Atlantic City Casino Threatens Tubby Servers with Firing

If servers at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa tip the scales a bit too much, they have been threatened with an unpaid suspension to lose the excess pounds or face being fired, the Associated Press reported.

According to the news report, the policy will apply to anyone gaining more than 7% of their body weight; weight gain related to pregnancy or a medical condition will be exempt, casino officials said. The company will pay to put the offender through a weight-loss program during the up-to-90-day suspension.

The casino, whose edgy marketing themes and sexy accents have helped bowl over the competition since opening in July 2003, contends there’s nothing wrong with setting weight limits for its 210 costumed beverage servers – 160 servers dubbed Borgata Babes and 50 other male and female bartenders.

A Borgata vice president, Cassie Fireman, told the Associated Press that the policy clarifies existing appearance standards: that women servers should have “natural hourglass figures” and men “V-shaped torsos, broad shoulders and slim waists.” “Our costumed beverage servers are a huge part of our marketing and our branding image,” she said. “We feel it’s fair, we feel it’s legal, we feel it’s what our customers have come to expect at Borgata.”

Borgata Babes, who wear black, low-cut designer bustiers with crossing straps above the breasts, have appeared in pinup style photographs in the casino’s calendar.

Former Borgata Babe Lori Allen, 36, who resigned last month, said Borgata officials talked about weight limits long before they imposed them. “It’s going to cause girls to binge, purge, whatever,” she told the Associated Press. “It’s already causing stress.”