Las Vegas Review Journal: Wednesday May 22: Twelve poker dealers walk off the job at the Binion's World Series of Poker Tournament over a broken promise to pay dealers fair wages. Fifteen other poker dealers also walked out of the Horseshoe casino in protest over a broken promise from Binion's management.

This is the story we had been hearing for the past two years from the WSOP (World Series of Poker) Unfair pay to the dealers who deal the world's most top prized poker tournament. Over $19 million dollars will be handed out in prize money including $1.25 million dollars to the winner of the No Limit Texas Hold-Em tournament along with the much coveted gold bracelet the winners of the tournament dearly embrace.

Somewhere between the Strip dealers and the toilet washers are poker dealers. Most of these guys and girls were once the full-time poker players who finally decided to join them because they certainly couldn't beat them. Like many dealers who once spent most of their waking time at the tables, these people knew the basics of the game, knew the players, knew the atmosphere, and only needed to learn procedure to be dealers rather than players. Most learned in a couple of weeks.

They usually got juiced in by poker room managers and other dealers to a regular job, as long as they could hold the job, then went on to the next poker room. Many are not around any more since they either worked their way through most of the poker rooms in Las Vegas, their juice having dried up years ago or were replaced by Asian dealers. Many just got tired of dealing since they missed the action and realized that no matter how close they got to the action, it just wasn't the same as being in the action, and being in the action is the reason for getting up in the morning for most people in Las Vegas. Others quit when they could see the future picture of Las Vegas which didn't include them because of their age their sex, or worse, they were Americans.

But being a poker dealer in Las Vegas did have one perk. Like being picked to play in the Pro Bowl or the All Star game is being picked to deal at Binion's Horseshoe in the World Series of Poker tournament. The six week event is taking place downtown right now and with a field of over 7,300 players, this is THE major event in poker.

The deal the dealers have with the Horseshoe in the old days was each dealer kept their own tips. The tips on a good game could average between $300-$500 a night or even more if you had generous players in a big game. But lately since Becky Behnen took over the family business and worse, took over the running of the tournament, the dealers pay have been cut more and more.

She laid the groundwork for screwing the dealers by telling the players that the dealers were being taken care of through the buy-ins and that 3% would be taken from the field to pay them their tips. Last year they ran around $200 per day. Not a bad day for a poker dealer, but when you're dealing in a tournament where the players on your table have bought in for $10,000 each, that puts $100,000 on your game when you sit down, and someone will walk away with all of it, do you still think dealing for eight hours to these people is worth only $200? Well if you think that's bad wait until you hear what Becky the Bitch did this year.

This year Becky told the players she was now taking 6% of their buy-in, twice as much as last year, and paying the dealers less than $100 per day. The figures she used are that she was taking $94,650 for the dealers' pool. Sounds like a lot of money but there are 125 dealers working eight hour days for six weeks which figures out to around $75.72 per day per dealer. Now keep in mind that the total money given away right now in the World Series of Poker is just over $19 million dollars. There are no definite figures to tell you exactly how much of the money is taken by the Horseshoe during the tournament, but the figures I've heard from a few people is well over the $19 million in prize money. Let's say the total is $20,000,000. Six percent of that is $120,000 but she's only paying out $94, 650 to the dealers which leaves $25,350. This is, according to Becky Behnen, her cost for running the tournament.

Well, let's see. The poker room is full of players, most of who play before and after the tournament. These people are gamblers. When they're not playing poker they're either at the crap tables, the blackjack tables, or in side poker games to keep their games sharp. They shop and eat like real people in the Horseshoe and the other casinos. Most pay for their rooms and meals themselves so there's no cost to her there.

That's over 7,300 players coming into Las Vegas to play either at the Horseshoe, or the other satellite casinos holding tournament play at their tables who benefit from their just being there and spending money. They bring tens of thousands of dollars (The average buy-in is $10,000 for the first buy-in with three buy-ins allowed) to pump into the rest of the Las Vegas economy since most players come from out of state and even out of country and usually bring their families for a vacation while they play. But this year would be different.

Twelve dealers hired for the tournament walked into Becky's office for a talk. They weren't happy about their take. It was hard for them to swallow that their pay was cut last year from $200 to $100 a day even with her usual 3% hold. Now it was being cut to $75 and she was taking 6% hold this year. Now they had enough. They told her they would walk out if they weren't guaranteed more money.

They could make more money working their regular jobs and though most were doing this as an extra job on their off-time, for the $75.72 they'd just as soon stay home. She could hire some break-in dealers to deal the game if she wanted. But the fact was, these dealers were the best in town. They were particularly hired to deal the big tournament games since they were used to big action. Hands in the WSOP could easily reach over a million dollars in a single pot. These were No-Limit games for some of the time and these games were notorious for players betting a quarter million dollars and often being called and raised on the hand. You can't bring a poker dealer from the Las Vegas Club to deal a game like that. One mistake could cost thousands of dollars or worse. Expose a card by mistake, deal the next card to the wrong player, or flip the card over while trying to pitch it across the layout is unthinkable. Yet they want to pay these dealers what they pay the porters to scrub toilets all day. And there's no time off, no weekends.

