Rex's Las Vegas Lists
The blurry picture I got of this cranky waitress to the left is what started it all. I had to crop the photo way down so you can see the lady, because I wasn’t even aiming at her. She’s obviously not even in focus. She just happened to walk into the shot.
Anyway, when the flash went off, this waitress flew into a rage. She screamed “Fucker!” and then grabbed a full drink and threw it at me.
Here’s the fortunate part (for me) … she throws like a girl.
Have you ever seen a small child when they are first learning to throw a baseball? They throw the ball forward with all of their might, but somehow lose their grip and it either goes backward, or drops a couple of feet in front of them.
Well, this lady never got past that level of dexterity and coordination.
I was a good 15 feet away from her … and when she aimed the glass at me, and let it go, it dropped about 2 feet in front of her … splashed all over her … and also caught some hapless tourists in the collateral spillage.
DOH!
You thought this lady was mad before? Now she was in a full blown Rosie O’Donnel at the Republican Convention, PMS without Midol, Lorena Bobbit purple rage.
We’re talking Frenchman in a deodorant factory anger.
Not only had I taken a picture in her vicinity, but I had obviously sucked every last bit of hand/eye coordination out of this woman through some kind of supernatural Vulcan mind control as well.
At least that was her position.
To make matters worse, several witnesses to this major hissy-fit were laughing their asses off. Some pondered aloud what her problem was, remarking “I have never seen anything like that before”, and questioning her mental stability. I, personally, didn’t say a word to her. I figured that she was having a horrible day, and actually felt bad for her.
This feeling lasted about 30 seconds, because she wasn’t done yet.
After she picked up the glass and put down her tray, she rushed past me to summon security.
Now, what she did is unequivocally considered assault under Nevada Law (well, attempted assault in her case). I realize that as a practical matter, things like this are usually dismissed as far too petty to warrant any kind of legal suit, but a wealthy casino owner probably shouldn’t roll the dice on these matters. And she didn’t just throw a drink, but a glass container. Shattering glass on someone’s face will probably leave a mark, and is something I would stress during training not to do.
And lest you think it was inconsequential, entertain for a moment the thought of a woman with a pocket camera taking a picture of a male waiter, and having him throw a full beverage at her … still in the container. If the casino didn’t issue a full apology when the man got out of jail, women’s groups would be picketing out front complaining about “violence against women”.
I can also assure you that Gloria Allred would be involved in some capacity, and someone would be getting paid.
But when a women throws a drink at a man … it’s cute and funny. Hell, you see men getting drinks tossed in their faces in TV commercials all the time. They actually use “violence against men” to sell products.
You’ve come a long way, baby!
But I digress …
The woman finally made it to a security guy, told him some story … which given her state of mind, I am sure was quite embellished (“This guy shoved a camera up my twat and tried to take a picture of my uterus!”), and the security guy got on the radio and called for reinforcements.
Then, they surrounded me. I think there were 3 security guys, and one security woman hanging behind them … but I’m not exactly sure what the count was. This little Napoleon dude did all the talking.
The encounter began very curiously. He asked me if I had a camera. I simply said “yeah”, and he said “Don’t lie to me!”.
I think he was expecting me to say “no” and already had the response queued up in his head, so it was a bit awkward.
He asked me if I had been taking pictures. I said that I had. He asked of what, and I said that I had been taking pictures all over the place … which was true. I took many pictures of the interior architecture, and exterior night shots of the casino.
I remember him saying “don’t lie to me” several more times, but I am well aware that there exists no offense of “lying to a private citizen in a silly uniform”. I was free to tell him whatever the hell I wanted to tell him. He just didn’t know that I knew this.
He told me that I should ask permission before taking pictures of “Venetian employees”. (The Gondola people are going to be sooo pissed because I have like 20 pictures of them, and never swam out to ask permission.)
He asked me if I had taken pictures of any employees. I said “I don’t know, maybe they got into some shots”. He replied again with “Don’t lie to me!”.
Apparently, people lie to this guy a lot, and he is very sensitive about it.
He asked me if my camera was digital. I said that it was. He demanded that I delete the pictures.
I’ve been through the “delete the pictures” routine before, so I knew the drill. I fiddled around with the back side of my camera (without ever turning it on), and declared that they had been deleted. He asked me if I was sure while telling me not to lie to him. “Oh yes sir, they are all gone, I wouldn’t lie to you.”
