Wynn Las Vegas is ditching a longstanding and controversial policy requiring dealers to share their tips with designated members of the casino’s game management staff.
The policy, introduced in 2006 by former Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn and bitterly resented by dealers, will go by the boards on November 12, according to Charlie Stone, an executive with the property, and Kanie Kastroll, a dealer who has helped lead the fight against it.
The change is in line with a new corporate culture instituted under Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox, who has sought to resolve the company’s outstanding legal issues and boost employee morale since taking the helm of the parent company in February following sexual harassment charges that resulted in Wynn’s ouster.
During his tenure dealers have shared about 12 percent of their pooled tips with game managers known as casino service team leads. Wynn is the only casino operator on the Las Vegas Strip to have designated the position and the only one that allows other employees to share in the dealer tip pool.
The dealers, for their part, claim the team leads are essentially floor supervisors and have filed two lawsuits against the resort to recoup the tip money paid to them.
“The casino service team lead position is being eliminated and a new position of casino supervisor will be created. As a result, dealers will be the only members of the tip pool,” Wynn Resorts spokesman Michael Weaver said.
Dealers will take home about $10,000 more a year in tips as a result, Kastroll said. However, the company is cutting their recent $2 pay raise to $9.25 an hour by $1, a move that will lower their annual salary by around $2,000.
The new casino supervisors will be paid $37.50 an hour, considerably higher than what the team leads earned, according to Weaver.
