Ron Washington, Jr. graduated from City College in San Francisco in 1998 and went on to work in a number of different fields ranging from human resources to administrative support—none in the gaming industry. It was not until 2004 that he got his first taste of the industry.
That year, Washington was hired as a player’s club representative as Eagle Mountain Casino in Porterville, California. Since then, he has remained with the casino, working in a number of different capacities until he was promoted to his current position of table games shift supervisor in 2014.
When he was hired in 2004, Washington had never played a single hand of blackjack or poker, yet here he was, working in a casino. He says that was his biggest challenge when entering the industry.
He made up for that by shadowing the pit boss as much as he possibly could. He also made sure to take the dealer training course to fully understand his responsibilities. Today, he is working to help improve the current curriculum to make it as effective as possible for entry-level dealers, helping pick up the shortfalls he saw when taking the course.
Success is never easy, but Washington says integrity was the driving force for the success he has had to this point. Since entering a management role, he has used his integrity to take care of his employees—never turning his back on them, or as he states, “I simply care too much.”
Mentorship was an important thing to him as a young person in the gaming industry, and as Washington looks forward to excelling in a high-level management position in the near future, he hopes to set up mentor paths for those people who are looking to “join the evolution of the gaming experience.”
Washington wants others to have the opportunities that he did, because he says without young people entering the ever-evolving industry of gaming, there will be no new views, and a lack of perspectives that only new generations can bring to the table.
