Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Thursday, July 19, 2012 | 2 a.m.
An exterior view of the Palms Sunday, January 15, 2012.
Sun coverage
The Palms is suing a former casino host, claiming she misappropriated invaluable data including the names and contact information for hundreds of high-rollers and other gamblers.
The Flamingo Road property in Las Vegas filed suit Tuesday in Clark County District Court against Jessica Hemingway.
The suit says Hemingway was fired on July 9 after it was discovered she had allegedly emailed vast amounts of confidential company information to her personal Yahoo and Gmail accounts. The Palms is seeking unspecified damages and an injunction to require her to return the information and to not use, disclose or transfer any of the data and specifically not to provide it to competing casinos.
Hemingway couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The suit says Palms executives learned last month that Hemingway, a casino host in the table games department since September 2011, was looking for another job. So a supervisor routinely had the IT department review her work email to see if she was taking or sending any confidential information to herself or others not employed by the Palms.
The IT department reported that on April 14, Hemingway had emailed from her Palms email address to a personal email address extensive amounts of Palms data from a system called the ''Super Playmate'' database, including:
• The ''Palms’ High Worth Customer List,'' containing data on 86 of the property’s largest customers with $11.7 million in play history. This included their play records and credit amounts.
• A telemarketing list naming 419 more ''high worth customers'' with a combined credit line of more than $12 million.
• A February slot tournament list with information on 1,050 players.
• A list with information on 6,000 players who qualified for invitation to the Palms 2012 Super Bowl party.
• A list of 4,000-5,000 inactive players.
• A 2011 marketing document covering the property’s entire special events and marketing campaign for out-of-town customers.
The Palms said this information wasn’t readily available to Hemingway and that she had no authority or reason to possess it.
The suit says this information was transferred in violation of a confidentiality agreement Hemingway had signed when she was hired and that a few weeks after transferring it, she had emailed her resume to a marketing official at Wynn Las Vegas.
The suit says that when Hemingway was confronted about her allegedly misappropriating Palms’ data, ''she offered no legitimate or credible explanation for her activities.''
For instance, a Palms security executive reported Hemingway had said she sent confidential information to herself as a backup in case there were problems with the Palms computers, and she allegedly stated that ''the Palms had lazy hosts and if they were not going to do something with their players, she would.''
In addition to Hemingway losing her job, the matter was referred to the state Gaming Control Board for investigation, the lawsuit says.
''The marketing strategies and player information Palms has developed and compiled over its almost 11 years of operating history provide it with a valuable competitive edge in the highly competitive casino industry,'' the Palms said in Tuesday’s complaint. ''Knowledge of players’ preferences, wagering habits, frequency of play, seasonal playing patters, response to marketing as well as their personal and financial information is considered key to successful marketing.''
''Upon information and belief, Hemingway has not only wrongfully misappropriated confidential information and trade secrets from the Palms but has misused such information for her own personal benefit and/or the benefit of third parties,'' the lawsuit charges.
The Nevada Gaming Commission needs to add a violation clause in the regulation on unauthorized access of sensitive company information. This should be a crime, with a reasonable punishment attached. Casino marketing agents are increasingly violating the trust of their employer. We hear time after time of scams involving direct or indirect participation of a credit host or marketing personnel. The casino is dependent on the core 20% customer base. All casino and hotel employees are dependent on this base. Having this base taken away because of theft of information from a trusted employee causes harm to all employees.
In essence this is what is known as "White Collar Crime" just as a dealer or porter would steal from the casino. Except in the past the casino has not aggressively pursued the casino executive as they would a dealer or porter. Either way a theft is a theft and should be handle just as the Palms is doing. Openly for all to see and hear. The Palms now needs the support of the gaming commission and local law enforcement.
Let the high roller customer be swayed away because of added competition, not because of Wall Street (Bud Fox) tactics. In the end no one wins using these kind of tactics. The Nevada Gaming Commission should step in and set the standards to control this kind of behavior.
The worst part is that she will end up getting another job with another casino and get paid top dollar. This type of behavior is rewarded in Vegas.
I'd hire her. Thanks Palms for the heads up.
As a Casino Host your job is to bring in big players and then take care of them. If she brought in players and the Palms failed in giving her a reasonable comp line then she should take them elsewhere.
All Casino Host Mgrs truly care about are numbers- by hook or by crook get those whales in and get them to spend.
This type of behavior is "rewarded" in every locale in every industry. Theft of confidential customer databases is rampant, and the investment of the company resources to develop and maintain customer lists is compromised each time an employee commits such theft. This should be considered criminal and prosecuted each time an employee does it -- anywhere and in any industry.
What this woman has done seems wrong but anyone who knows anything about the Palms knows that they under pay,over work,disrespect,and fire employees for a host of laughable reasons. People in the casino business will tell you that most potential employees refuse to apply or work for the Palms Casino. This has been a problem since the Maloofs and continues to this day.
I am not making excuses for what was done here but in the end when an employeer treats their employees disrespectfully they will sometimes get what the deserve.
