The Rio altering servers’ positions

Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003 | 11:19 a.m.

Harrah's Entertainment Inc. expects to convert its cocktail waitress jobs at the Rio resort to entertainment positions requiring the servers to sing and dance as they serve customers.

The addition of "bevertainers" is a unique concept on the Las Vegas Strip, Harrah's spokesman Gary Thompson said.

"The Rio has a reputation for being on the cutting edge of entertainment," Thompson said. "This is another example of what we're trying to do to provide new forms of entertainment."

The Rio's 80 cocktail waitresses won't be fired from their jobs, he said. They will be offered other jobs at the resort and will be able to audition for parts as "bevertainers."

Dick Foster Productions, the producer of the Rio's "Masquerade in the Sky" casino floor show, will conduct a nationwide talent search for entertainers and will audition professionals for the parts.

An official with the Culinary Union -- which represents a majority of waitresses, food service workers and housekeepers on the Las Vegas Strip -- called the move a "tragic situation" that validates the need for union representation.

The waitresses aren't represented by the Culinary Union, though all other non-management workers -- including food and beverage workers, bartenders, housekeeping workers and porters -- voted for the union.

The Rio would not have been able to lay off unionized workers and replace them with outsiders, the union's secretary-treasurer D. Taylor said.

"This kind of thing makes us even more determined to organize non-union (employees)," he said. "Some people think that their job today stays that way. Certainly we've seen that in this city, that's not the case."

The Rio, whose waitresses are known for their skimpy outfits, already has bartenders who juggle and perform other bar tricks at Voodoo Lounge, the resort's penthouse bar. Recently, the resort also has featured bikini-topped card dealers near its Bikini's nightclub, a nightspot with sexy-clothing contests where women in bikinis serve drinks.

The "bevertainers" idea is another way the Rio is trying to increase its "sexiness quotient" relative to other, newer resorts that have pushed the envelope even further, such as the Palms and Hard Rock resorts, said Anthony Curtis, publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor newsletter.

"They're taking a look at this whole 'sexy Vegas' thing and they're saying, 'We invented sexy Vegas. And now (the media is) talking about everybody else but us."

Thompson said the dancers aren't a knee-jerk reaction to the Palms, a resort that opened just down the street in 2001 and is known as a hip hangout.

"I don't necessarily agree with that," he said. "We've got a pretty loyal customer base at the Rio."

"We think that both the Palms and the (nearby) Gold Coast provide a concentrated mass of entertainment and gaming options in that area of Flamingo (Road). We're not bothered by the competition."