Casino Connection Atlantic City

A Slot Sensibility

Former AC slot guru evaluates the New York racing parlors

by Dave Bontempo

Tony Celona savors a rich, rewarding career. Rung by rung, the Hammonton native etched a blue-collar path to gaming distinction. It was a non-traditional journey. Celona was raised in a family business and opted for early professionalism over college. He entered the casino workplace at an advanced age and pounded a deliberate path to a strong career. The Atlantic City gaming veteran and self-starting entrepreneur brings yet another jurisdiction into the gaming age this fall. Celona, who sparked slot-operation success at Trump and Foxwoods over the past two decades, serves as vice president of video lottery gaming and marketing for Yonkers Raceway. Celona cavorts between his Atlantic County home and Northern New Jersey, guiding a harness-racing facility toward its fall gaming debut. Backed by the Rooney family, the driving force behind ownership of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Celona directs the newest gaming-racing exacta. Machine revenue figures to be extensive and 10 percent of it will aid Yonkers’ race operations. “We will have what I believe to be largest video gaming operation in the world,” Celona says. “There are 5,500 machines in a $200 million facility, with an approval to go to 7,500 machines. We should do Foxwoods-type numbers here, even though we shouldn’t affect Foxwoods or Atlantic City revenues. We’re excited. We’re projecting about 30,000 people a day attending our facility. Celona’s gaming niche occurred indirectly. He obtained customer-service tips by working in a family gas-station business as a teenager. Celona later worked 16 years at Whitehall Labs, serving as maintenance mechanic, union chief steward and vice president of the credit union. The seasoning helped when he changed careers. Celona became a rare middle-age gaming entry and one of the few choosing an eventual 24-hour business to reduce stress. “I was married, with two kids and had blood pressure going through the roof,” Celona recalls. “I was making $55,000 a year and dropped out. I never wanted to wear another white shirt and tie in my life. I just wanted to work 40 hours a week and go home. So I took an entry-level position as a slot technician at Harrah’s making $17,000.” Gulp. At age 39, with a family to support, he took a $38,000 pay cut. And it worked. He became an assistant, lead and then chief slot technician. Celona then moved to Trump Plaza, crossing into administration as an assistant slot manager. The position required a rare blend of technical expertise and a sense for numbers. Nine years after starting at Harrah’s, Celona was vice president of slot operations at Taj Mahal. Each advance forced Celona to grow into the role. “I never took a casino job that I thought I was totally qualified for,” Celona says. “Every promotion drove me back to the books. It was important to learn as much about the position as could be known, to understand the nuances. I almost always felt going in that I was inadequate, but I would work my buns off to reach a level that I believed was above the standard of the position.” Under Celona’s leadership, Taj Mahal set Atlantic City’s slot revenue production standard. Celona served there until the mid-1990s, when his mother took sick and prompted a career pause. He cared for her until she passed away, then helped Penn National’s Peter Carlino launch the innovative concept of saving racetracks with gaming revenue. Charles Town, in West Virginia, became the pioneer model. Several years later, revenue from racetracks helped Penn National became a gaming powerhouse. Celona stayed with Carlino’s project until the casino opened, then helped with the opening of the Ritz Carlton in Puerto Rico. The slot world resurfaced in 1998. Celona became vice president of slot operations at Foxwoods until this project arrived in 2004. Celona attributes two learning curves to his development. One came in childhood. “Growing up in the family business showed you that it’s ‘yes sir, no sir, the customer is always right,’” Celona says. “It teaches you about customers. I was always what the college graduates would consider a street-wise punk, the guy who in school they thought would never amount to much. Looking back, I wish I had gone to college. I still tell people they should go, but I worked around it. You could call this a case of grease monkey makes good,” he adds, laughing. The second area was Atlantic City. It awarded him a different kind of diploma. “Working with the Trump organization provided an education I couldn’t buy in any college in the world,” Celona says. “The competitive ethic of people in the business in Atlantic City, versus Las Vegas, is two totally different things. The East Coast was vicious in competition. In Atlantic City, I certainly learned how to compete.”

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