ATLANTIC CITY — Mark Giannantonio’s first casino job was bringing food to gamblers at an eatery on the casino floor at Resorts Casino Hotel as a college freshman looking for pocket money.

Now he runs the casino.

An Atlantic City native and relentless booster of his hometown, Giannantonio helped lead two casinos through crises that threatened their very survival and has since become the face of the local casino industry.

Tropicana Atlantic City and Resorts, of which he is president, might very well not exist today had it not been for Giannantonio’s steady leadership and unflappability during periods when each was in danger of closing.

Giannantonio, 61, grew up on Kingston Avenue in the city’s Chelsea neighborhood. Enthralled by the beach and Boardwalk, he also went to Mass regularly at St. Michael’s and spent a lot of time with his extended family, led by his grandmother and filled out by many cousins.

Sunday evening was family dinner night at Grandma’s, with Italian delicacies overflowing the table.

He graduated from Atlantic City High School and earned a degree in economics at Stockton University, the first in his family to go to college.

It was there that he got his first job at Resorts in 1982 as a waiter at the Cafe Casino. Next was a job delivering room service orders to hotel guests.

“I was able to learn the business and save some money,” he said. “It was phenomenal, and it was great experience. I just loved every aspect of Resorts.”

After college, he worked at the Tropicana, Bally’s Grand and Trump Castle casinos, doing every job from room service supervisor to labor analyst to marketing and financial analysis — soaking in as much as he could about every aspect of the business.

He was at Tropicana in late 2007 when the New Jersey Casino Control Commission took the rarely used step of stripping the casino of its license to operate, amid poor service and filthy conditions under the tight fists of then-owner Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex Corp.

The state appointed a retired Supreme Court justice to oversee the casino as conservator, and Giannantonio was tapped to run Tropicana as president in the interim.

“My job there was simple: They tasked me to keep the train on the tracks,” Giannantonio said. “Our task was to run the property so that it could be sold.”

That involved rallying the demoralized staff, making them feel valued and noticed, and getting everyone to buy in to the concept of a team-centered effort to turn the Trop around.

Giannantonio hired back 150 workers who had been laid off and launched a major advertising campaign to restore the casino’s reputation, centered on a video of workers doing their everyday jobs.

Gary Stein, the retired justice who oversaw the Trop at the time, said soon afterward that Giannantonio did “a splendid job running this casino.”

Eventually, billionaire Carl Icahn bought Tropicana out of bankruptcy. It is currently owned by Caesars Entertainment.

Giannantonio also stepped in to help save Resorts a few years later.

In December 2009, Resorts’ then-owner Colony Capital was within hours of handing over the keys to lenders and walking away from the casino. Months later, veteran casino executive Dennis Gomes and New York real estate investor Morris Bailey bought it for $31.5 million and set about reviving the first casino to open in the United States outside of Nevada.

But Gomes died in February 2012, leaving the casino without experienced leadership. Giannantonio stepped in as president in September of that year, and once again steered the ship through choppy seas.

“Dennis was a good friend of mine; it was absolutely shocking because he was so vibrant and energetic,” Giannantonio said. “We worked together at the Tropicana, and he gave me a lot of opportunities.”

Giannantonio worked with the Mohegan tribe of Connecticut, which casino owner Morris Bailey had already brought on board to help run day-to-day operations at Resorts. That arrangement, which ended last year, allowed cross-marketing between casinos that helped build its customer base.

Giannantonio has since overseen investments in and expansions of Resorts, including the addition of the Margaritaville and LandShark restaurants, a DraftKings sportsbook, a year-round rooftop pool and, coming this summer, an expanded outdoor concert stage.

“The reality of this is there’s no secret sauce, there’s no magic,” Giannantonio said. “You have to have a great team completely dedicated to what they’re doing. If you provide that and give great service, everything will take care of itself.”

He starts most days with a big cup of coffee as he checks emails and his calendar of meetings. He usually eats lunch in the employee cafeteria, plopping down with groups of workers to chat while they eat.

And he tries to be home in Northfield by 6 p.m. to have dinner with his family, which he called “vitally important.”

He loves to travel with his wife, Sue, and two sons, and listens to music “very often and very loud.” Pink Floyd and Rush are his two favorite bands, though his oldest son got him into Dream Theater and Tool. And he still likes old-time classic rockers like Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen.

His favorite food is veal parmigiana with capellini, though he also likes Chinese and Mexican.

Favorite TV shows include “Downton Abbey,” “Peaky Blinders,” “Succession,” “Yellowstone” and “House of Cards,” and war movies are among his favorite films.

In a city and region of Philadelphia Eagles fans, Giannantonio is an unabashed fan of their archrivals, the Dallas Cowboys, inheriting the team allegiance from his father. (Giannantonio once wore Cowboys gear to an Eagles home game and lived to tell about it, but hasn’t done it recently, perhaps growing wiser with age.)

His favorite part of his job involves collaborating with his team to get things done. The most frustrating part is dealing with things over which he has no control.

Yet in his role as president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, Giannantonio is in a position to speak for the entire Atlantic City casino industry, which occasionally lands him in uncomfortable positions like defending smoking in the casinos in the face of a determined push by many workers to ban it.

He also is working to convince state lawmakers to reject proposed tax hikes on internet gambling and sports betting proposed by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.

Giannantonio has long called for increased efforts to make Atlantic City safer and cleaner, so that it can be better marketed as an attractive destination resort.

And he realizes that Atlantic City is just a few short years away from facing direct competition from casinos in New York City that will take away some of the resort’s best customers.

“We are trying our very best to reset Atlantic City and help build out a renaissance period so that for the next 10 years we’re going to see growth,” Giannantonio said. “We’re all doing a great job with entertainment and food and restaurant options. We just need to make sure we put Atlantic City back on the map so it becomes this mecca for tourism.

“My job is to figure out how do we grow this market? Forget 10%; how about 30%?” Giannantonio said.

Returning to Resorts as its president “was absolutely the best decision I ever made,” he said. “I love Atlantic City, and I’ve had plenty of opportunities to leave. But I started here, and it’s hard to believe I’m back here going on 13 years now. This place is a very special place to me.”

Contact Wayne Parry:

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wparry@pressofac.com

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