InBusiness Las Vegas editor Jeff Simpson’s latest column is hardly better than Wynn propaganda, alas. Seems that Wynn is no longer content to trot out the urban legend of the $90,000-per-year dealer (a creature who doth dwell amongst unicorns, centaurs, gryphons and minotaurs, from what I’ve gleaned).
Now, Wynn accuses, his dealers of making "a bit more than $100,000 per year." If you really think somebody dealing blackjack on the graveyard shift is pulling down 100 large or more, lemme tell you about this bridge in Brooklyn that I’m selling — dirt cheap.
Wynn dealers, Simpson opines, have lost over 15% of their tip income, thanks to Wynn’s tip-confiscation scheme and ought to be happy with their lot. One hopes that Simpson will take a similarly Pollyannish view of things if boss Brian Greenspun ever decides to shave 15% off Simpson’s salary and give it to someone else.
Simpson lobbies against Assemblyman Bob L. Beers‘ AB 357 — which would end Wynn’s tip-confiscation antics — saying it "deserves to fail," has "zero chance" of being passed, and will and should be vetoed by Gov. "Midnight Jim" Gibbons (a man not unfamiliar with lining his coffers through questionable methods).
"Outside of the casino business, how many frontline workers make two-thirds more than their supervisors? Very few," Simpson says. Sorry, but that’s the free-market system at work. It maybe aberrant but if Massa Steve is too damn cheap to pay his boxmen and pit bosses enough to make up the discrepancy, that’s his problem, not that of his dealers (who — must be reiterated? — are minimum-wage employees).
But wait, Simpson advises. "Wynn Resorts is a business. Its mission is to return profit to its investors." Yes, a money-losing business and Simpson (and, by implication, Wynn) expects dealers to make up out of their own pockets for Big Steve’s improvident spending — he’s just borrowed another $1.5 billion, ostensibly to expand in Macao, even as he cries poverty at home.
"No one can seriously claim that the Wynn dealers are being mistreated," he concludes. Let’s see about that, shall we? Let’s hear from a dealer who’s had the huevos to call Steve Wynn out in public.
After Daniel Baldonado’s lawsuit against Wynn Resorts was tossed out of court by District Court Judge Douglas Herndon, Baldonado says he experienced the following:
"Our lawyers told us, during the settlement conference, the judge was saying he was very concerned about retaliation by Wynn. So what their lawyers said was that, if we dropped the lawsuit, we wouldn’t be fired. But if we were fired, they (Wynn Resorts) would put together an investigative committee to make sure that we were legimately terminated."
Baldonado says his and Joseph Cesarz’s lawyers were told, "All results would be referred to another arbitrator. We wouldn’t have the right to take it to court."
As of a few weeks ago, Baldonado said, "I have to say, I feel like I’m being watched but I don’t feel any real heat, which is kind of strange because the dealers who filed those (National Labor Relations Board) suits are being harassed."
Sound like a place you’d like to work?
