A Peek Into the Depths of Harassment inside Gambling Casinos
And the Fight to Survive and Thrive in the Workplace
“…Allegations against Wynn include a married manicurist who said the casino billionaire forced her to have sex not long after he opened his flagship Wynn Las Vegas hotel...”
His accusers include a married manicurist who said Wynn forced her to have sex shortly after he opened his flagship Wynn Las Vegas in 2005, and whom he later paid a $7.5 million settlement, the Journal reported.”
Former employees said their awareness of Wynn’s power, combined with the knowledge that they had some of the best-paying jobs in Las Vegas added up to a feeling of dependence and intimidation when he made requests, the Journal reported.”— The Citizen Newspaper by AFP
“Wynn Resorts employees and others described a CEO who sexualized his workplace and pressured workers to perform sex acts. Mr. Wynn responded: ‘The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous.’” — Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2023
Downtown Las Vegas, circa 1980
“Hi, I’m here to see the pit manager for an audition.”
“Stand over there behind that crap table,” said a mutton-chop mustached guy, pointing to a jammed up table. He wore a cheap gray suit with a wrinkled white shirt and scuffed black tie-on shoes. “Sal will be over to talk to you when he gets back.”
“Do you know how long that might be?” I asked anxiously, thinking I might have time to hit the bar and down a shot of whiskey to calm my nerves.
“Why, you in a fuckin’ hurry?”
I clutched my resume in hand and quickly walked over and stood behind a $.25 crap game with the heaviest action was, probably the one I was auditioning on. The sweat on my upper lip started to form and I felt my arm pits dampen my crispy white tuxedo shirt as my head swiveled back and forth, watching the dice fly through the air, as the players showered the felt layout with chips coming in from everywhere.
My already frayed nerves would unravel the longer I stood there so I tried to keep my mind blank, but that wasn’t happening. I was subconsciously calculating the payoffs as the numbers hit, quickly memorizing who was throwing what colored chips in, and what bets they were making.
The supervisor sitting down, in charge of the game, must have felt me standing behind him because he turned around and glared at me. “Are you lost?”
“No sir, I’m waiting to audition for a dealing job.”
“No women in the dice pit. The 21 pit’s the other way, skirt,” he said pointing his thumb into the direction of the blackjack pit, as he stared at me, smirking.
“Sir, you’re the boxman, right?” I asked sweetly.
“What do you think I’m doing sitting here, honey?”
“Well sir,” I said sugar sweet and dripping with sarcasm, “If you’re in charge you should be watching the table, so why don’t you turn the fuck around and watch your end?”
I snapped around to storm out of the pit knowing right then I wasn’t getting hired, and slammed directly into a tall, slender man with graying hair wearing a Brooks Brother’s pinstriped suit and Bostonian shiny black wingtips. I instinctively knew he was the hiring boss and certain he’d heard the exchange. I didn’t have the nerve to look up and meet him in the eye.
“Hi, I’m Salvatore, you must be Patti. Follow me,” he said, as he walked to the podium.
Before I had a chance to say anything Sal took the resume from my hands and tossed it on the platform, and turned to look directly at me.
“You start tomorrow night at 6, don’t be late. I’m hiring you because you just proved can take care of yourself. Salty hates women.I don’t hire women because I don’t have time for their bullshit. I don’t know if you can deal but I guess we’ll find out. Don’t let these jamooks intimidate or threaten you. And don’t sleep around, it won’t get you anywhere and I’ll fire you. If you start any shit I’ll fire you. If you complain or go over my head, I’ll fire you. If you call in with man problems, I’ll fire you. See ya tomorrow night.”
I started to walk away trying to process what just happened.
“Patti, are you married?” Salvatore called, that sounded like it came out as an afterthought.
I looked Sal in the eye and didn’t respond. I held my left hand in the air, void of a ring. on my finger.
“Well, if you can’t deal I’ll make sure you can when you leave here. When you’re ready to leave downtown and go for a Strip job, you’ll either be one of the best female crap dealers coming out of downtown, or you’ll get out of the business and go back to doing what women do. I’ll make certain of it.”
Harassment, especially of the sexual nature is a dirty little secret inside the gaming business.
I’ve attended dozens of harassment seminars and courses throughout my career, especially in most recent years. They don’t matter. For the most part.
When I started in the gaming business 40 years ago there was little to no recourse for mistreatment, unless you were related to someone in power, more powerful than the one messing with you. I had to learn to skirt around, deflect, and pivot to avoid becoming a victim.
Sometimes it required fighting dirty.
For months my immediate pit boss in my first Strip job ridiculed me for being female and found ways to oust me out of the dice pit to send me to deal 21. He also started forcing me to stand on the crap game without hourly breaks, and gave the other dealers more time to eat, smoke, and use the restroom.
I got mad and snapped.
One night after work I took the miniature baseball bat I got from a Las Vegas Stars baseball team promo and bashed out his headlights in the casino employee parking lot as he was walking to his car. I didn’t care if he fired me or not. I screamed, and told him to leave me alone, or just get rid of me, but I’d had enough.
Did I mention I was the only female dealer in the dice pit on my shift at the time?
