Las Vegas Sun

Ask any casino owner, if there was one group he could eliminate, a common answer is: Security. Security is close to, if not at the bottom, of casino pay scales. At some casinos, base pay rates have not increased in 8 – 10 years.

Some owners come right out and say they hate security, wish they could eliminate it and just let insurance cover any losses. Security is generally the least respected position in the casino (oh, we get letters telling us how great we handled a situation or event, but accolades are never followed up with pay incentives).

Casinos have a pecking order, if you will, of employee ‘value added’ status, in other words, does a particular position generate revenue, or drain from profits. Dealers and hosts generate revenue, where security, housekeeping and janitorial subtract from revenue.

On the surface, anyway.

Casinos cannot remain open without security to perform certain functions per gaming rules; so, no security – no casino. Sounds like a revenue impact to me!

Imagine a casino with no, or insufficient, security: hookers, pimps, pickpockets, credit claimers, rapists etc. allowed to roam the casino and hotel floors unmolested.

Drunks passed out, vomiting, homeless people begging or setting up ‘home’ on the casino floor, mental cases wandering among guests, medical emergencies left unattended until paramedics arrive, juveniles gambling (and the casino incurring the fines when Gaming cites them) …

How long do you think said property would continue to attract guests? If a property cannot sell its rooms and fill its floor with gamblers and drinkers, how can it generate revenue?

Security has a direct impact on casino revenue.

Unionization is a concept many years past due.

Personally, I think there should be two forces in a casino: in house security to do chip fills, escorts etc., and Casino Police, which would be a sworn organization (similar to CCSD Police) with limited, but real, powers. Guests have no idea how much crime goes unpunished because Metro is too busy and casino security have no real power or authority.

The Luxor isn’t the only strip property to have, at times, only a single officer available for calls. Even though a casino can be sued if a patron suffers harm, and it can be shown insufficient security contributed to said harm, any judgment a jury may award can be recouped in about 10 minutes on a good night at a busy casino.