Borgata accuses Ocean Casino of hiring its top marketing executives to use secret details

Atlantic City's Borgata casino filed a lawsuit Thursday in Nevada accusing Ocean Casino Resort of poaching six of its top marketing executives in an attempt to “cripple” it by using secret details about its best and most profitable customers.

Borgata says that Ocean Casino hired six marketing executives despite non-competition agreements that bar at least two of the highest-ranking ones from working for a competitor for a year after leaving, the Associated Press reports. One of the executives is said to have taken a cellphone with him from Borgata to Ocean, containing priceless information on Borgata's top customers, including their personal cellphone numbers, gambling preferences, likes and dislikes including favorite foods and beverages, how much the casino might be willing to discount large losses for them, and instances in which the casino might change the rules of some games for these players.

The Borgata continues to lead the nine-casino market. But the lawsuit paints Ocean as "indisputably Borgata’s direct and primary competitor for high-level casino customers in Atlantic City."

The former Revel casino, which reopened in 2018 under the Ocean brand, is currently owned by New York hedge fund Luxor Capital, and the casino improved its standing in the Atlantic City market. Through the first seven months of this year, it ranked sixth among the nine casinos in terms of total revenue, although Borgata still takes in three times what Ocean does.

The lawsuit focuses heavily on two former Borgata execs now working at Ocean: William Callahan and Kelly Ashman Burke. Borgata officials say Callahan was hired by Ocean in late July but retained his Borgata-owned phone with valuable details about Borgata customers — and has refused to return it as recently as Monday.

The lawsuit claims Callahan oversaw Borgata's highest-level customers, those who spent $1.5 million to $4 million per visit. Collectively, these customers were worth at least $25 million a year to the Borgata, which would use its corporate jet to fly them to events and to and from the casino. It also asserts Ocean has hired four other Borgata marketing executives as part of an effort to “cripple” Borgata's casino operation.

The lawsuit was filed in Nevada because the Borgata's parent company, MGM Resorts International, is based there. But it also asserts the hiring of the executives violates New Jersey state law regarding unfair competition.