Mario C. Formica, Commissioner

Mario C. Formica was appointed as a commissioner by Governor Phil Murphy and was confirmed by the Senate on June 30, 2025. He was sworn into office on August 4, 2025. Formica brings to the Commission his vast experience as a litigator as well as over 20 years of first-hand knowledge from his prior employment in casino gaming operations.

Prior to joining the Commission, Formica enjoyed a decades-long career as a prosecuting attorney in Atlantic County. He served as Chief Assistant Prosecutor, then Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor, and finally as the Prosecutor’s Chief Counsel. He has been designated as a Certified Criminal Trial Attorney by the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Formica was born and raised in Atlantic City and is a graduate of Holy Spirit High School in Absecon, NJ. Following high school, he entered the casino industry in 1979 as a craps dealer, advancing to the position of table games supervisor. While working full-time, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, Magna Cum Laude, from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (now Stockton University) and his Juris Doctor degree, with honors, from Rutgers University School of Law-Camden.

Formica is a certified classroom police instructor, and has educated hundreds of state and municipal law enforcement officers. He has also been certified by the New Jersey Supreme Court as a continuing legal education instructor, and he has taught constitutional law as an adjunct professor of criminal justice at Stockton University.