Question of the Day - 29 September 2019

"What you’re seeing is evidence from the era when the casino industry was run by men for men," David McKee, writer of our Stiffs & Georges blog, tells us. "Actually, it still is. The executive suites remain an almost all-male domain and it is reflected in such manifestations as the cocktail waitress in the almost-there uniform. It’s a patriarchal situation that probably won’t change until the board rooms and executive washrooms start looking more like America in general."

“Generally speaking, an employer wouldn’t be able to hire only female cocktail servers,” attorney Greg Wilken of Endunamo Group, a Las Vegas human-resources consulting firm, gives us the legalese. “There is a limited exception in employment-discrimination law, however, called a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) that allows employers in very rare circumstances to hire in a way that would otherwise be illegal. It’s most often used by churches and other religious organizations that need to hire only employees of a certain faith. It has been used in the past by Hooters to justify hiring servers who have a certain look. The argument that Hooters has made is that this profile is so intrinsic to their brand that they could not hire anyone who doesn’t convey the image they are trying to promote. It’s possible that the casinos have made similar arguments to justify a predominantly female [cocktail] workforce.”

The issue flies well outside of Nevada casino oversight. According the Nevada Gaming Control Board analyst Michael Lawton, as far as the Board is concerned, “A 'gaming employee' does not include bar backs or bartenders whose duties do not involve gaming activities, or cocktail servers or other persons engaged exclusively in preparing or serving food or beverages.”

While the casino industry likes to purvey a certain image that includes all- (or predominantly) female cocktail servers, there are exceptions. “We are an equal-opportunity employer in this regard,” writes Boyd Gaming communications director David Strow. “Both men and women are invited to apply for server openings at our properties and we currently employ men in these positions at our properties nationwide (though I do not have specific numbers immediately available).”

Most casinos, we assume, would respond similarly. 

Patrons from overseas might find the cocktail-waitress culture of the U.S. novel, to say the least. According to Peter White, publisher of British magazine Casino Life, gambling halls in the United Kingdom “all have bars and those bars have male and female staff. Some casinos offer entertainment in the evening, but that is rarely every evening and, in most cases, patrons will get their drinks from the bar.

“The Hippodrome London is a the second biggest casino in the UK,” White continues, “and that has waiter and waitress staff serving patrons during the evening’s entertainment, which at the moment is Magic Mike.” (Something for the ladies?)

Back in the colonies, which are provincial, to say the least, compared to the mother continent, there is some question of how many men would want to be slinging drinks for a living, though they aren’t subjected to the revealing uniforms into which casinos like to squeeze their female staff. (Waitresses at MGM Grand 20 years ago balked at what they called “butt floss.”)

Strow continues, “While we always consider applications from qualified candidates equally, regardless of gender, traditionally there is far less interest in these jobs from male candidates. From our perspective, this is why you would see fewer men in these positions, but men are always welcome to apply if they are interested.”

Adds University of Nevada-Las Vegas history professor Michael Green, “I don't know of any law or dispensation, and … there has been a court case or two. I knew a server at the Rio when that was where the best-looking servers were considered to be and she said they had to be a size four, no larger, or they'd be fired. Today, not so much.

“But I think part of it now is simply an assumption," Green continues. "Would male cocktail servers stamp the place as more of an LGBTQ location? I don't care, but I wonder.”

So do we.