Memorial Day Weekend Kicks off With a Toast to Prohibition in Atlantic City

Resorts Casino and Hotel, Atlantic City's oldest casino, has rebranded itself as a lavish Prohibition-era speakeasy, no doubt inspired by the popularity of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, which is set in Atlantic City at the dawn of Prohibition.

The rebranding officially launched the Friday of Memorial Day weekend with a ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by Joe Piscopo of Saturday Night Live. Employees debuted their 1920s-themed costumes - cocktail waitresses in scant flapper outfits were the standouts. It's not only the staff who have been given a makeover: 480 hotel rooms in the Ocean Tower have been given an Art-Deco style redesign.

It's very classic, very much like the 1920s, Resorts spokeswoman Courtney Birmingham told Press of Atlantic City of the remodeled rooms. There's a lot of big furniture. The rooms have a very rich, almost ornate feeling.

A gay nightclub called, aptly, Prohibition, opened this month in the casino. Atlantic City has plenty of world-class amenities, but no full-scale, casino-housed gay nightclub and now Resorts will fill that void with Prohibition, said Joel Ballesteros, Resorts Casino Hotel's newly appointed Director of LGBT Marketing told Press of Atlantic City. Resorts is going to be the place for fun, excitement and a one-of-a-kind energy that will attract people of all lifestyles, and now we have the amenities that can cater to everyone.

Prohibition is open Thursday through Sunday from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m, and is a pre- and post-show stop for guests with tickets to Believe - Divas In A Man's World, Resorts' new celebrity and female impersonators show.

The rebranding of the casino follows its $31.5 million sale six months ago to gaming executive Dennis Gomes and New York real estate magnate Morris Bailey. Gomes had previously been chief law enforcement officer for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, and has said that he was the inspiration for a character in the 1995 Martin Scorsese film Casino.