At the risk of "piling on," I've been asked to share the following missive with my readers (yes, all five of them). To give props where they're due, my correspondent picks holes in the fallacies underlying a major local columnist's ongoing apologia for Steve Wynn's tip confiscation policy at Wynn Las Vegas, and does so far more precisely and eloquently than can I. While I know that dealers have been sending some scorching letters to the Sun and In Business Las Vegas, this dispatch shows that customers are feeling their pain, too. So, with a tip of the cap to an excellent example of the lost art of letter writing, I present what follows …

Mr. Simpson,
In regards to your submission in the Las Vegas Sun, dated April 29, 2007, I’d like to comment.

The tone of your piece screamed of a ‘grasping at straws’ effort. You managed to fill two pages and really not say any thing of significance. You are not totally to blame in this however. You have a job to do as the mouthpiece of big business vs. the working people of the State of Nevada, and you tried. Your problem is that you really have so little to work with in this instance. What Mr. Wynn is attempting to do, both within his own establishment, and in Carson City, with whichever members of the legislature he has in his pocket, is so blatantly wrong, there can be no credible argument in support of it.

When Wynn Las Vegas opened in April of 2005, many of the cream of the crop among Las Vegas dealers applied for positions there, and many received them. They went there knowing their earning potential might be greatly enhanced. It was an ‘eyes open’ situation. In 1966, when Mr. Don Laughlin created his mere shadow of Las Vegas outpost in the wilderness he established a standard of ‘tip sharing’ for floor people immediately. The dealers there, long ago, went in understanding this. It was, again, an ‘eyes open’ situation.

A person accepts a profession often based on earning potential. If he or she is fortunate enough to find themselves in a good paying job, that is great for them. They then establish a lifestyle based on their earnings. You do it, I do it, and our nation does it. It is the American way of living. We accrue property, establish debt and just settle in, often with folks who are dependent upon us as part of this domestic equation. And often, as is the nature of our hurly burly society, we waste little time doing so. I’m sure those dealers at Wynn, who started there in 2005, in many cases, have done just that in the preceding two years. It’s tantamount to water seeking its own level.

Now, however, Mr. Wynn, apparently with your blessing, wants to yank the financial rug out from beneath these workers. He does not consider the possible turmoil this might cause individuals. He only sees the monies being provided to them for good service by grateful gamblers. Now he is attempting to get a percentage of that money to aid him in not having to pay fair wages, to a certain element of his management team, from his own pocket. If he is so concerned for his team leaders, pit bosses and others who are, essentially, rear echelon soldiers and not the front line troops standing at the tables directly facing those clients upon who’s happiness the lifeblood of this city depends, then he should pay them a what they deserve from his own profits.

Furthermore, I put little credence in Wynn’s suggesting that by doing what he proposes, the dealers will suddenly feel the incentive to improve themselves by becoming service team leaders. Why does he make the assumption that this is some sort of natural progression. I would imagine many dealers consider themselves professionals in their trade are happy in their work and want to remain as such.

I have stated elsewhere, that, as a visitor, tourist if you will, to Las Vegas, I tend to be generous in my rewarding any good service I receive. I enjoy doing so.I am very in tune to how important the phenomena sometimes referred to as ‘toking’ is to the workers, and therefore the economy, of Nevada. I would gladly reward, in that manner, any ‘pit critter’ who provides me with a favor of merit. I have done so in the past. However, I do not consider assuring there are clean ash trays at the tables deserving of a gratuity. If their employer, on the other hand, thinks this is effort above and beyond, then, again, it gets back to him being responsible for just rewards.

Try to look at this objectively. Suppose for whatever reason, the management at The Las Vegas Sun, suddenly (a telling adverb in this case) decided they would garner twenty percent of your wages and enhance the salaries of bureau chiefs, editors and publishers. Surely this would give you incentive to work harder, improve yourself and strive to gain one of those coveted jobs. Correct? After all, who wants to stay a lowly journalistic commentator all their life? However, in the meantime, what about your debts, your mortgage, your family needs. Shall we just refer to it as your lifestyle? I’m sure it would be all right, for after all, we know something of that trivial nature is easily changed.

Not to worry though. This, after all, is not your potential problem, or the potential problem of Mr. Steve Wynn. If AB 248 is not signed into law, it will then only be the problem of tens of thousands service industry employees of Nevada.

Thank you.
Thomas Indelicato
Strafford, NH