H LEE BARNES & JOHN L SMITH

DUMMY UP AND DEAL (2002)

INSIDE THE CULTURE OF CASINO DEALING

Book Description
The glitter and excitement that tourists associate with casinos is only a facade. To the gaming industry's front-line employees, its dealers, the casino is a far less glamorous environment, a workplace full of emotional tension, physical and mental demands, humor and pathos. Author H. Lee Barnes, who spent many years as a dealer in some of Las Vegas's best-known casinos, shows us this world from the point of view of the table-games dealer.

Told in the voices of dozens of dealers, male and female, young and old, 

DUMMY UP AND DEAL takes us to the dealer's side of the table. We observe the "breaking in" that constitutes a dealer's training, where the hands learn the ballistic motions of the game while the mind undergoes the requisite hardening to endure long hours of concentration and the demands of often unreasonable and sometimes abusive players. We discover how dealers are hired and assigned to shifts and tables, how they interact with each other and with their supervisors, and how they deal with players-the winners and the losers, the "Sweethearts" and the "Dragon Lady," the tourists looking for a few thrills and the mobsters showing off their "juice." We observe cheaters on both sides of the table and witness the exploits of such high rollers as Frank Sinatra and Colonel Parker, Elvis's manager. And we learn about the dealers' lives after-hours, how some juggle casino work with family responsibilities while others embrace the bohemian lifestyle of the Strip and sometimes lose themselves to drugs, drink, or wild sex. It's a life that invites cynicism and bitterness that can erode the soul and deaden the spirit. But the dealer's life can also offer moments of humor, encounters with generous and kindly players, moments of pride or humanity or professional solidarity.

Barnes writes with the candor of a keen observer of his profession, someone who has seen it all-many times-but has never lost his capacity to wonder, to sympathize, or to laugh. DUMMY UP AND DEAL is a vivid and colorful insider's view of the casino industry, a fascinating glimpse behind the glitter into the real world of the casino worker.

About the Author
H. Lee Barnes worked in the casino industry for seventeen years as a dealer and game supervisor, and for two years as a private investigator hired to survey casinos for cheating activities. He is the author of Gunning for Ho: Vietnam Stories, a finalist for the Texas Institute of Letters Steven Turner Award. He is an instructor of English at the Community College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas. 

Thank you for taking the time to do this Lee. What inspired you to write such a book?

The whole notion of inspiration is a strange one to address as such. I was inspired more to find shapes for stories that rendered them engaging and in many cases to fashion a voice to tell that story. What prompted me to write these stories was a simple desire to see what I could tap from the experience of dealing and translate it into a body of fiction. What happened instead was that I began with my stories in abbreviated forms to see what would happen on the page, if indeed a short story or a novel could evolve out of the casino experience. 

Eventually, I gave up on the idea of writing a novel and instead began to compile more stories, others and mine. Half way through the compilation I realized I had a book of creative nonfiction going. I went out and sought more stories, all kinds, knowing that the book would be a quilt. Anything other than a patchwork of stories wouldn't work. Then I knew that the stories must stand on their own, each one, no matter its length. I didn't want to force a narrative overlay onto the stories as that seemed artificial, thus I chose to connect them thematically in chapters and introduce each chapter with narrative commentary. Somewhere in all of this lies an answer to your question, even if it seems a bit oblique or even remote.

I understand. I have two domain names on one website. I'm in the middle of such a change of direction myself. 

What are your thoughts on writing a fictional novel about the casino experience?  Are those plans scraped?

Actually I am, at the moment when time allows, writing a "casino" novel. That's all I'll say as I don't like to give details about a work in progress. My sense is that the energy that goes into writing comes from keeping a cork on the bottle and shaking the contents. Once you've talked a story, the drain on the energy is opened.

Did you take into account your book may create a little controversy?

