ATLANTIC CITY — Another 110 Casino Control Commission employees received layoff notices as the agency shrinks and reinvents itself to adapt to changes in state law that transfer many of its duties to the Division of Gaming Enforcement, CCC officials said Monday.
Many displaced employees will find other jobs with the reinvented CCC and DGE once those
The most recent batch of layoff notices went out Friday and had reached 29 supervising and principal inspectors and 81 other employees at the CCC by Monday, spokesman Daniel Heneghan said.
Only three of the CCC’s 261 employees, all top-level staff, have been unaffected by the layoffs.
The 148 layoff notices sent last month, to 115 inspectors and 33 clerical workers, take effect March 25. The latest round will take effect April 29, two days before the transition deadline, Heneghan said.
The CCC is unsure how large its staff will be after that but will know better once its modified organizational structure has been finalized and approved by the state, Heneghan said. The trio of remaining “top-level” CCC staff continues to develop that with its board of commissioners, he said.
The DGE has said it likely will take on “a few dozen” CCC workers to accommodate its increased responsibilities assigned by state laws signed into effect Feb. 1.
Some of that has already happened, Heneghan said. He declined to provide further details on which and how many workers are headed to the DGE.
In addition to making plans to absorb some of its employees, the DGE started handling most filings once processed by the CCC a month ago, the division’s website states.
Going forward, the DGE will collect casino licensing revenue and rule on its own investigations, tasks previously handled by the CCC. The latter change, in particular, has sparked criticism about a lack of transparency.
The CCC will not issue casino employee licenses, but the new state guidelines demand those of fewer workers, requiring instead only registrations — which entail less scrutiny — in most cases issued by the DGE, the division’s website states. Casino key employees will still require a license from the CCC.
The CCC also will continue to collect parking fees but turn over the responsibility for taking casinos’ 8 percent revenue tax and licensing fees to the state Division of Taxation and the DGE, respectively.
State lawmakers initially touted the deregulation as a way to cut annual costs by as much as $15 million to $25 million. The total savings in the state budget is about $10 million.
Representatives for the state Attorney General’s Office, which oversees the DGE, and the Governor’s Office did not return calls Monday.
The five-member commission has two vacancies because Commissioner William T. Sommeling’s term expired in December and Commissioner Michael Epps resigned last month, six months before his term would have ended. Gov. Chris Christie has not selected replacements, and a bill keeping the board at that reduced level awaits a vote by state legislators. Introduced in 2009, the measure has been sponsored by Assemblymen John Amodeo and Vince Polistina, both R-Atlantic, among others, for its potential cost savings: CCC board members earn a $125,000 salary; the chair earns $141,000.
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