For those of you who want the all important Gaming Control Board to write stiff rules and make these acts a felony you make me laugh. This kind of behavior has been going on and rewarded by casinos for decades and the GCB can't reulate Dotties Casino let alone the big casinos who dictate policy to them. Get real!
i know her. sounds like something she would do.
These are the incidents that leave a bad taste in my mouth. Employee/employer loyalty is in the trash can as it is and these incidents by a few dumbasses serve no purpose but to enrich themselves and further damage the loyalty factor. No wonder background checks, multiple interviews, reference checks have become all the rage. The loyalty and honesty in business (both sides) has disintegrated.
While I understand that this may be a violation of her contract with the Palms, to me it sounds like she was just doing the job she is paid to do. Host are required to bring in big players, inscribe players, and encourage medium and small level players to come to the property and spend more money. She took her work home with her, and I guarantee you she mined that list to get more clients. I know many people who are successful in high end sales who do the same thing, even though it is against company policy. But they have better numbers than those who just do what is expected of them, and not go above and beyond. She sounds like the kind of host I would love to have- and the kind of host I would follow from property to property, so I would hope she had my information handy should she leave or be terminated.
I understand the casino is protect it's bottom line by not allowing hosts to have player information outside of work, but wouldn't a better way be to hire more people who care enough about getting players in the door?
bitharvest.
Yep, a person using her company email to send information to her own accounts then uses that same email to send her resume to another casino has the Palms best interest at heart.
I hope you are kidding with that post of yours. Would hate to think you really believe she was trying to be a good employee.
HOMER, you hit the nail on the head and TomD, it works both ways for loyalty and honesty. These casinos get what they sow.
Bottom line is, that information does not belong to her and is the property of the casino.
Vegaslee- I believe she had her best interest as a host in mind- and that means keeping her job at the Palms by performing well and keeping an eye opened for better opportunities. If to go above and beyond at her job she felt she had to contact players from home, then be it. My best hosts have done this- I've flown cross-country because a host called me about an event. My worst can't even bother to call me back when I ask about a tournament.
And I don't know about you, but if I heard another place was hiring for my position, and I was unhappy at my job, or the new position offered more money or better benefits or hours, I would be sending out my resume asap. I also wouldn't stop doing the job I was hired for. But that's just me.
Two words: Flash Drive.
I'm sure that when the Palms hired her from the Golden Nugget, they were happy to have her client list with her.
@Joanne
She took information that she was not legally entitled to take. What is it about that statement that you choose to ignore? Obviously she had HER best interests in mind...but that's not how it work unless you've become one of those that doesn't care about her employer, doesn't care about loyalty and doesn't care about paperwork that SHE SIGNED that most likely prevented her from doing what she did. You don't go pilfering company records to enrich yourself and another Casino. There's an issue of right and wrong here and Joanne certainly fits into the wrong category.
what's the big deal? If she was smart and wrote the names on a piece of paper no one would be the wiser. As if this stuff doesn't happen all the time. Plus, hosts call people on their personal cell phones all the time. Is this a violation because the Host now has the contact information of a player on his cell phone? If so, lock up all the hosts in this town. Palms should just go out and hire a host from another casino. But they are cheap and that's why hosts are leaving in droves. Sorry but bottom line is if Palms paid their host well then they wouldn't be leaving and taking THEIR players with them.
Ok. She was dumb, she didn't go the route of writing the names on a piece of paper (which may be wrong as well). That's her problem. She took the easy way (and apparently a breach of contract) by emailing the list to her personal account. Stuff "happening all the time" doesn't make it right. If the Palms is so cheap as many are saying, then don't work for them. If the mentality is I'm taking a lower paying job and to make up for it I'll steal client info...then there isn't much left to say about honesty. It's in the gutter. Pathetic.
It all comes down to the contract the host signed. I'm a believer in honesty. If I'm not treated in an honest manner, my recourse is not to do the same as justification. That just perpetuates one helluva crappy employer employee relationship.
You cannot steal any info using technology nowadays without getting caught!
If she was working for NSA or the CIA and did this, we would not hear about it...they would handle it in house hahaha
I wonder if she was also trying to sell the information on the black market to identity thieves or spammers!
@ TomD1228: I think you read to much into my comment. I never said what she did was right or even ethical. But rather that she may have felt she needed to work of that list from outside the Palms in order to be the best at her job- while at the Palms. We are all assuming she took the list to go somewhere else with it, but that may very well not be the case. My comment wasn't so much defending her actions, but rather a view on the fact that in sales, VIP, or host positions sometimes one needs to go an extra mile to be the best- and maybe even keep your job.
As anthemccresident said above, I'm sure the Palms was more than happy to look the other way when she (and many of their other hosts) arrived with a list of players from her previous employer. What she did may be a crime, but it is common practice in the casino business, especially in Las Vegas. I have seen more than my fair share of hosts come and go, and what is amazing is that they always seem to call me when they arrive at their new casino.
Now today we see that the reason the Palms may be so upset over this is that Jessica is suing them for sexual harrassment. I'm not saying two wrongs make a right, but I'm willing to bet her actions are something we never would have heard about had she not been suing them.