Wynn tip policy hampers employment

08.8.2008 | 6:57 am | News, casinos

As Steve Wynn - owner of several prestigious Las Vegas Strip casinos - prepares to staff his newest enterprise, the Encore, it is increasingly clear that his bad reputation as a boss shows no signs of disappearing. The negative feeling towards employment in a Wynn casino is thought to be the main reason for the lack of interest by Las Vegas citizens in working for the new Encore resort.

This bad reputation began two years ago, with Wynn’s announcement that his casinos were enforcing a ‘tip-share’ policy, which meant that dealers had to pool their tips and then share them with their supervisors. This was unpopular with dealers as they have far more interaction with customers than supervisors, and have to work to gain the tips in the first place – whereas supervisors are automatically guaranteed a share in the profit. After the announcement that the new Encore resort would also enforce this ‘tip-share’ policy, many leading analysts have discussed the possibility that tipped workers are unlikely to leave their jobs to apply to work at the Encore – meaning the potential employment base for the new resort comes solely from existing Wynn employees who are used to the policy.

Las Vegas dealers also share this point of view, with Al Maurice, a dealer at the MGM Mirage who assisted the Wynn Las Vegas in their appeal to the union about the ‘tip-share’ policy last year, saying that he “can’t see any experienced dealer working in a decent casino giving up what they have to go over to Encore… I believe he will have to settle for a lot of inexperienced help straight out of dealers’ school or from minor casinos”. However, despite this bleak outlook, the Encore has already received 24,000 applications by the third day of hiring – suggesting that although Steve Wynn’s poor reputation may make it hard to find a good calibre of employee, interest is certainly not scarce.