Welcome to the first edition of the Gambling Giants Podcast. Our guests today may not be recognizable by most in the gaming business, but they both played a large part in the beginnings of the regulatory process in New Jersey, which was the first state to legalize gaming in the United States outside of Nevada. Joe Fusco was the second employee of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, brought on by the first chairman of the board, Joe Lordi. Lordi was the prosecutor in Essex County and Fusco was his deputy. John Donnelly was an associate in the Sterns & Weinroth law firm that featured Joel Stearns, widely acknowledged the father of gaming law in the state, and represented the first New Jersey casino, Resorts International. Both Fusco and Donnelly faced off against each other many times in those early years and tell a selection of stories rarely heard outside of the regulatory circles in the state. They joined Gambling Giants host Roger Gros at the Sirens Bar & Grill at Kammerman’s Marina in Atlantic City with several casinos looming in the background in September 2026.
