He went from school teacher to blackjack dealer to the top at South Mississippi casinos
The voice of Silver Slipper is silent.
Even those who don’t know John Ferrucci after his 30 years on the Coast probably recognize his voice.
When Silver Slipper Casino was getting ready to open in late 2006, company CEO Paul Alanis followed the model of using casino executive Jack Binion to do the commercials for Binion’s Casino in Tunica.
“When we opened up here, Paul says, ‘I want you to be my Jack Binion. I want you to be the face and the voice of Silver Slipper,’” Ferrucci recalls.
Ferrucci’s Jersey accent just added to the Silver Slipper brand.
“When I first got here, people thought it was a New Orleans accent,” he said. “That’s close enough, close enough.”
Ferrucci, who recorded all the radio spots for Silver Slipper for the next almost 20 years, delivered his last in March.
“I cannot tell you how effective that has been,” he said of the campaign. “I mean, just little kids singing the jingle. People just responded to it, like, unbelievable.”
He’s led or worked at six Coast casinos, with thousands of fellow employees he says are responsible for the success of the Coast casino industry. He welcomed top singers and comedians and put $1 million on display before giving it away. He guided a casino comeback from bankruptcy, and helped casinos survive hurricanes and navigate recessions, an oil spill and the pandemic.
It all began when he left his job as a teacher with a master’s degree and a $15,000 salary after 10 years. He doubled that, earning $30,000 his first year as a blackjack dealer in Atlantic City, and he worked his way up.
Ferrucci retires this week as general manager of Silver Slipper and chief operating officer and senior vice president at Full House Resorts, parent company of Silver Slipper, where he will continue in a consulting role.
What’s next?
The new manager is already in place at Silver Slipper.
Angi Truebner-Webb worked with Ferrucci for nine years, from 2010-2019, before being promoted to work in finance and management at two Full House sister properties in the Midwest.
She recalls when she met Ferrucci while applying for the senior financial marketing analyst job at Silver Slipper. She told him she aspired to one day have his job.
So when her CEO asked if she’d be interested in the opportunity of managing Silver Slipper upon Ferrucci’s retirement, her reply was “Absolutely not. Who wants to take a property over after John Ferrucci?”
But she did, and Truebner-Webb said she won’t try to fill Ferrucci’s shoes, but will honor his legacy. “I’m going to bring some fresh energy and some collaborative spirit and to lead this company into the future,” she said.
Silver Slipper will continue Ferrucci’s commitment to excellence, the community ties and the ties with his employees, she said, “and we’re going to make him proud.”
Jersey boy meets Mardi Gras
After a decade of working in Atlantic City for Caesars and Harrah’s in the 1980s, Ferrucci was at his fourth year at a casino in the Bahamas when he was recruited by Grand Casinos. He had to look on the map to find Gulfport, Mississippi.
“They flew me in to interview,” he said, and he arrived on a Tuesday in March.
Mardi Gras parade floats and revelers blocked his way to the casino and his interview. It didn’t stop him.
“I went back to the Bahamas, packed up and came back as the director of table games for the Grand Casinos,” he recalls.
That was 1993 and three other casinos were open on the Coast — Isle of Capri, the President and Biloxi Belle. In 1994, he was promoted to vice president of operations for Grand Biloxi Casino.
As he sits on the deck of The Blind Tiger restaurant in Biloxi, the former site where much of the Grand Biloxi operated, he recalls how the Grand Theater was on one side and the hotel tower on the other side. The second tower north of the highway is now Harrah’s Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 demolished the buildings south of Beach Boulevard.
“That was a great opportunity for me, because when I got promoted to assistant general manager here, the theater reported to me. We booked all the acts, and we got to meet all those celebrities. It was a lot of fun back in that day,” he said.
Tom Jones, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Wayne Newton, Ray Charles and so many others played Grand Theater. He posed with each of them, but said, “I don’t have a wall big enough for all the pictures.”
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His job also was to hire key people, including casino hosts. He needed 13 hosts and already had 10 of them, so he told the head host to stop bringing candidates in for interviews. An hour later he brought in Bridget. She got the job and the guy.
“We’ve been married 24 years,” he said.