I wasn’t proud of the way I handled it, but everyone reaches a breaking point. He could have filed a complaint against me but he didn’t. There was an unspoken code of ethics both with management and underlings. You had to learn to take care of yourself and sometime it meant fighting back in unorthodox ways.
A few weeks later I had to play in a company golf tournament against him. I beat him from the ladies tees and our team won the tournament. We never reached the status of drinking buddies but did become amiable enemies. He left me alone until a few months later I found another job for more money. I left with a decent recommendation from him. I was lucky.
Human Resources is interpreted as a safe spot intended for employees to go when having problems inside the company.
In the casino business if found going to HR and filing a complaint, you oft times succeed in walking away with a scarlet letter on your forehead, and then become a target for greater harassment. Many times this forces victims to quit. In days gone by it could also get one black-balled by the good old boy network in the industry.
Southeast US, circa 2015
I was recruited to open a mega-resort while gambling was proliferating across the country when I was stalked by a shift manager, I nicknamed Wolf. It went on for weeks stretching into months. Against my better judgment, I complained to someone in a higher position instead of handling it myself, as I’d always done in the past.
Witnesses encouraged me to do so; I reluctantly went to Wolf’s supervisor and informally complained.
Wolf’s higher-up was his roommate.
I unleashed Wolf’s fury, and work became unbearable after he learned I was a rat. He always managed to find me alone either walking down an empty hallway or punching in and out at the time clock. He stalked me into the employee dining room where I tried to relax and eat my lunch in peace. He would slide into the booth and taunt me to react and then threatened to retaliate if I took it further.
I had relocated a long distance for this job. It was difficult to think about relocating again so soon, especially since I loved the area and wanted to make it my home for the next couple years.
Things came to a head on a day while I was supervising a new group of party pit dealers. He caressed her dark hair while she was dealing on a live game. I watched her cringe in fear, knowing absolutely that she would never have the courage to complain.
That did it.
It’s one thing to take harassment, but another to witness it and stand by, doing nothing.
I spent hours later that night writing out a formal complaint about what happened to her; in addition to what had been happening to me, and the following morning I presented it to HR. They didn’t take it seriously. At first.
The representative wanted to put us in a room so I could confront him and straighten out the situation as adults.
Wasn’t happening. I left the office that day knowing the complaint would be shuffled into my file, likely to come out only if someone wanted to start a paper trail to get rid of me.
I was pleasantly (and fearfully) surprised the next day when Kay, the head of HR called me to tell me she decided to investigate, promising to (confidentially) let me know one way or the other what might happen, if anything was found.
I made a deal with HR agreed to provide a timeline of what and where the offensives occurrences. Luckily I’d documented from the beginning as I was in a place outside of Las Vegas and didn’t know how to protect myself. In Nevada I had people I could call to discourage this sort of behavior if need be; but it wasn’t something I liked or even wanted to do in Louisiana.
I thought about hiring a lawyer and doing things the legal way but would have been black-balled for sure. The good old boy network is more powerful than any one entity in the entire gambling industry.
Kay pulled surveillance footage and researched going back weeks and found proof that corroborated with my written report. It was a beautiful thing.
72-hours later Wolf was fired along with three other higher-ups for blatant harassment. Kay, the case-worker didn’t try to cover it up. She took the complaint, and had the courage to investigate and run with what she found. No one outside of HR and the owners knew who or what the final reasons were for the perps’ immediate departures; but all (notably) left the area quickly and found jobs in other parts of the country.
Have times changed?
I share these examples of harassment with you in hopes that if you are (ever) in the situation, tread carefully. Document, document, document… I can’t emphasize this strongly enough. (Quietly) find witnesses who will have the courage to support you - many will not - it’s up to you to discern. Open door policy is that. Until it isn’t. You will find in many workplaces this is highly emphasized only to find out HR is the tool employers use to protect themselves against lawsuits, not the employee. Choose how you fight your battles carefully.
Inside the Wynn Corporation everyone from the lowliest of management, HR, and some of the highest key leadership positions inside the company turned a blind eye on Wynn’s blatant misconduct for many years. I wonder how many lives were destroyed due to the lack of courage to fight the abuse of power.
Changes being made, sort of….
Last week billionaire Steve Wynn agreed to pay a $10 million dollar fine to the Nevada Gaming Commission for the sexual misconduct accusation to go away. It was also stipulated that he cut all ties with his Nevada mega-resorts.
He admitted no wrong doing.
I've been harrassed at more than one job site, but by women instead of men. Although it wasn't sexual, the end result was the same: They're right and you're stupid. Harrassment in the work place is only addressed if you're one of the "In Crowd." The end result is that I'm done. I'll be 65 before the end of the year and I'm done. I studied years to become a paramedic, a police officer, and an RN. I hope that I've done some good with those hard-won skills. But I'm done. Bully away, ladies. But it won't be at me.
As usual, this is a fantastic article, Patti. Times are changing but countless people have had their lives torn apart due to harassment. Luckily things are improving but I love your advice of documenting all forms of harassment and finding people who can back up your claims.
I love how you consistently stand up for yourself. Way to go!