Casino Reality
A new reality show reveals that modern casino life is less mob rule and more consummate professionalism
I’ve never watched a reality show until now. This one’s about casinos, and it’s doing much to break down archaic myths surrounding our industry.
It may seem strange to those of us who have lived in this industry for decades, but popular culture reveals there are still many who casually associate the casino industry with its mobbed-up past.
Most of us in the industry know that the mob’s days of running casinos essentially ended with the Stardust skimming scandal of 1983 and subsequent prosecutions. Corporations took over the big Strip casinos after that. The few remaining privately owned casinos devote their attention to customer service and giving a fair gamble to their repeat customers.
Yet, we still see the old mob casino stereotypes crop up in scripted TV dramas. In Tulsa King, starring Sylvester Stallone as a mob boss exiled to Tulsa, Oklahoma (now in its fourth season), one of the main “criminal activities” the mob boss begins is opening and operating a casino, with an Oklahoma Native American tribe serving as the paper owner of an operation that’s really run by the mob. It’s a story line right out of the 1950s.
In another recent show, Ozark (2017-2022), the main character enlists the mob to help him open a casino in Louisiana to launder cartel drug money. There are other examples, but suffice it to say a large portion of the population doesn’t bat an eye when casinos are portrayed as mob operations.
Thankfully, it’s taken a reality show to finally present the true version of how a modern casino operates. In September, the Discovery Channel launched Secret Life of a Vegas Casino, which follows real casino executives, front-line staff and back-room operations at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas.
Owner Tilman Fertitta opened the iconic Downtown casino resort to Discovery Channel’s cameras, recording day-to-day operations everywhere from the hotel front desk to the pit to the high-limit room. Cindy O’Keefe, who is the operational general manager of the casino resort, introduces the cameras to her team—professionals from top to bottom—as they deal with the daily issues of a modern gaming operation.
We meet marketing executive Tiffany Sales as she prepares for a month-long stay of her top customer, putting all the finishing touches to his multi-level suite, only to be told the next day that her guest will not be returning to the Golden Nugget, ever.
He wasn’t coming, and neither was the bonus she expected from hosting four months of million-dollar play. The rest of the episode follows Sales as she seeks out new and uncarded hot players to fill the gap. She succeeds, largely because it’s convention season, with three trade shows going on that month—to hosts, these are gold mines of affluent players who wager big.
(“We’re packed with contractors, morticians and bug people,” says O’Keefe. “And bug people really like to gamble!”)
There’s also a view of marketing strategy for big players at the tables. In one segment, a gambler who was $100,000 ahead in his session was cutting his session short because his wife was bored. Marketing executives approved $5,000 to give her a shopping spree. She was ecstatic, and the casino won its money back and more.
The multiple conventions also bring challenges to security and surveillance, as revealed in a visit to the surveillance room, where video records everything from drunken guests slumped in hallways to a naked man in the hall outside his hotel room.
Security officers—including Jim Bishop, a bulky army veteran who also is a paramedic—not only break up fights but deal with larger threats that bring Las Vegas police in, plus a thousand smaller jobs. In one episode, he’s asked to help a customer with a leaky colostomy bag. He now keeps special medical tape on his belt, just for that.
In the very first episode, O’Keefe’s team sets the tone for the series by calming a near-crisis in a jammed registration area. After personal attention from the Nugget team, customers ended up happy and in their hotel rooms.
It’s the first example of how O’Keefe’s staff handles every situation with professionalism, ingenuity and grace.
And not a mobster in sight.