Moving up and moving back
In 1997, he was hired to help bring the Palace Casino out bankruptcy and reopen the casino. The next year he went to New York to open a tribal casino, but he returned to South Mississippi in 2000.
He teamed up with Paul Alanis, president of Pinnacle Entertainment and owner of Casino Magic that Ferrucci would be selected to manage.
In early 2005, Alanis decided to buy President Casino Broadwater and move operations to Hancock County. The investors bought it on April 15 and Ferrucci worked at the President for four months, when the barge was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Silver Slipper Casino was the first in Mississippi to be built on land after the regulations changed.
Silver Slipper success
“Bridget and I stood there on the pier down in Hancock County, where the Silver Slipper was going to be born,” Ferrucci recalls. There wasn’t anyone in sight and only the sound of the wind whistling through what was left of the pier.
“Are you sure you want do this?” his wife asked.
“I think I’m sure I do, because Paul’s involved, and he’s got a good plan, and I like it. So, yeah,” he said. Twenty years later, he has risen to become the chief operating officer of Full House Resorts, a major casino company, while continuing as general manager of Silver Slipper.
The crowd poured into Silver Slipper Casino on opening day Nov. 9, 2006, according to an account in the Sun Herald. The casino put 700 people to work in Hancock County after Katrina.
“We were the Hancock County tourism business of the year for 2007. Our first year. We were thrilled,” Ferrucci said at the time.
They didn’t build a wedding chapel overlooking the water as originally planned, but they did build a hotel tower, a larger parking garage, new restaurants and an RV park on the beach.
The 2008 promotion to display and give-away $1 million still is remembered as one of the best on the Coast. A stack of $100s and $20s was secured in a clear case, with $20 bills mixed in to make it look more impressive, he said.
It was the largest amount given away by any casino to date and it wasn’t just a chance someone could win $1 million, Ferrucci said. “This is absolutely, positively going to happen.”
Friends and memories
“I’ve had a wonderful career. I’ve made a lot of friends, and now my business relationships become personal relationships,” he said.
Ferrucci is a proud native of New Jersey. Barry Regula, general manager of Hollywood Gulf Coast and Boomtown Biloxi casinos, was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Milwaukee. They met in South Mississippi and have been friends for 25 years, working together in the casino industry.
“He’s a very loyal guy, and he’s a very magnetic person,” Regula said. “People gravitate to John because of how he treats other people.”
Ferrucci has been a mentor and a role model, showing how to treat and lead people, Regula said.
“He’s been a true ambassador for the Cost all these years, and a very, very strong civic leader,” he said. “He always, whichever business he’s with, makes sure that they’re giving back to the community.”
Lucky 7-pack of Ferrucci observations
Ferrucci says he and Bridget will continue to live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where they frequently run into co-workers at grocery stores and at events. He shares some great quotes and insights in his 45 years in the casino industry. Here are seven:
To his co-workers: “I would say, first and foremost. Thank you. Their efforts made us all successful. I tell people all the time that I’m the hood ornament.” It’s the people who work with him who actually make the business go, he said.
Advice to a kid just starting out as a blackjack dealer: “Do the best job you can as a blackjack dealer, because that’s the job you were hired to do. If that person does that, someone will notice. And when they get noticed, that’s that’s how they’ll get ahead. He doesn’t have to tell anybody how good he is.”
Changes haven’t been really all that significant in the casino industry in three or four generations. Advances in technology help you to know your customers better and take care of them better.
Community involvement: “That’s been important to us from the very beginning. The old mantra is, if you don’t support your community, your community can’t support you. We’re giving money back to the community, making it stronger and better.”
Mentors: “When I first got here, it was Rob Weir. He was the general manager of the Grand Casino golf course, and he was a big help for me. The chairman and founder, Lyle Berman, probably was the most inspirational. He had vision and I was just constantly amazed by it. Paul Alanis was another one with just great personal drive, great vision, fearless and and he taught me a great deal — and I paid attention.”
Cheez Whiz: Ferrucci said had authentic Philadelphia cheesesteaks flown in from Philadelphia when the Eagles were playing in this year’s Super Bowl. Pat’s cheesesteaks. Topped with Cheez Whiz.
Top quote: “All casinos give good service. My goal is to have people who work here enjoying the experience.’‘
This story was originally published April 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