I sure hoped it would. I come from a working-class background, a class that hasn't had much voice since the writing days of Steinbeck, who addressed the issues and struggles of the common worker. When I think of the unnecessary and unfair treatment so many received in the business, I'm hopeful that the book actually is read by the suits on the top and something good comes of it for the people in the pits. On the other hand, to quote a character of mine in the short story "The Science of Color," 

"Hope is the center of a bagel." If you think about it, "hope" is one letter away from being "hole." I do hope that Lefty Rosenthal and some other do-dos who walked all over people read the book and are offended. In truth, I don't think the book will get significant attention, just as many books get little attention, just as the injustices committed by Enron and World Com executives will fade from mind and never truly be addressed by legislatures. We live in threatening times and that's the spin most media stories take. Those are the books and stories they want. Of course, we'll re-immerse ourselves in the muck of television and celebrity worship. That way we can avoid the controversies that stir under the surface of our little lives. 

An old-timer I work with said after reading the book "If he had wrote something like this 20 years ago they would have buried his ass out in the desert" 

We all hear old-timers brag about those "good 'ol days" of casino dealing. Does it agitate you hearing statements like that? 

So the "good old days" are nothing more than a reflection of youth?

That's a fair statement. Besides, who in 1982 was taking people out to the desert for writing? Morry Shanker was the last of the mob people in place about then. No dealers I worked with could take me out to the desert. Not only am I a second degree black belt in taekwondo, but also I was more than capable in the use of firearms, having been a combat soldier in Vietnam and a cop. Hot air is good for keeping balloons afloat and drying hair.

Your book was foreword by Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith.

He writes: "Nowadays though, in the sensitivity-trained, zero-tolerance megaresort era, a better life-support tool seems to be cynicism."

You agree?

Cynics were a group of Greek philosophers who worshiped dogs. That seems to me about the most appropriate way to deal with not just the political correctness in the casino industry but all that think-as-I-do mentality that pervades, no consumes contemporary America. I say to preserve your humanity get a dog and spend a lot of time with it. Yes, we are forced to be cynics; to be otherwise is a form of self-deception or stupidity.

When and where did you break into the casino business.

I broke in at Little Caesar's. My first pit boss was Jim Oberly, a true character. He'd had a problem with drinking and on a lark poked some holes in a shopping bag, covered his head and went into the old Shopping Bag Market at Paradise and Flamingo and robbed it, taking money and booze with him. He got in his car to flee the scene, started the engine, opened the bottle and never backed out. He was awakened a few minutes later by a deputy. He'd been a trustee in the jail when I was on the Sheriff's Department and had been treated well. He shined our boots there. Now, a few years later he was my boss. He was a good story teller and tried to turn me into a dealer. The day shift boss--Warren I think his name was--was a degenerate gambler himself. One day the dice went on streak and he couldn't stand it, started sweating and shaking, finally he pulled his meager bankroll out of his pocket, said he quit and bought in. He had all of his money spread on the layout when the dice rolled seven-out. 

That was Little Caesar's.

What properties did you deal at?

Besides Little Caesar's, I worked at the Mint, the Maxim, the Sands, the Hilton, and finished at Harrah's. I was fired from the Maxim in a mass firing before Christmas of 1984. Art Woods and Jim Barnes who engineered the many mass firings did me a service. I went back to college determine never to be at the mercy of fickle decisions made by incompetent managers.

Any last thoughts Mr. Barnes?

My last thoughts are about the many good people I met in the industry. I hope their lot improves, and I hope the gaming business remains healthy. It's certainly going to find itself challenged in the courts, but it survived the mob, a lot of wholesale incompetence, smiley-faced corporations, and it will likely survive any court challenges, and probably thrive in the end--If they don't shoot themselves in the foot first. After all, it's Las Vegas casinos that have invested in gambling country wide. Is it possible to choke yourself to death? We'll see. Unfortunately, if the business goes sour in this town, it's the dealers and casino workers who'll suffer the greatest toll.

Thanks for doing this Scott. Hope something breaks for you so that you don't end up a bitter burned-out shell like so many people in the business do. 

You don't seem that type anyhow.