Jackpot baby arrives between the slots

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) – A woman playing the penny slots Saturday morning left the Resorts Atlantic City casino with her own little jackpot – a new baby boy.

Eight-months pregnant Nyree Thompson, 32, went into labor on the casino floor about 9:30 a.m.

Thompson said she mistook labor pains for gas at first, but after going to the restroom told a security guard that she might be giving birth.

Thompson said the guard thought she was joking. Then her water broke.

“A guard came over and said, ‘Don’t push,”‘ Thompson said. “I said, ‘Forget you, this baby is coming right now!”‘

Minutes later, a boy weighing less than 5 pounds was born. Thompson named him Qualeem.

Four security guards helped Thompson deliver the baby, wrapping the child in a jacket until paramedics arrived at about 9:40 a.m., said Steve Callender, vice president of operations at Resorts.

Despite being premature, Qualeem was doing fine.

Callender, who has worked at Resorts since it opened in 1978, said the birth was a first for the casino as far as he knew. “We’ve had people die here,” he said, “but we’ve never had people born here.”