He gave me some kind of half-assed lecture in front of the other rent-a-cops about how I was evil or something. It must have looked impressive to the other “security” guys who had completely left their posts, and left the casino unprotected during this time. Feel safer? Me too.
Anyway, I nodded politely through the whole thing and let the guy swing his dick around. Every now and then I have some fun with these guys through sarcasm, but I was with some other people, and didn’t want them to get caught up in this … so I took the “I’m a stupid, hapless tourist” route. Of the several ways to deal with these situations, this one is usually the most expedient … albeit the least entertaining.
He asked me if I was a guest in the hotel, I said no, he asked me where I was staying (I don’t swing that way dude), and I told him I was staying at the Palms. Of course, I wasn’t staying at the Palms. George Maloof’s pig is still pissed off at me for repeatedly posting his picture online.
Anyway, I disobeyed the “don’t lie to me” order on so many levels, that this guy is going to really have a complex now.
After he was done with another little speech, he basically hinted that we leave, we were shadowed by security as we collected a member of our party (who was pumping money into a slot machine) and made our way out.
Curiously, the “security” guy never mentioned the drink that was sort of thrown at me. Apparently that’s cool to do in the Venetian. So all you drink throwers out there … now you know where to go!
I know quite a few employees at the Venetian. I have given a generous amount of play there, I have brought countless people there, who in turn gave them generous amounts of play. I have always championed it as one of my favorite places to play poker (and it still is).
Seriously, the entire thing was completely unprofessional, and it honestly did kind of surprise me.
I fully expect to have a crack pipe thrown at me by cocktail waitresses at the Gold Spike … but at the Venetian???
The Venetian has usually been a cut above in overall service and professionalism. I rarely have issues there. To the contrary, I know many people who play there, and even know some of the employees. They have always treated me very well, including giving me a private, pre-open tour of the Poker Room.
If you had asked me where I would get assaulted by a cocktail waitress, the Venetian would have been last on my list.
I have literally thousands of interior pictures of the V, and staff will often direct me to a new addition or good spot for a photo.
This all happened because one waitress went ballistic, for reasons I still don’t fully understand. If she had walked up to me and said “I’d rather not be in any pictures”, hell, I would have erased it then and there. This has happened before, and I can’t remember ever rejecting anyone’s request when they just approached me in a reasonable way.
I would never have even given thought to post this blurry picture of said waitress had she not created a scene. I would have deleted it because there was nothing at all interesting in the picture … until she went nuts.
In my opinion, this waitress is a liability to the property. Some of the patrons were aghast while watching her and thought she had a serious problem. At the very least, they felt it was a gross overreaction.
I have lived in this town long enough not to be surprised by anything, so I typically take things like this with mild amusement … and at worst, mild annoyance. I expect the unexpected here, and it doesn’t phase me too terribly much.
However, a lawsuit-happy tourist with a disposable camera might have a completely different take on it. If this lady makes contact with the wrong person, the V may have a problem on their hands.
There were no signs preventing photography, and as has been discussed before, taking pictures in such areas is not illegal. Some security people say “go ahead” and some ask you to stop. It is really just the luck of the draw. Taking pictures inside of any Vegas casino is not illegal.
99% of people really aren’t sure what the law regarding photography is in private buildings (although they act like they know), so here is a very brief primer. It is not comprehensive, but is just a general guideline.
http://www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdf
It is not illegal to take pictures in the casino. It is illegal to keep taking pictures if they ask you to stop. If they ask me to stop, I do stop. But there is no posted policy in the casino, and if you ask around to the employees, you will get different answers from different people. Some employees have encouraged me to take pictures. One time a pit boss instructed a dealer to pose for me. It just varies day to day as to what the “policy” is. Sometimes you are invited to take them, sometimes they just ignore you, and sometimes they ask you to stop. I just do what they ask me to do, if they ask me to do anything at all. It’s a humongous “grey” area in which you might violate the wishes of certain people … but you violate no laws.
Now, after an article like this, I always get emails screaming with the shrill tone of “But it’s private properteeeeeeeeeee! They can do whatever they want!” And I am sure I will get several of these emails this week.
But the statement isn’t correct. At least not in the context in which they will use it.
If you invite someone into your home, and they take your picture without asking, all you can do is order them to leave.
You cannot punch them, you cannot detain them in you home, and you cannot take their camera. If you do, you will go to jail. It does not matter that this all occurred on YOUR private property. Almost all illegal acts committed on public property, are equally as illegal on private property.
You can’t legally smoke pot in the park, and you can’t legally do it in your home either. Private or not.
