It supposedly was a $108 million theft of one of the most valuable trade secrets in the gaming industry: a confidential list of more than 20,000 top gamblers at Tropicana Casino and Resort.
New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram called it nothing short of "corporate espionage" when she announced the charges last year against three casino employees involved in the alleged plot.
But the case ended quietly last month. The defendants were placed in a pre-trial intervention program that ended in an unusually quick two weeks and wiped their records clean, officials said Thursday.
"I thought it was an improvident indictment, meaning one that should have not been brought in the first place," said Edwin J. Jacobs Jr., an Atlantic City defense attorney.
MEC Pennsylvania Racing Services, the company that operates the racing side of The Meadows Racetrack & Casino in Washington County, has filed for bankruptcy protection.
Neither racing nor slots gambling will be interrupted, a casino spokesman said.
"It's business as usual," said David La Torre.
MEC filed its initial Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition last week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Delaware, along with a list of creditors 230 pages long.
Case over as soon as it started.... 
June 27, 2009 at 1:27 AM
