Change Happens

IT WAS TIME TO SAY GOODBYE!

I worked there...
or should say toiled there for nearly TWO years...

In an exceedingly LOW period of my work career when I spent some time in the gaming industry at the
RIVIERA HOTEL and CASINO...

Just after they shot "Casino" on the property I joined up in the promotion arm of the facility in "$40 for $20...A fairly lame guise to take tourist dollars from the out of towners...

I would bark on the mic all night long about you give us twenty bucks and if you do not score a $40, $100 or up to $1000 jackpot you pick up a nice gift from "$40 for $20" that is worth well over $20...

Yep, the gifts were cool...
but jackpots few and far between on those very special machines...

Gave the G out like once or twice a month...

Ten or so $100 jackpots on a good day and  most of the folks were visiting the back Dutch door where we handed out the gifts...

I barked, worked the cash register, worked the floor and the machine area and even gave out the gifts in the warehouse...That gig you opened boxes, too...You even vacuumed the end of the night...

BUT I was so damn broke (job paid just above minimum wage) that I always ate TWO meals a day in the employee cafeteria...sometimes THREE...

After the first year the good folks at the RIV ponied up a raise for me...It was a whole TEN CENTS an hour...

I stated, " Hey, cut me back a dollar an hour so I can at least see SOME difference in my check"...

They DID NOT like that...I DID NOT like many of them...




At the RIV I discovered the strata of casino management...

Top management:  They stay at the top and NEVER come down on the floor or mingle with the working grunts...

Middle Management:  They are scared of their work shadow and live in constant fear of their job going bye-bye

Bottom Management:  They dished out crap all shift long to EVERYONE under their tyrannical thumb...I recall one of them telling me that many times they would have a meeting and decide to fire someone just to keep everyone on their toes...Person they fire wouldn't have done anything wrong...They just wanted to "set an example" of them in order to maintain the daily fear of working at the property...

Yes, a lovely atmosphere...Chatted with many others in the industry and they chime in that this is TRUE...the way things are done in the gaming corporate world...and the reason I got out of it...

Anyway, I did make some good friends at the RIVIERA...One lady

(my old boss) still remains there today and I feel for her looking for a new job after giving over twenty years to the RIV...

So much history at this property that I will tackle it in future bloggies...

First to appear here was Liberace...He scored a huge contract to open the place in '55...

That's SIXTY years ago!





A scary side to the RIV?  Methinks there is...
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqnsmi_ghost-adventures-the-riviera-las-vegas_shortfilms

Vegas moves on and the RIV will be blasted to the ground...

She was old...She was tired...She was ready to leave us...

BUT I will always carry those "$40 for $20" memories
 around in my noggin...

SO LONG LADIES!