Farha/Townsend stiff dealer?

[psandman]

"Thats incorrect, she is "disclosing trade secrets"


Actually thats not a trade secret. I agree that Linda pushes the line by disclosing player names. I ceratinly don't do that and whe blog I am careful to avoid anything along those lines.

However this is not a trade secret. In fact it is not a secret. You see the public policy of the state of Nevada is that gaming is to be done out in the open view of the public. Accordingly anything going on on the casino floor is open and not secret.

[LasVegasMichael]

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...she is "disclosing trade secrets"...

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From wikipedia:

A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information used by a business to obtain an advantage over competitors or customers. In some jurisdictions, such secrets are referred to as "confidential information".

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_secret

Unless poker tokes are deemed "confidential information" in the Bellagio Employee Handbook (referring specifically to poker tokes, preferably), I will admit defeat (upon reading said information with my own eyes, of course). Until then, publicly discussing tokes, or lack thereof, from a particular player by no means qualifies as "disclosing trade secrets".

The lawsuits you referred to were almost exclusivley concerning actual trade secrets akin to programming, product design, or manufacturing process.

I will also stand corrected if a single public lawauit was filed, and won, by a CASINO who sued an employee for publicly discussing tipping, off the clock, as that would be a suit that would actually pertain to this topic at hand.

Also, I want to reiterate that I am not defending her lack of professionalism in choosing to publish the information, nor am I critiquing the players in question decision not to tip, as that is their option. I am only defending her right to do so (without fear of termination), much like it is the players right to not to tip.

[RedWave]

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Honestly - If I was Doug Dalton, Linda would have been let go. Whats she is doing is hurting the trust relationship between the Bellagio and it's high rollers. She needs to learn to STFU.

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Strongly disagree.

There is no attorney client privelage here, nor is there any non disclosure agreement between poker dealers and players.

If you want to make an argument that there is an unwritten rule about dealers not discussing said things, a counter argument can be made about an unwritten concerning toking the dealer (which is a pretty well known one).

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree completely. Why should she be silenced, because these players can't afford to tip a good dealer? Obviously Sammy and Brian don't think it's necessary to tip a dealer doing their job correctly, so why should they care if everyone knows this. They shouldn't be ashamed of their views if they think they are correct, otherwise they would be tipping the dealers.

TT, why should Linda care about Sammy losing in the pit, she and the dealers still get paid minimum wage by the B no matter how much he drops on table games.

[uclaben]

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Why should she be silenced, because these players can't afford to tip a good dealer?

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What the hell are you guys talking about?

She should be silenced because she is publicly insulting one of her employer's best clients. Of course she has the First Amendment right to blog about whatever she wants, but I see no reason for Bellagio to put up with this. If I'm published speaking ill of one of my firm's biggest customers, I'm going to get fired.

[RR]

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She should be silenced because she is publicly insulting one of her employer's best clients.

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I am not sure how I feel about this. If telling the world they don't tip is something that would be offensive to them it would appear that they know they are receiving a services they are expected to pay for and choose not to. Personally I find it very distasteful to discuss tokes publically. For a while (maybe ongoing) in some of the big games there was something built into the collection for the dealer because Huck Seed not tipping on a large pot made its way into the local paper.

[LasVegasMichael]

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She should be silenced because she is publicly insulting one of her employer's best clients.

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I think that some people are stating opinions without actually reading the blog entry. Here is the actual text in question:

She tried again, “Does the winner of the match take care of the dealer? That’s how I understood it worked.”

They both ignored her. As she left with Sam she turned to me and said, “I tried.”

I laughed and said, “I know. Thanks.”

How is the above an insult? It seems that it is a rather black and white retelling of something that transpired.

[*TT*]

simple solution - I contacted Casino Control enforcement division, they are investigating if there is any historical case of employee termination for disclosing information about a casino customer's habits. The enforcement officer I spoke to wasn't positive hence she will get back to me, but she thinks this is a case by case situation with each casino depending on their employee contracts. She doesn't know which employee or casino we are discussing to protect Linda's confidentiality, I'm not trying to get her fired, but this is an interesting topic of discussion that we can clarify rather quickly instead of us all acting as armchair quarterbacks.

I'll report back when I learn more.

[DayTripping]

Linda is obviously a top notch dealer, so even if she gets released I don't think she'll have trouble finding a job elsewhere. At least if she's working somewhere else she'll no longer be dealing big games like this and won't get stiffed by nits like Townsend anymore.

[uclaben]

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She should be silenced because she is publicly insulting one of her employer's best clients.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that some people are stating opinions without actually reading the blog entry. Here is the actual text in question:

She tried again, “Does the winner of the match take care of the dealer? That’s how I understood it worked.”

They both ignored her. As she left with Sam she turned to me and said, “I tried.”

I laughed and said, “I know. Thanks.”

How is the above an insult? It seems that it is a rather black and white retelling of something that transpired.

[/ QUOTE ]

So what? Yes, she's just retelling what transpired...and that is embarrassing/insulting for one of Bellagio's customers. Why should they allow that from their employees?

Let's say I work sales for Toyota and we're selling a fleet of cars to IBM. An IBM executive rolls in dead drunk to a business meeting. As a Toyota employee, can I write about this situation in my blog? Of course I COULD - and Toyota would fire me before the first comment hit the page. You don't speak ill of your clients in public, period.

[spacemanspiff]

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simple solution - I contacted Casino Control enforcement division, they are investigating if there is any historical case of employee termination for disclosing information about a casino customer's habits. The enforcement officer I spoke to wasn't positive hence she will get back to me, but she thinks this is a case by case situation with each casino depending on their employee contracts. She doesn't know which employee or casino we are discussing to protect Linda's confidentiality, I'm not trying to get her fired, but this is an interesting topic of discussion that we can clarify rather quickly instead of us all acting as armchair quarterbacks.

I'll report back when I learn more.

[/ QUOTE ]

If it's in their contract then I will happily stand corrected. Obviously you can give up 1st amendment rights for the sake of a job and if she, or anyone else, has done so and then breaches the contract it's a whole new ballgame.

All that being said, if there's one thing I've learned as a sports fan in Boston, it's to never let the facts get in the way of armchair quarterbacking.