As is our wont, we checked in with Arnie Rothstein, our pseudonymous casino manager, whom we’re lucky to have at our disposal for his encyclopedic knowledge of and vast experience with the inside workings of the gambling biz. Here’s what he has to say about the Montecito.
A few "reality’ comparisons that divide the fantasy Vegas (as depicted on the TV show "Las Vegas") from the real Vegas:
In the TV series "Las Vegas," the surveillance room is a large, lavish, two-story room with plush chairs and other amenities, including incredible super-high-tech equipment, with all manner of people coming and going freely.
In the real world, surveillance rooms are lucky to have an old schoolroom-style chair/desk combo. The average space is about the size of a typical bedroom. I know of one room that’s so small, anytime someone opens the door, it hits the back of the surveillance agent’s chair.
Most surveillance rooms have two, maybe three people in the room, depending on the day of the week. (Some states require five to 10 agents on duty, but these states require dedicated camera coverage on every slot machine.) As for the equipment, it’s getting better now, but just a couple of years ago, a typical room was stocked with a few hundred VCRs that were about as reliable as the French army. Equipment breakdowns were as common as the cameras were slow and clunky; if it was quiet in the casino, you could hear the cameras move. I’ve yet to see any system that operates with the ease of the one at the Montecito.
In the TV series, the surveillance director walks the floor and talks to people as if he were a Wal-Mart greeter.
In the real world, the only thing surveillance directors and Wal-Mart greeters have in common is their rate of pay. Most surveillance directors don’t even have an office, let alone one with a view, and they never leave the surveillance room, except for meetings, and even then they take the back hallways so as not to be seen.
In the TV series, the surveillance room could be mistaken for the Playboy Mansion, with the endless parade of flawless movie-star girls coming and going.
In the real world, surveillance rooms are, by law, located away from common employee areas and are off limits to everyone except surveillance employees and the occasional general manager; some states disallow even the GM to enter the room. The surveillance department must maintain an "Entry Log Sheet" showing the admission of any outsiders. The log sheet must include the date, time in, time out, person’s name, and the reason for or nature of the business. Now, I’m not saying that good-looking women never visit the surveillance room, but when they do, they’re usually Gaming Control Agents and they carry guns.
In the TV series, the Montecito has "gun detectors" in the guest rooms and if anyone is armed, a signal is sent to the surveillance room.
In the real world, surveillance agents aren’t armed. So … if there was any such thing as a hotel-room gun detector and a breach alarm was sent to the surveillance room, you’d see the surveillance employees running out of the casino like their hair was on fire (the smart ones, anyway). It’s not only illogical to have gun detectors in every guest room (plenty of resorts have more than 3,000 rooms), but when you weigh the fact that most don’t even have cameras on every hotel floor, it’s downright hysterical.
In the TV series, Playgirl model "Danny" is dispatched all over town (in his own car) to collect information which, by the way, saves the casino millions, or at least hundreds of thousands, of dollars every episode.
In the real world, the law requires that the surveillance room be manned at all times, except for a period not to exceed one hour for lunch/dinner breaks and the occasional restroom breaks. As for Danny’s pleasure cruises in his Camaro, I’ve never worked for a casino that allowed its employees (not even the good-looking ones) to leave the property.
All told, the surveillance department in TV's "Las Vegas" is about as realistic as the producers hiring me to play the part of the surveillance director.
