Vol. 4, No. 5, May 2007
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Casino Accents
Former casino employee brightens up hotel and casino areas
Cynthia Cortopassi knew her altruistic vision would lead somewhere. She didn’t know it would come full circle.
The Toronto native, who moved to the Atlantic City area in 1967, helped the casino business before it even existed. Cortopassi donated time to fund-raisers aimed at gaming’s passage in the 1970s. Once gaming was legalized, she worked in casino baccarat, blackjack, roulette, cocktail service and scheduling jobs until the mid 1980s. The Egg Harbor Township resident now relates to the multibillion-dollar industry as a freelance entrepreneur.
Cortopassi became an elite designer, obtained worldwide clients and formed T.S. Creations, a design company. She recently set up 42 high-roller suites at Resorts, the birthplace of her gaming career. Cortopassi accented 27 hallways for the Rendezvous Tower, served on numerous casino projects and remains committed to a business that grew up around her.
Her professional calling emerged slowly. It was a distant notion during the early days of Atlantic City gaming. Cortopassi volunteered to schedule day-shift waitresses, bartenders and busboys at Resorts, before shifting to waitress duties herself.
Regulations ultimately forbade her from working both as a manager and employee, so she gained table-games certification. The process produced a steady career advance.
But an artistic fuse smoldered. Cortopassi hoped to assemble paintings, mirrors, murals, fabrics and themed Jacuzzis the way a manager would juggle a lineup of stars. The passion needed an outlet.
“I kept trying to leave and go to school, but people would not offer a leave of absence even through the summer,” she indicates. “I finally convinced them it was time for me to sink or swim. Finally, they said if you ever need a job, come back.”
Cortopassi would, but as a company owner. She first attended the Sheffield Interior Design School in Manhattan and launched a new career phase. Her work now appears in homes, restaurants, clubs, malls, hotels and casinos. It is showcased in magazines. Cynthia worked on a 2,800-foot cabana, one of the country’s largest, then helped design and decorate a 118-foot tunnel under a home.
The first casino account occurred by chance. Cynthia escorted visiting relatives into Caesars and launched a conversation with a manager while they played. The manager asked her to critique the baccarat pit, and chit-chat became cha-ching. The conversation led to a design job, in which she estimates saving the property $100,000. Her accounts grew from there.
Casino design success means knowing how different areas motivate customers. Hotel room décor, for example, radiates a different message than the lobby.
“You have to know what people need,” Cortopassi says. “What does a hotel want for its player performance? The rugs have to be busy, create energy, create excitement. Yes, the rooms are comfortable, customers are enjoying them, but they can’t be too relaxing. Where you do want people to be relaxed is the front desk. It’s not a happy place by nature. The customer can’t wait to get there, he’s wired from travel, he wants to get in and out.
“That’s a good place for a water display. It’s tranquil. It’s a neutralizer. Studies have proven that certain things like this in the lobbies really calm the guest down. They detoxify the guests from the stress.”
The process complies with feng shui, a soothing dynamic that plays to the psychology of most people, including gamblers.
Cynthia’s design knowledge appears endless, as does her energy. She maintains an insatiable drive for elegance. Her business centers on bringing a person’s environment into balance, harmony and comfort.
Top designers embrace people’s tastes, drives and dreams. While they deal in lucrative arenas, their happiness comes in creating magic.
Cynthia Cortopassi, by that standard, is quite happy.
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