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Wynn takes on
conventional wisdom -- again
BY MICHAEL GREEN
Sept. 11, 2006
If any Las Vegan ever pushed the envelope more than Steve
Wynn, it would be a surprise. He turned the downtown
Golden Nugget into the equivalent of a Strip resort. He
built The Mirage when Las Vegas seemed dormant and helped
trigger a boom. He put Siegfried & Roy in his main
showroom, charged high prices to see them and changed how
the Strip presented entertainment.
Now he's focused on dealers and their tips, creating
controversy and forcing rethinking -- as usual.
As of Sept. 1, Wynn Las Vegas dealers had to start pooling
their tips not only with one another, but with their
supervisors as well. Dealers are upset: this could cost
them an estimated $10,000 a year. Floorpersons and pit
bosses could make up to 50 percent more annually.
Attorneys say the plan is legal.
While they disclaim such intentions now, other gaming
companies may follow suit. Since their tips put some of
them into the six figures, Wynn Las Vegas dealers are
unlikely to leave en masse. Whether dealers elsewhere
would fight it may not be at issue; the question is
whether they can.
NO UNION
The main problem for unhappy dealers is that they have no
leverage -- meaning no union. Culinary workers who receive
tips probably will never face this issue because they have
a successful union.
Several have tried to form dealers unions. In the late
1950s, Tom Hanley made an attempt. In his oral history
(for which I interviewed him), longtime attorney Ralph
Denton recalled Hanley trying to meet with gubernatorial
candidate Grant Sawyer in 1958 and handling it himself.
"Tom's explaining how they need the union, how unfair
management is: They walk into a pit and just fire
everybody. That's terrible! We get to talking more,"
Denton said. "His beef wasn't that the house was stealing
money from the public, it was that they weren't cutting it
up with him fairly. He wanted a share of what they stole.
He didn't mind them being a thief, he just wanted his
share." Later, Hanley participated in the murder of
Culinary leader Al Bramlet, telling authorities that
Bramlet hadn't paid him for bombing anti-union
restaurants.
Less colorful (thankfully) organizers since have tried and
failed to organize dealers. When the IRS began taxing
tips, the chances looked better, but the effort subsided.
One reason is that casinos more strongly opposed
unionizing dealers than the other workers with whom the
Culinary has been so successful. Some dealers were
"crossroaders," meaning they moved from property to
property, stealing until they were caught and then moving
on.
POLICING VIA VIOLENCE
A union protects employees, but casino executives were
concerned about how the house and its reputation would
suffer if a dealer known to be cheating could stay on the
payroll. Without a union, some operators merely
discouraged crooked dealers from coming back. Baseball
bats across your knuckles can be discouraging.
A dealers' fate varies from place to place. If you deal
baccarat at the Bellagio, your tips are higher than they
are for those dealing "21" at the Poker Palace. Organizing
dealers making such disparate tips is tough. Never mind
that you're lucky to top out at $8 an hour by the time
your career ends.
My father spent 30 years dealing at the Stardust and then
the Showboat. He has warm memories of Frank Rosenthal --
Robert DeNiro played the ersatz version in "Casino" --
firing dealers simply because previous Stardust executives
hired them. He shared some of those memories with my CCSN
colleague Lee Barnes, who wrote a wonderful book, Dummy Up
and Deal, about the culture of dealing.
In that culture, dealers who got along with floormen were
rare. Floormen are supposed to make sure the games run
well and honestly and that dealers aren't "hustling" for
tips. If floormen get a cut, will those at Wynn Las Vegas
do the hustle? Whatever the cause for concern, Wynn has
taken on conventional wisdom before and triumphed. What
remains to be seen here is whether the dealers are the
losers.
Michael Green is a history professor at
the Community College of Southern Nevada and has written
extensively about Southern Nevada. He is co-author of "Las
Vegas: A Centennial History."
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