Casino Women: Courage in Unexpected Places by Susan Chandler & Jill B. Jones

Author:Susan Chandler & Jill B. Jones [Chandler, Susan & Jones, Jill B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Labor, Games & Activities, History & Theory, Labor & Industrial Relations, Industries, Gambling, Labor & Employment, Social Science, Political Science, Business & Economics, Sociology, Women's Studies, Law, General, Hospitality; Travel & Tourism
ISBN: 9780801462696
Google: RC1KDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 12486230
Publisher: ILR Press
Published: 2011-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

A DAY IN THE LIFE

BY CYNTHIA BOWEN

It is Sunday. I drive down Wedekind Road to work at ___ Casino where I am a blackjack dealer. . . . On Sundays I get to park on the street because there are no meter maids issuing tickets, which saves me a few minutes. It is always dark in [the casino]. Usually, I deal Baccarat but today I am dealing 21. I prefer dealing Baccarat because 90 percent of our clientele are Chinese. I have learned a lot about their culture and can even speak a little Cantonese. They are humble people, even the ones that have a lot of money, and contrary to the stereotype of the serious Asian, they have a good sense of humor.

Today . . . everyone is crazy. There is an old woman on my table who is 79 and looks 102. She asks everyone how old they think she is and they say, oh, about 65, to placate her. She is instructing everyone on how to play their cards and at one point almost inspires a fistfight. I have to referee this table and negotiate a peaceful settlement while enhancing everyone’s self-esteem. We have something at [the casino] called PPE skills that we go through extensive training for. We are required to greet everyone at our table, say thank you and you’re welcome and engage them in casual conversation. I’m certain [the casino] has spent millions of dollars on the training program, which is contained in that book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. We also attend classes called Valuing Difference, which is about accommodating different culture and personality. But [the casino] demands that we all be alike. And they have spies to inform on us if we are not. They have people disguised as guests sitting on our games rating our performance, sort of Gestapo techniques. We are under constant surveillance, so if we are not talking or smiling enough we are taken into the office and reprimanded.

. . . I return to my blackjack game where five women are slamming down straight tequilas. These women are no amateur drinkers. They are coaches’ wives. Their husbands are participating in a softball tournament at UNR. They are in their forties and not well-preserved. Too many late nights and cigarettes. One is blonde—you can tell she was beautiful and she still thinks she is. There is a gruffly old Swede from Minnesota, and he starts to tell blonde jokes. I feel the tension. The blonde is simmering. She counters by telling him male-bashing jokes. This is scary for me—just where I want to be—trapped with a bunch of hostile alcoholics. I would prefer to be somewhere where people discuss Proust and Melville and Tolstoy or at least know who they are. I want to live in a world where people listen to public radio and know who Garrison Keillor and Terry Gross are. Naw, I probably wouldn’t like those people anyway—too pretentious. But anything has to be better than this.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.