By Rolando Larraz
               Las Vegas Tribune
   Casino Dealers that have been fighting Steve Wynn's policy to take their hard-earned tips since September 2006, got a real buster last week from MGM Mirage Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, J. Terrence Lanni.
    Las Vegas Tribune has obtained, and is in possession of, a letter that Mr. Lanni sent all the dealers at the MGM Mirage properties on January 16, 2008.
    In the letter. Mr. Lanni acknowledges that the relationship between companies and their dealers have made extensive news coverage in the past few months.
    "To eliminate any possible confusion about where we stand at MGM Mirage, I want to take this opportunity to reiterate and reconfirm the commitment I made to you in May 2007 concerning our company position on dealer toke-sharing," Lanni said in the letter.
    Mr. Lanni may not be aware that there is an initiative petition, filed by the International Union of Gaming Employees (IUGE) on January 16, to change the law to stop Wynn Resort from confiscating the dealers' tips after a judge ruled in favor of the resort. The Legislature and the Labor Department also sided with Wynn Resort.
    Coincidentally, the IUGE petition was filed the same day that Lanni's letter was mailed to the MGM Mirage resort dealers.
    On September 1, 2006, Steve Wynn changed the lifelong policy in the casino industry by taking twenty percent of the dealers' tips and confiscating them by having the security guards remove the toke boxes from the pit and carrying them out to the counting room.
    Once in the counting room, the toke boxes were opened by Wynn personnel and without a dealer representative present to verify the final count. That twenty percent  taken out of  the  dealers'

    MGM Mirage Chairman and Chief
   Executive Officer, J. Terrence Lanni
toke box final count was used to raise the salary of the pit supervisors.
    "Dealers tips are your income. The money you earn belongs to you and you alone. Our company will not implement any type of tip-sharing program at any of our resorts," Lanni continued in his letter to the MGM Mirage dealers.
    "This commitment extends to all our casinos and will be instituted as policy at City Center when it opens in 2009. You have my word!" stated Lanni in that letter.
Las Vegas is no longer the Lone Ranger of the gaming industry; states with gambling may have more sophisticated rules and laws for the casinos, but no one has come out with the process of confiscating the dealers tips to increase the floor supervisor's salary.
    "If anyone tells you otherwise, I can assure you they are either misinformed or are purposely misleading you in an effort to achieve their own agenda," Lanni asserted. The IUGE believes that if Mr. Lanni is really sincere in his statement, he should publicly throw his support behind this petition to stop Steve Wynn's abuse.