By JASON GEORGE

Published: October 3, 2004

TLANTIC CITY, Oct. 2 - For Dolores Del Sorda, Saturday was supposed to be the day that she and her four adult daughters won the jackpot at Caesars Atlantic City. Instead, they packed their car for a wet drive back to Pennsylvania.

"We're leaving," Mrs. Del Sorda, 75, said on Saturday afternoon, a day after more than 10,000 employees at 7 of the city's 12 casino hotels walked off the job. "They guaranteed me that everything was going to be fine, but it's not," she said. Take the food, for instance. They had reservations on Friday night for a pricey casino restaurant that ended up being closed. Instead, they had to settle - unhappily - for seats at a buffet.

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"We don't want to eat our meals in a glorified cafeteria," Renee Del Sorda, one of the daughters, said.

Snaking through a similar buffet line at Harrah's Atlantic City was not a problem for Gary and Denise Borowski. What bothered them were the plastic plates and utensils being used because of absent dishwashers. "When you're paying $150 a night, this is ridiculous," said Ms. Borowski, who lives in Holly, Mich.

With most restaurant workers, housekeeping employees, porters and parking valets on strike, casinos have either filled the vacancies with management or nonunion workers or just curtailed services.

Members of Local 54 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union from seven casinos went on strike on Friday, about two weeks after their contract expired. Union negotiators are seeking a three-year contract that retains health benefits and restricts the use of nonunion workers in the casino hotels and their leased restaurants, as well as other guarantees. The casinos are offering a five-year contract and contend that they have no control over the use of nonunion workers in restaurants they do not own.

Besides Caesars and Harrah's, workers are also on strike at Bally's Atlantic City, the Showboat Atlantic City, the Atlantic City Hilton, Resorts Atlantic City and the Tropicana Casino and Resort. The three Trump properties and the Sands Casino Hotel reached a tentative agreement on Thursday night. The Borgata signed its contract with the union last year.

Regular Harrah's patrons did a double take this weekend at seeing Marlene Reyes, the manager who usually handles their loyalty perks accounts, handling trays of bacon and eggs as a line server at the Fantasea Reef Buffet. Leaving the buffet Saturday afternoon, Ms. Reyes said that while the circumstances were unfortunate, she enjoyed getting to chat more than usual with guests.

While the union held a three-day strike in 1999, both sides have refused to speculate how long they think this one will last. But with no negotiations on Saturday - and none planned the coming week - there was fear that the casinos and the union could be at loggerheads for some time.

"We'd like nothing more than for our employees to come back to work," said Trish Gilbert, vice president of marketing at Resorts. "We feel the offer we made was a very fair offer, but unfortunately we are still at an impasse."