Wynn Las Vegas is changing the management structure of its casino games in a way that may prove revolutionary. From the LV SUN:
Wynn Las Vegas dealers – the highest paid in the city at a shade more than $100,000 per year, mostly from tips – will soon lose some of their tip income. Resort executives plan to reorganize the casino floor on Sept. 1, and to begin giving first-level supervisors a cut from the tip pool.
Dealers are expected to see their pay drop by about $10,000 per year, while some frontline supervisors would see theirs jump by more than 50 percent.
The high-rolling gambling action at the Wynn generates some big tips, money that now gets divided by casino dealers.
The problem is finding qualified floormen and pit supervisors. It’s tough for the casino to get dealers, the most knowledgeable candidates, to accept a 40 percent pay cut to take a salaried position as a $60,000-per-year floorman or pit supervisor.
Wynn said the disparity in pay isn’t fair.
“This is upside down,” Wynn said. “It’s inverted. It’s just outrageous.”
Wynn Las Vegas has 578 dealers. Of those, more than 100 have run shifts or been supervisors at other casinos.
“The current system makes the (200 supervisors and 38 craps boxmen) feel cheated,” Wynn said.
The pay disparity has contributed to a reduction in the quality of the front-line managers, the folks who resolve game disputes, rate gamblers’ play (how much is he betting and how long did he play?) and dispense comps such as free meals.
Wynn’s solution? Reorganize the casino chain of command, and group dealers together with newly named frontline managers, who will now be “casino service team leaders.” (Or, in the case of craps boxmen, they’ll be renamed “craps team leaders.”)
The casino is eliminating some of its top-level hierarchy. In the current chain of command dealers and clerks are supervised by floormen, pit supervisors and boxmen. They are supervised by pit managers, who themselves are directed by casino managers and assistant casino managers. At the top is the vice president of casino operations.
The VP of casino operations slot is being eliminated and each shift is being organized as a standalone entity. Each shift will have a casino manager at the helm with two specialists to assist him. The casino manager will supervise the service team leaders, who will manage one to four table games and their dealers along with a shared pit administrator who will handle regulatory and game inventory paperwork.
There will probably be some griping about dealers giving up a share of their tip income (after all, who would be happy with a pay cut?), but this is an innovative approach that just might work. From the description, I’m not sure whether the “shared pit adminsitrator” is more of a pit boss or a pit clerk, but it sounds like the “team leaders” will replace floor people, and will get more power to settle disputes, rate players, etc.
As far as eliminating the VP of casino ops and making the shifts independent, it could be a good idea, provided that policies and procedures remain uniform. Otherwise, you start creeping away from the standard, and people coming over from other shifts or working OT can be really confused.
All in all, it seems that the new system will put a bigger premium on customer service, which is precisely what you’d expect from a Wynn property. Wynn has long had a reputation for being very friendly to his employees, and this might be a way to encourage dealers to seek out managerial positions and to ensure that he’s getting the best talent out there.
Remember, this is the guy who, at the Golden Nugget AC, became a legend after giving all his managers cars instead of cash bonuses. It was a move that people there are still talking about, 20 years after he left the market.
Coincidentally, there are rumors swirling around Atlantic City that Wynn will soon return, either at the current site of Bader Field, or by buying the Sands property, demolishing it, and starting over. I’ve heard more buzz about the former than the latter, but I think that the center-boardwalk location of the Traymore site would let a Wynn Atlantic City become the dominant feature in the city’s skyline. You might remember what I said about the Traymore’s prospects a few months ago. I can easily imagine that Wynn would have both the capital and the vision to take that site and create something that completely transforms the Boardwalk.
Back to the casino shake-up–no one has discussed what the impact of all this will be for the player. I think it will be huge. Here’s why. In the current system, players toke (tip) dealers when they win. Dealers have a vested interest in the player winning. Casino managers are responsible for winning money–they don’t want to have to explain to the higher-ups why their tables are in the red. Many skill players allege that, because of this, suits will sweat them when they get “too lucky.” But under the new system, both the suits and the dealers directly benefit when players tip. So is this new arrangment going to make it easier on skill players? Then there’s also the problem of the person who’s making comp decisions potentially being influenced by a big tipper, but I say that’s more theoretical than anything else, because if someone’s tipping big, they are also betting big and therefore deserve comping.
It will be interesting to study toke rates over the long term and see whether the total number of tokes goes up or stays the same. I’d also be interested in seeing what happens to table game hold…if it goes down, I’d say it’s back to the drawing board.