The Casino Manager's Team

Traditionally, casino managers rose through the ranks, often starting as Blackjack, or dice dealers and then being promoted to a floor person, pit manager, shift manager, and assistant casino manager.

Two trends have recently emerged.

First, as gaming continues to proliferate across the Untied States and internationally, a number of gaming companies have experienced a dramatic shortage of qualified gaming managers.

To meet this human resources challenge, management development programs have been created within these companies to create fast-track advancement plans.

The Promus Corporation, Harrah's gaming entertainment, division, has established two concepts to meet its needs: The President's Associate Program and the William F. Harrah Institute of Casino Entertainment.

The President's Associate program identifies/recruits MBAs who have previous work experience (usually non-gaming) and places them in a general management development program involving courses and seminars in gaming, with eventual placement at a casino property.

The William F. Harrah Institute of Casino Entertainment places current Promus managers without a gaming background in an intensified series of gaming seminars and training courses.

These individuals are subsequently phased into various gaming operations.

The Mirage Hotel/casino offers a Management Association Program (MAP), in which college graduates undertake a 1-1/2 year casino training program and then are placed in gaming management positions.

The second trend in the business focuses on the number of casino workers who are returning to the classroom to secure a four-year or two-year degree.

The message is clear: upward mobility in today's casino organizational structure is being predicated on education.

The assistant casino manager, as the job title suggests, works with the casino manager and may in fact perform many of the day-to-day routine duties, allowing the casino manager to focus on long-range planning.

They are analogous to field marshals, directly overseeing the table games and gaming pit operations. (a pit refers to the physical configuration/location of the Twenty-One and Craps tables, etc.).

Many of the day-to-day gaming activities are handled by shift managers without the involvement of the casino manager.

Obviously, shift managers must be extremely knowledgeable in all aspects of gaming and exercise extraordinary business judgment and customer skills.

There are two components that offer a check and balance on the casino manager.

The internal auditor and the eye-in-sky (also known as casino surveillance) operate independently from the casino manager, with the former position reporting to the controller of chief financial officer, and the eye-in-the-sky likewise reporting to the owner(s).

Now, the internal auditor reviews staffing and standard operating procedures used in the casino to make sure all prescribed accounting and internal control policies are being followed.

He or she is given the task of writing a formal plan that will create a clear audit trail for gaming regulators.

The internal auditor is also given the responsibility for training all employees affected by the currency transaction provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act and guaranteeing compliance with this federal law as applicable to financial institutions and gaming operations.

Surveillance maintains camera surveillance over gaming operations in the casino. Operating from a highly secured surveillance room, this department uses state-of-the-art wide-angle lenses and zoom cameras to focus on employees and guests, watching for cheating scams, slot manipulations, and other illegal acts in the casino.

When suspected cheaters are spotted, surveillance contacts gaming enforcement regulators, who work with surveillance and casino security guards to catch the perpetrator in the act.

Surveillance videotapes are then used as evidence in court to convict the apprehended culprits.