It was quickly apparent that the building would be finished long before an investigation would be completed and a licensing hearing held. Fusco, who became the special counsel for licensing.īy the time the Commission got started, work was well underway to renovate the old Chalfonte-Haddon Hall to convert it to Resorts International Hotel Casino and pressure was mounting to get the first casino licensed and open. Benjamin Cohen, who became the first general counsel, and Joseph A. To help do that, Lordi brought with him two attorneys who were officially hired at the Commission’s first meeting – R. Their first task was to set up the office and decide how to structure an agency to regulate an industry that was brand new to the state.

Corsey who had been active in various charitable and government positions in Deptford Township. Merck of Mendham, a scion of the family that created Merck Pharmaceuticals and Alice B. He was joined by part-time commissioners Kenneth MacDonald, a Haddonfield car dealer Red Bank attorney Prospero DeBona Albert W. Byrne named Essex County Prosecutor Joseph P. It was a humble beginning for an agency that would grow to regulate a multi-billion dollar industry. When the Casino Control Commission was created in 1977, it checked into the Inn of Trenton and set up shop in two rooms.

A Brief History of the Casino Control Commission

Casino nomination 1995