Betting her customers will welcome low-stakes cards

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Kellie De Celis
Richard Stockton College
of New Jersey

During her decade-long career in Atlantic City, Kellie De Celis, 33, rose from blackjack dealer to pit manager, training and supervising workers on the casino floor. When she graduates from Stockton next year, she plans to launch The Lucky Ladies, a business that will run gambling entertainment nights for corporate events, private parties and fundraisers.

“The concept came to me because the casinos offer $1 and $5 tables,” De Celis said. “A lot of people are not playing blackjack to make money — they want to enjoy gambling, they want to play low-risk roulette. People are interested in playing for entertainment.”

The Lucky Ladies will supply everything a gaming party needs — tables, chairs, roulette wheels, blackjack tables, chips — plus licensed dealers who are multitalented, like female “dealer-tainers” who might sing, dance or juggle to enhance a lively evening of social gaming.
De Celis said the social gaming party concept already has “caught on like wildfire. My innovative idea is to provide risk-free gaming entertainment, with beautiful, friendly dealer-tainers.”

A Louisiana native double majoring in management and communications who graduates next May, De Celis sees more opportunity as an entrepreneur than casino employee.
During her years in Atlantic City, “every day when I went into work I would smile,” De Celis said. “I knew my players, and I loved working with my team.” But she expects more career satisfaction and financial reward running her own show: “I can see everything that I can do with marketing and branding — in my mind, it seems unstoppable.”

De Celis got some advice from the Small Business Development Center at Stockton, wrote a business plan, and is trying to raise startup capital of $30,000 to $50,000. And she has recruited about 15 people interested in joining The Lucky Ladies, which she hopes to launch in July 2012.

Working on the casino floor gave her valuable experience, but after a few years, “I wanted to go into management, and … without a college degree I could not move up any further in my career.” Her business courses and casino experience convinced her she has what it takes to make Lucky Ladies “the most in-demand casino night provider” in South Jersey.