NEW FACULTY ORIENTATION

an excerpt from Lee Ryan Miller’s
TEACHING AMIDST THE NEON PALM TREES 

      In August 1998, during the week before classes began, I attended the new faculty orientation at the Community College of Southern Nevada (CCSN). It was a day-long event that consisted primarily of boring talks by various college administrators. We learned about the demographics of the institution, the financial situation, the college facilities, academic policies and regulations, and a host of other very dry topics. By late afternoon, I was struggling to stay awake.

      The very last item on our schedule was a visit to the Gaming Department. “Gaming” – a euphemism that avoids the negative connotation of “gambling” – is the name by which the top industry in the state of Nevada called itself. Jobs as dealers in casinos can be quite lucrative. I have been told that dealers on the Strip can earn as much as $80,000 per year. Not surprisingly, casinos are rather selective as to whom they will hire as dealers, and they all require that applicants have a certificate in dealing. The Gaming Department at CCSN offers courses leading to this certificate.

       The chair of the Gaming Department gave an interesting talk full of humorous anecdotes from his years working as a dealer. We learned, among other things, that when you tip a dealer, s/he is required by federal regulations immediately to drop the tip into a receptacle. All tips are tallied and divided at the end of the day. This requirement was instituted after the IRS came to recognize that dealers earned a lot more than the meager hourly wages they were reporting on their tax returns.

       “Couldn’t a dealer just pocket the tip?” I asked.

       “If your name is Lance Burton, maybe,” he replied. Burton is a Las Vegas magician famous for his mastery of sleight of hand. “But the rest of us would get caught on one of the video cameras watching our every move.” It’s not just the dealers who are being watched. Cameras watch every inch of a casino 24 hours a day. In other words, if you feel an urge to pick your nose or adjust your underwear, make sure you step outside first.

       After the chair finished his talk, he gave us a tour of the campus casino. Yes, CCSN had a casino on campus equipped with slot machines and all the table games you would find on the Strip, such as craps, roulette, blackjack, and baccarat. The chair told the new faculty members each to pick a table of their choice. A different gaming professor manned each table, ready to teach us the ins and outs of a particular game. I never had played any of them before.