Trump Plaza Fined $200,000 for Removing Black Employees from Gaming Floor

New Jersey casino regulators fined Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino $200,000—at the time one of the largest civil rights penalties ever imposed on an Atlantic City casino—for systematically removing Black employees and women from craps tables to accommodate the racist demands of Robert LiButti, a mob-linked high roller. The New Jersey Casino Control Commission doubled the gaming division’s recommended fine after determining the discrimination was “gravely serious.”

The LiButti Accommodation

Robert LiButti, one of the highest-rolling gamblers in Atlantic City’s history, was known for explosive racist and misogynistic tirades at the craps tables. According to testimony from nine Trump Plaza employees, casino management repeatedly removed African American dealers and women from LiButti’s gaming area after he complained loudly about their presence using racial and gender slurs.

New Jersey state regulators documented a pattern: when LiButti arrived to gamble—often wagering hundreds of thousands of dollars—supervisors would scan the casino floor and reassign any Black employees or women working near his preferred tables. The accommodation of LiButti’s racism was systematic, not accidental, reflecting a deliberate policy decision to prioritize gambling revenue over employee civil rights.

Trump’s Defense Fails

Trump’s legal team aggressively challenged the discrimination charges, attempting to discredit the testimony of employees who filed complaints and arguing that Trump Plaza had “no formal policy” of removing African Americans and women from LiButti’s sight. This defense—that discrimination was somehow acceptable if never formalized in writing—failed to persuade regulators.

Casino Control Commission officials rejected Trump’s arguments entirely. One commissioner stated the offense was “gravely serious” enough to warrant doubling the recommended fine. The $200,000 penalty reflected not just the discrimination itself but Trump Plaza’s attempt to justify accommodating a racist gambler’s demands as somehow within acceptable business practice.

Separate Allegations from Kip Brown

Beyond the LiButti case, former Trump’s Castle employee Kip Brown provided testimony about even more pervasive discrimination: “When Donald and Ivana came to the casino, the bosses would order all the black people off the floor. It was the eighties, I was a teenager, but I remember it: they put us all in the back.”

Brown’s account suggested that the LiButti incident was not an isolated accommodation of one racist customer, but part of a broader pattern of removing Black employees from visibility when Trump himself or important guests visited the casinos.

Significance

The Trump Plaza discrimination case revealed how Trump’s business operations subordinated employee civil rights to profit and customer preferences—no matter how blatantly racist those preferences. By systematically removing Black employees and women to accommodate LiButti’s prejudices, Trump Plaza treated discrimination as an acceptable cost of doing business with high-value customers.

The case also demonstrated Trump’s standard legal strategy when caught discriminating: deny any formal policy existed (as if discrimination requires written documentation to be real), attack the credibility of employees who reported violations, and fight penalties aggressively rather than reform practices.

The $200,000 fine was substantial enough to make headlines but ultimately trivial compared to the revenue LiButti generated for Trump’s casino. This economic calculation—that discrimination penalties were simply a business cost smaller than the profit from accommodating racism—would characterize Trump’s approach to civil rights throughout his career.

The New Jersey Casino Control Commission’s action represented one of the few times Trump faced meaningful financial consequences for discrimination during his casino years, yet the fine did nothing to change the underlying culture that had produced the violations. Trump would continue operating Atlantic City casinos with similar practices until his casino empire collapsed through bankruptcy in the early 2000s.