Mr. Selesner

This page is part of the Caesars Palace Dealers "Archives". These are the original pages used to organize the Dealers of Caesars Palace.

We would like to open a written dialogue with you using this website as the forum. We know you provided some with an email address to contact you, but we feel that has to much of a "closed door" feeling. Here, on this page dedicated just to you, we can/will ask questions directed specifically to you. You can easily respond from your Harrah's/Caesars Palace email account to caesarspalacedealer@caesarspalacedealers.com and we will take your unedited responses and post them here for the benefit of all to see.

We invite ALL DEALERS from Caesars Palace to provide us with questions for Mr. Selesner to be posted directly on this page. Please send whatever questions you have for Mr. Selesner concerning only "Job Security", "Wages", "Benefits" or "Working Conditions" to us at caesarspalacedealer@caesarspalacedealers.com and your questions will be posted here in the order they are received.

It has been drilled into us that "ignorance of the law" is no excuse. Mr. Selesner, as the "Captain of the Ship" at Caesars Palace you are responsible for everything that goes on. We do realize that Mr. Loveman is the "Admiral of the Fleet" and therein lies the ultimate responsibility, but you Sir have been placed in command at Caesars Palace. You are responsible for every executive decision made at Caesars Palace. If you are "unaware" of anything the executives you are in charge of are doing, well "ignorance is no excuse".

We know that computers from Harrah's Entertainment have been on the website for over 80 hours now since August 21st. If Sir, you choose not to respond to us with the your answers to the questions posed here by the Dealers of Caesars Palace, that is your prerogative. Beware of the reactions of the Dealers if you choose not to respond though.

We have solicited Dealers for questions they want us to direct to you and we are posting them below as we receive them.

Mr. Selesner why did you blatantly lie about using attendance to count against a dealer in his/her yearly review disallowing that dealer from receiving a bonus?

Mr. Selesner,
Why was S....... J.... allowed to take us down to 3 sick days a year when every other department gets 6, even though we have PTO time in our banks? We work directly with the public and are exposed to every kind of germ that you can imagine. How can we stay healthy? Then there are the toxins and cigarette smoke to contend with. Why do you wait until the threat of a union to treat us as well as any other department? We are your front line, the face of Caesars. Why are you so aganinst us being union if you plan on treating us fairly?

Are you aware that the dealer tournament tokes are being taken away from the dealers and distributed to salaried staff in the form of cash? Is this not a violation of Harrah's ethics policy as well as a violation of the IRS code? Are you aware that the poker dealers are now required to brush the room (which costs money out of our pocket due to the tip compliance requirements we sign) because the manager of the room refuses to hire enough employees to properly brush the room? Are you aware that we day shift employees are not allowed to work a full eight hour shift because our manager refuses to authorize 15 minutes of overtime (Our workday begins at 11:45 and we must leave at 7:30 instead of working one final down at 7:30)? Are you aware the manager of the room does not have one iota of knowledge in the world of poker? All we hear from our manager is how well our poker room is doing and how much money it is making and the next thing we know he has found another way to cut our income. I think you might be quite surprised by all that goes on in the poker room that you and your staffs are not aware of.

Answer to Question #16 -

Question #15 (10-22-07)- Mr. Selesner, why haven't you been more involved with you company? Were you aware that the dealers insurance has gone up again? That the raises we get are for .04 cents and .08 cents? That they made changes to our 401K? That long-term dealers have no seniority? That part-time dealers have no seniority, that in fact break-in dealers get full-time before a dealer who has been there for 3 years? That they changed the rules for blackjack in the casino, resulting in a great loss of players?

Question #14 (10-22-07)- Dear Mr. Selesner, I thought you might like to know that the Pussy Cat Dolls were told not to engage in conversation or hang around the experienced dealers, that "we were trouble". Why is that? Also why were they shadowed by the experienced dealers for sometimes up to a week, paid full shares of tokes, and then promoted to full-time over part-time dealers who had been waiting for up to 5 years? Were you aware of this? Can you understand what kind of atmosphere that creates among the dealers? I think the girls are beautiful and an asset to the company. But I have been waiting for 2 years, and am beginning to wonder if someone doesn't like me?

Question #13 (10-22-07)- Can we stop paying two dealers tokes for one game. I don't want to pay any dealer to be shadowed to learn a new game for more than an hour. That is not right and any break in place would not pay the break in with a shadow a share of tokes.

Question #12 (10-22-07)- Why is there no seniority at CP? Dealers that have worked at CP for years, change shifts and go to the bottom of the list instead of being placed by the hire dates. Dealers who are hired part-time are passed over for FT, time and again. Some have waited 3, 4, and 5 years for FT, while someone who has only been at CP 6 months is awarded FT. Both of these behaviors by management create animosity among dealers, and create situations of distrust amongst each other.

Question #11 (10-22-07)- Did you know that a dealer who has only been sick for 5 days, 4 normal days and 1 peak day, would be terminated if a drunk driver put them into a coma and they where unable to call in sick resulting in a no call no show...6 points...because the policy is no fault?

Question #10 (10-22-07)- Is it true that if Wynn wins in the court. It now proves that he can do what he want with the money, but not that of the cocktail waitress...as they have a union contract?

Question #9 (10-22-07)- Why have you fired so many floormen on graveyard?

Question #8 (10-22-07)- Why the union health cost are paid by the company but we pay hundreds a month?

Question #7 (10-22-07)- Why are the cocktail waitress and bartenders on a pay increase scale over the life of their contract but you have not told us if you will give us the same, in fact we never get one except a cent or two?

Question #6 (10-22-07)- How can you make promises when you do not have a contract and may be fired tomorrow?

Question #5 (10-22-07)- Why have our toke by-laws been disregarded by management? That is our money and we voted by a majority vote for the rules. Why is management interfering in our tips?

Question #4 (10-22-07)- Why is it that some employees at Caesars have to pay nothing for their health insurance while I have to pay hundreds of dollars each month? Is that fair? Don't we all work for the same company? We are constantly told that rules are made out of consideration of equality and fairness, so where is the fairness in health insurance premiums?

Question #3 (10-22-07)- What's up with seniority? Why is it that now our days off are determined by a first-come first served basis? Peoples lives change through the years and because of changes they may have to change their days off. It used to be to change days off you would put in a request and when they became available the dealer with the most seniority requesting them was given them. We were never notified of this change and only found out when trying to change days off. I had to go to the bottom of the list! Dealers who were just hired put in for the days off they wanted and are ahead of me on the list! I have been here over 20 years and do not see any fairness in that.

Question #2 (10-22-07)- Why have we lost all Seniority? There are faithful employees who have proven themselves over the course of decades who now have no seniority. If say a dealer transfers to another shift they now go on what is being called "shift seniority". So, if a dealer who has been at Caesars Palace for say six months has been on a shift longer than a dealer who has been at Caesars Palace for 20 years, the dealer with six months service has more seniority than the 20 year dealer. Is that how Caesars Palace responds to employee loyalty?

Question #1 (10-22-07)- "You made the statement that Caesars Palace will never do as Steve Wynn has done and take our tokes for redistribution. You also made the statement that you do not have a contract. How can we count on your promises? If you do not have a contract, that means you can be replaced tomorrow. If you are replaced tomorrow what would obligate your replacement to fulfill your promises? Can you put into a written binding agreement that our tokes will never be taken away for redistribution?"