Barney Vinson's World: How Many People Work in a Casino?

Have you ever wondered how many people work in a casino?

It varies, according to the size of the casino. Binion's Horseshoe employs 2,600; Caesars Palace 4,000; and the MGM Grand has a work force of 7,000 people! Twenty-seven percent of Las Vegas' 570,000 employed people work in casinos, and I think the other 73 percent work for the government.

You have to remember that each Las Vegas resort is like a small city, and every department is an integral part of the overall operation.

Accounting Department -- The pulse of the hotel, where all financial transactions are made. Under this department comes General Ledger, where income and expenses are entered; Accounts Payable, where bills are paid; Accounts Receivable, where credit card purchases and personal checks are cleared; and General Auditing, where profit and loss statements for each department are verified.

Casino Cage -- The center of all casino transactions, with three sub-departments: Credit Department, where credit is established and markers are recorded; Cashier's Cage, where casino customers are serviced and fills for the table games are made; and the Casino Collections Department, which is made up of three big guys named Rocky, Knuckles, and Lefty.

Purchasing Department -- A bookkeeper's nightmare, where all purchases are made. If you want to sell anything to the hotel, from roulette wheels to computers, this is where you go.

Maintenance Department -- This is the department that fixes all the roulette wheels and computers that the Purchasing Department bought. Under this department come the army of workers that maintain the hotel property: carpenters, painters, upholsterers, engineers, electricians, gardeners, and carpet layers.

The maintenance department is also responsible for servicing the heating boilers, air conditioning chilling towers, water softeners, and auxiliary generators. Each major Las Vegas resort has a battery of 250 KW generators, which are used for emergency lighting and elevator operation during power outages.

All these departments are made up of people that the average tourist never sees. Add all the others (dealers, casino supervisors, security, cooks, kitchen helpers, maids, secretaries, public relations, front desk, bellmen, valet attendants, change persons, slot mechanics, waiters, cocktail waitresses, bartenders, hosts, computer operators, PBX operators, human resources) and you can see how easy it is to wind up with 2,600 to 7,000 employees. I know, and there's never one around to tell you where the restrooms are.