Ocean Casino Resort recently made Terry Glebocki the first female CEO of an Atlantic City casino. The former chief financial officer at the company wants to be seen as one of the driving forces that brought Ocean, formerly Revel Casino, to the forefront of the Atlantic City casino industry since the property’s relaunch last year.
In an email to NJ Online Gambling, Glebocki stated, “To turn around the property, we needed to make a lot of changes fast. I called it a top/down, bottom/up approach. We needed to grow the revenues while reducing expenses — certainly not the easiest things to do, but that’s what we did. We increased marketing offers to drive visitation, examined every expense, and changed the fixed cost structure.”
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One thing that Glebocki and her team wanted to accomplish was to get rid of the negativity that regular Atlantic City visitors had. She said, “The property had a history of being tone-deaf to most Atlantic City customers, and we’ve now overcome that.”
In a recent poll, Ocean Casino took first place in the rankings for best Atlantic City casino, best rooms, and best comps. Glebocki said, “We knew it was important to listen to our guests’ ideas and concerns. And I’m proud to say that we’ve tailored the improvements made thus far to be responsive to what our guests expressed.”
Recent numbers released by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) highlight the impressive growth of Ocean Resort, which enjoyed a 66.8% year-on-year revenue boost for November. Last year Ocean was dead last, but the revenue increase from $11.7 million to $19.5 million in November pushed the casino past Bally’s, Resorts, and Golden Nugget in the Atlantic City rankings.
Ocean took in $2.5 million from its acclaimed sportsbook in November. While that is a good number compared to other New Jersey sportsbooks in AC, it is a decrease of nearly 10% from the previous year. However, overall November gaming revenue in Atlantic City increased 48.2% from the previous November.
Glebocki has been the interim CEO at Ocean since August. She stated, “I’m proud to say we have been profitable for six months in a row — June through November. We’ve experienced double-digit, year-over-year revenue growth for the past five months. Our leadership team continues to manage expenses without compromising the overall experience.”
Glebocki has over three decades of experience in the Atlantic City casino industry. She has held the positions of the vice president of finance for Trump Entertainment as well as the chief financial officer for Tropicana and Revel Casino. Before those posts she worked at Bally’s in internal auditing.
Glebocki said, “Having spent my entire career in this town, like much of my team, we understand the competitiveness of the Atlantic City market. The team has gaming experience in other states and jurisdictions as well. This gives us a well-rounded perspective — not just of what works best in Atlantic City, but what works well for our guests overall.”
She told The Associated Press, “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 also said she would be “enhancing and adding new gaming experiences for our guests”. There are plans in the works for a remodel of the existing casino floor, a new area for high-limit slots, and a new area for high-end Asian games.
Glebocki told NJ Online Gambling, “We are in conversations with business partners interested in providing even more amenities and services that will ‘wow’ our guests, and we will continue our compelling marketing approach because we know it’s a major driver for our guests.”
Revel Casino launched in 2012 as a $2.4 billion property but went under in 2014 after two bankruptcies. After years of ownership changes and false starts, the venue reopened as Ocean Casino Resort in June 2018.