Question of the Day - 08 May 2022

Employee dining has changed a lot since March 2020. 

When the casinos reopened, there were still strict rules against buffet style food, as well as social distancing. To comply with that, some casinos closed off their employee dining rooms (EDR) and moved them to the convention spaces. Why? Because those areas are big enough to fit all those employees with the social distancing guidelines. What we saw were these huge convention rooms filled with six-foot-long tables, with one chair on either end of them. Markings on the floor indicated where the tables should be placed, according to social distancing guidelines. 

As far as the food, pre-packaged sandwiches, salads, and snacks were brought in to replace the buffet style food of the pre pandemic days. Employees we spoke to described it as eerie, but surprisingly peaceful. 

Sounds like a good solution right? Well, consider that some convention spaces are quite far from the casino spaces, greatly increasing the walk to and from the work areas. That put a strain on employees that take shorter, more frequent breaks, like table games dealers, for example. Many of them found that they did not have the time to make the trip, and resorted to bringing their own food, thus greatly increasing their monthly expenses. 

Also, consider some properties do not even have such convention areas. We talked to a some employees at the LINQ and Cromwell that had no food options on their property at all, being told they needed to walk next door to another property to access a dining area. As you can imagine, many of those employees also resorted to bringing their own food.

Gradually, as conventions have started to return to Vegas, and restrictions on food service have loosened, casinos moved back into their dining rooms. At first they still had the long six-foot tables with one chair on either end, and the pre-packaged food. As time went on, the tables got smaller, the chairs got closer together. Hot buffet-style food has returned to the majority of properties. At first, the prep cooks behind the counter had to dish it up for each employee, but as with all the rules, that has largely gone away too. All in all, things have gone back almost to normal.

With the exception, believe it or not, of the amount of EDR in service. The LINQ and Cromwell, for example, still have no dining room access on property, and are still being told to walk to another property if they want that option. It seems as though that is resolute. Likewise, the D and Circa are without EDRs; they get discounts in the restaurants and can buy vending-machine food in the break rooms (and non-union employees pay $60 a month to park at Circa). Housekeepers have it in their union contract that they must be fed on property, so as compensation, were given a raise that we are told was $3 per hour. I doubt the companies would make that compromise if they planned to return the property dining rooms to service. 

Before the pandemic, there was some disparity between the nicer employee dining rooms and the less nice. Some had prep cooks, better quality food, etc. Post-COVID, the disparity is greater. Some are back to having prep cooks and quality buffet-style food. Not surprisingly, Caesars, Bellagio, and the Cosmopolitan have, by all reports, returned to their previous high-quality employee-dining benefit. We understand that Resorts World has also made an atypical investment in feeding its employees. And the Palms is expected to have excellent employee dining. Interestingly for such a high-end and well-run property, the one dealer we know at Wynn/Encore tells us, "I'm not a fan of the employee food here."

Of course, bad-quality food, often referred to as dog food, prison food, or slop, isn't uncommon at the smaller casinos, as well as some larger ones that have less-than-stellar track records with employee relations. Worst of all, some don't have on property dining at all, all but forcing their employees to bring their own food due to time constraints.