"It took me 20 years to get up to $14.17 an hour, and six months to go down to $9.51 an hour," she said. "I think it stinks. I feel like an old shoe that's being thrown away."

The union's president, Bob McDevitt, estimated 300 people currently working for Resorts make little enough to qualify for food stamps.

In New Jersey, an individual making $1,670 a month qualifies for the aid, which is called NJ SNAP, for Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. A family of four making $3,400 a month qualifies.

"When casino gaming was approved in New Jersey, it said right there in the law that these had to be good jobs, with benefits," said McDevitt, adding a casino job has traditionally been a gateway to a solid middle-class existence in Atlantic City. "If the future of Atlantic City will be $9-an-hour jobs after working here 10 to 15 years, then why are we even allowing casinos to have licenses? It's a real shift in the standard of living, and it's not going to happen on my watch."

The union criticism surprised co-owner Dennis Gomes, who bought Resorts in December with New York real estate investor Morris Bailey just as the casino — the first in the nation to open outside Nevada — was in danger of shutting down.

Gomes insists that, as a new owner, he didn't cut anyone's pay. Rather, he said, he set new starting levels commensurate with what he determined to be the market rate for new employees.

"We didn't cut anybody; that term is non-existent when it comes to us," he said. "We took over a property that was getting ready to shut down. The way I look at it, instead of demonstrating in front of us, they should be grateful we salvaged this place and put all these people to work."

Regardless of the legal technicalities, employees who continued to work at Resorts did so for less money: up to 52 percent less in some instances. Gomes said at the time the lower salaries, particularly for what he termed "legacy employees," or those who had been with Resorts for most of its 32 years, were essential to help the struggling casino stay afloat.

Resorts is spending tons of money to try to rebuild business that had abandoned the casino under previous ownership. The casino posted a $5.3 million operating loss in the first quarter of this year, but Gomes said ownership is prepared to absorb losses for a while to increase customer volume. He said he expects the casino to break even in the second half of this year.

The casino also faces three lawsuits stemming from the change in ownership: one alleging that older workers were illegally singled out for termination when the casino changed hands and two others alleging age and sex discrimination toward female cocktail servers who were let go for "violating uniform standards." Their lawyers say the women were let go after being judged insufficiently sexy in the skimpy new flapper costumes that female servers must wear.

On Wednesday morning, union workers from other casinos went to the Boardwalk in front of Resorts to support workers there and encourage them to file for food stamps.

"When I campaigned for casinos in 1976, the casinos promised that the jobs would pay good wages," said John McLaughlin, a bartender at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort. "There are people who have worked in Resorts for 10, 20, 30, even 40 years, whose pay was cut so severely that they need public assistance to pay their bills."

Chhitu Patel, who works in the room service department at the Tropicana Casino and Resort, spent his day off urging Resorts workers to file for government aid.

"These people are part of my community, and after losing almost half their wages, they need help," he said. "Resorts isn't living up to the Atlantic City standard of good wages, and they should be ashamed of what they have done to the people that have worked there for years and years."

Stewart said she was able to put a tiny bit of money into the bank while making $14.17 an hour. But during the last six months at the lower salary, "that's all almost gone."

"Going out to eat — that's completely out," she said. "Sometimes for lunch I'll eat a bag of potato chips, 'cause that's how it is now. And on days like this week when it's real, real hot, you don't put on the air conditioning because you can't afford it anymore. You just hope for a cool breeze to come and cool down the house."