO title. They include Eileen Moore, a regional president for Caesars Entertainment.
Several other tribal casinos are also run by women.
“We’re making strides,” McDowell said, “but it’s still a small club.”
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This story has been corrected to show that there are currently two women running casinos in Atlantic City, although one answers to a regional president.
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