Atlantic City, N.J. (AP) – Al Callejas stood at the foul line ready to attempt a free throw worth more than $10,000 on Saturday.
As the son of a basketball coach, he spent a lifetime preparing for the pressure.
It didn’t even bother him that he was in the Signature Room of Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa and not a gym.
Callejas, 37, made the shot to win Borgata’s Free Throw Shooting Challenge – which was billed as the country’s first skill-based casino contest. Callejas shouted “Got it” as the ball dropped through the net. A total of 1,022 people paid $20 each to enter the contest. Callejas won $10,220.
“I never win (in the casino),” Callejas told The Press of Atlantic City (http://bit.ly/1MXaMOZ). “This is the perfect setting for me.”
Callejas, who lives in Archbald, Pennsylvania, played NCAA Division III basketball at the University of Scranton. His father, also named Al, is the coach of Holy Cross High School in Dunmore, Pennsylvania.
“I’m a coach’s son,” Callejas said. “That’s the bottom line. I’ve had a ball in my hand since I was 3 years old.”
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement announced in October that casinos could conduct skill-based or social games. The idea was to bring new gamblers to Atlantic City.
Saturday’s free-throw shooting contest did just that. The casino expected 750 people to show up. The competition began at 9 a.m., and the line to enter at that point was 50 yards long.
The event drew people who would not have normally been in Atlantic City or at Borgata on Saturday. One of those was Pat Devaney, who played basketball for St. Augustine Prep in 2002 and now lives in jersey City.
“This is awesome,” said Devaney, 30. “It brings more people to Atlantic City. This is for people who don’t gamble. It’s really more skill.”
The event created a buzz throughout the casino, said Joe Lupo, Borgata’s senior vice president of operations.
“This brings a different (younger) demographic,” Lupo said.
Lupo said Borgata will “100 percent” hold future skill-based games, but he didn’t specify what the casino had in mind.
Although the casino didn’t directly profit much from the event, many of the participants spent the day gambling, drinking and eating at the casino’s restaurants.