When the word came down to the other dealers on the shift, fifteen other dealers walked out of the casino just before the beginning of tournament play on Tuesday night in protest of the firings and to lend support for the pay increase. "We're not even asking for an increase, we just want what we got two years ago. They're (the players) paying twice as much as they did last year to the Horseshoe and she's (owner/manager Jack Binion's sister Becky Behnen.) telling us she can't afford to pay us any more." Said Pamela Shendel, poker dealer from the Paris who has dealt the WSOP for the past three years. After being removed from the casino by Horseshoe security, the dealers all met on 1st St. across from the Horseshoe.

"We went into her office to protest our pay. We negotiated a new deal bringing the pay back to where we were two years ago and Becky Behnen agreed. We didn't ask for more money, we only asked for the same money we made before. Every year the prize money goes up, the buy-ins go up, the amount of players go up, her cut goes up, and only our pay goes down. That was Monday night. We dealt the games Monday, when we returned to work Tuesday we were told by security to pick up our paychecks and leave the casino, we were fired. So she's taking twice as much from the players and rather than pay us a decent wage like they've always done, they're telling us their cost is higher this year. Another fired dealer added, "Rather than taking the extra cost out of the $19 million dollar jackpot, they're taking it out of the dealers paycheck and pocketing the rest. I heard they take close to $25 million dollars in buy-ins during the six week tournament, so where's the other $6- $7 million dollars going?" (The Horseshoe is still in court over the $1.9 million they owe to the Fremont St. Experience from their cut they never paid. She told the court that if she had to pay the money she could be out of business, or at least have to lay off hundreds of workers.)

"Well what about tips, don't the dealers take tips?" I asked. "The players don't tip anymore, Behnen saw to that. She told the players in a written memo that to make it more fair to all the dealers, we were no longer accepting individual tips, that the casino would make it up to the dealers themselves. You can see how they took care of it." The anonymous dealer added. When Becky Behnen was asked about what had happened in her office between her and the dealers she said. "They came in demanding more pay. I agreed to the 1 ˝ % but this was extortion." When asked about the firing her answer was "I was unaware of the firings, but these dealers are temporary help, and these dealers were rabble-rousers, so we get rid of the rabble-rousers first." (I don't think I've heard that term used since the 50's)

Dick Turner, a professional poker player from Seattle said "These are the best dealers in the world, that's why they're here. This is the biggest poker tournament in the world and she wants to cut their pay to less then they make on a $3-$6 dollar Hold-Em game in a shitty casino on the strip. They're dealing hands worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and she wants to bring in break-in dealers to deal them. It's ridiculous and we (the players) are ready to walk out with the dealers in protest and ask for our money back. There are other casinos who would love to put this tournament on and take our business."

Well obviously I stand with these dealers. A deal's a deal. But ever since Ted Binion was murdered and Jack Binion gave up his fight for the ownership of the Las Vegas Horseshoe (Jack runs a Horseshoe casino in Mississippi) and handed it over to his sister Becky Behnen, the Horseshoe has taken a dive. She managed to take one of the oldest and most respected casinos in downtown Las Vegas, a casino that her father Benny Binion started from a small dive, bought from the money he brought with him from Texas. He turned it into the hottest crap joint in town in only a few years. Their crap play on a weekday alone was more than most casinos took in through the entire casino on a good weekend.

When I came to town, the Horseshoe was the place to go. It was a hangout for every dealer in town. Everyone would meet there every night after work (75 cents for all drinks back then) and hang out until morning. Not just drinking and talking, but it was an important place for dealers to find jobs for themselves and other dealers. I was a jeweler in the early 80's and met most of the dealers there. I took in thousands of dollars of jewelry work through the dealers. They introduced me to other dealers that led me to a great business. I could bring a few chains and bracelets to the back bar after work and be sold out in an hour. All dealers back then got their tips paid in cash. They always had money on them. Most all of them were Americans, most all were male, they all liked to deal and loved to bullshit, and they ALL were great dealers.

Today tips are paid on their paychecks. So rather than have cash everyday to go out drinking and gambling with, they now just go home after work. By doing this the casinos have managed to screw themselves since all the dealers who used to spend their money going out drinking and gambling after work now just go home after work and deposit their checks. And the Horseshoe had the best dealers in town. They were the older experienced dealers who could talk and bullshit and deal at the same time. Now the Horseshoe has raised the price of drinks, killed the blackjack games and crap games thanks to the hiring of young Asian dealers who won't talk and don't want to talk they just want to stand and pitch cards. They don't make tips and couldn't care less if they did or not, can't bullshit since they don't know the lingo, and wouldn't if they could anyways. They use the excuse of the language barrier, but the truth is most of them don't try because they hate us Americans.

They're jealous of our freedoms, of our country as I find most foreigners are. But for what happened to the Horseshoe I blame on only two people; Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish who murdered Ted Binion who to this day would probably still be running the Horseshoe. He would have kept the drink prices to a buck, kept the old dealers until they died, kept the crap tables jamming all night like they used to be, paid the poker dealers twice what he paid the year before rather than less since he understood the value of a top notch dealer when dealing to top notched players, and kicked his sister Becky back to Texas. Yep, Sandy and Rick who now serve life prison terms, not for the death of Ted Binion, but for the death of the Horseshoe casino. Life in prison certainly wasn't fair…They should have given them THE CHAIR!!

--Ken Pearlman