Wynn dealers win dispute over tip pool
Wynn Las Vegas is ending its policy of forcing dealers to share their tip pool with other employees, taking a major step toward resolving a bitter 12-year fight.
Wynn Las Vegas executive Charlie Stone informed dealers Tuesday evening that the practice would end effective Nov. 12, said Kanie Kastroll, a dealer who has helped lead the fight against the company policy. Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver confirmed the change Wednesday morning.
WYNN
The roughly 980 Wynn Las Vegas dealers will take home about $10,000 more a year in tips, Kastroll said. However, Wynn is cutting the dealers’ recent $2 pay raise by $1 to $8.25 — a move that will trim their annual fixed pay by $2,000.
Dealers were enthusiastic about the late-night news but said they are not giving up their fight to get back some of the tip money shared with other employees over the past 12 years.
“Everyone is excited. It has been a long time coming, a long struggle, but we still want our back money,” said Kastroll.
Unorthodox policy
Wynn Resorts Ltd. co-founder Steve Wynn launched the tip pool sharing policy in September 2006 when he simultaneously created the position of team leads to replace both floor supervisors and pit bosses.
Wynn Las Vegas had opened the year before and was drawing huge crowds that tipped generously. Steve Wynn was concerned dealers were pulling in much more than their supervisors and that it disincentivised people to rise in rank.
The new policy mandated that dealers share about 12 percent of their pooled tips with “casino service team leads,” who dealers claim are supervisors.
The company has argued the team leads are not supervisors — and thus eligible for part of the tip pool — because they don’t have influence over pay or work schedules and have no power to discipline dealers.
The dealers filed two federal lawsuits in 2013 and 2018 against the company to recoup as much as $50 million in lost tips.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. is the only casino operator on the Strip to have the position of casino service team lead and the only one to allow other employees to share in the dealers’ tip pool.
180 DEGREES
As part of the policy shift announced Tuesday, Wynn Las Vegas will completely reverse Steve Wynn’s 2006 decision.
“The casino service team lead position is being eliminated, and a new position of casino supervisor will be created. As a result, dealers will be the only members of the tip pool,” Weaver said.
The table game casino supervisor will receive a fixed salary of $37.50 an hour, equivalent to $300 a day, he said. That is 33 percent higher than the fixed salary team leads currently earn.
Wynn, in effect, is bumping the supervisors’ pay to compensate for their exclusion from the tip pool, dealers say. The Wynn Las Vegas payroll could increase by a few million dollars.
Weaver did not say if all 267 team leads will be offered the supervisor position. The table games casino supervisor will have more duties, including coaching and training table games employees and participating in interviews and auditions for new table games employees, Weaver said.
President Donald Trump signed federal legislation March 23 that forbids supervisors from sharing in an employee tip pool.
Contact Todd Prince at 702-3830386 or tprince@reviewjournal.com. Follow @toddprincetv on Twitter.