You can’t invite your worst enemy over for dinner, and beat him senseless secure in the fact that nothing will happen to you since you did it on your “private property” (which the local government really owns and charges you “personal property tax” which is a long word for “rent”) . You cannot physically detain someone against their will. You don’t have any kind of “police power” because you own the land. These rules vary state by state, but you generally have to let people leave your property when they want to.
You don’t even have to wait in line for those dopey bag checks at Best Buy and Circuit City. Most people do it because “everyone else does it” and “it helps the store with theft” (only if you stole something), but I never, ever stop for them and they have chased me out to the parking lot on numerous occasions. Once I pay for it, I own it, and I am free to leave at any point I wish, unless someone witnessed me stealing … and I don’t shoplift. One store in California forcibly detained a woman for a bag check, and she sued the shit out of the store and won … so they don’t chase me into the parking lot as often anymore.
They know it’s “voluntary”, they just don’t want you to know it.
Heck, in some states you can’t even harm a person who broke into your house in the middle of the night, if that person is posing no obvious physical threat.
Absent an act of self-defense, you can only order someone to leave, and call the cops if they refuse. That’s it.
The only things you can legally do on “private property” that you can’t legally do in public, generally involves nudity, land modifications, and loitering.
“Freedom to do whatever you want on your private property” really is one of those larger-than-life myths. Sure it sounds cool and is a downright shit-kicking American patriotic thing to say. Kind of like when Toby Keith sings “We’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way!” … it makes us want to grab a sixpack, hop in the pickup truck while waving a flag and kick the shit out of everyone who doesn’t salute the stars and stripes.
It’s a ball-enlarging declaration of personal freedom and bad-assness (from a guy in the safety of a recording studio).
But like most things … reality is somewhat different.
If you refuse to stop taking pictures when asked and refuse to leave when asked, THEN it is Trespassing and Metro Police can be called, but until you are asked to stop or to leave, you have not broken even a minor city ordinance.
Hurling a drink at someone, however, is actually a criminal offense.
My countless encounters with casino “security” are somewhat of a running joke with everyone who knows me, because I think many (not all) are wannabe cops on a power trip who run around looking for petty trouble while ignoring the fact that people are getting shot in New York-New York (with guns, not cameras), getting shot in Caesars’ Palace elevators (with guns, not cameras), and stealing cars from the parking garage (with …. coat hangers?).
If security gets bored, which is often, they look for idiotic reasons to annoy tourists … like taking pictures at a tourist destination, or someone’s kid stopping to tie their shoe on the way to the guest room … because the only way to get to the guest room is through the casino.
To make themselves sound more important, they usually cite “terrorism” as the reason for giving you shit for taking pictures of slot machines. You know, because Bin Laden is supposedly funding his misdeeds through Double Bonus Video Poker.
They also get angry when they realize that you know that they have no more “police power” than you do. All they are legally empowered to do is make a citizen’s arrest (like you or I) if they witness a crime in progress, but other than that, all they can really do is tell you to leave. If they touch you, take your stuff, physically detain you, etc … that is assault, kidnapping, and theft just as if your neighbor did this to you in his house.
There is a HUGE misconception about what “authority” these guys have, but the legal answer is … no more or less than any other casino employee.
Even though I don’t respect these guys in general (some of them don’t have a complex and I respect those guys), I am always fairly cordial and polite to them. They are local working stiffs trying to feed their family with jobs that don’t pay terribly much , and it’s not their fault that they couldn’t pass the Metro Police Department exam. Some of the words on that test are hard to spell.
Please save the email about “Oh yeah, the law is irrelevant, they’ll take you in the back room and break your fingers or kill you and bury you in the desert somewhere!”
The mob has been replaced by multi-billion dollar publicly-traded corporations, who’s shareholders would have an ass fit if the bottom line was effected by some misguided security goon. And Las Vegas no longer has a shortage of personal injury lawyers who would like a shot, any shot, at the deep pockets of one of these big casinos.
Those old “back room justice stories” are great, and help to keep the mystique of the town going, but this isn’t your grandfather’s Las Vegas. Now we have traffic jams, shopping malls, handicapped parking, gender and race discrimination laws, 6/5 Blackjack, unionized workers, building codes (don’t tell Harrah’s), and they will actually arrest you for driving drunk now instead of giving you the key to the city.
You don’t get to shoot people in the face over poker disputes anymore. Yes, I know it sucks, but that’s the price of progress.
I have had my photo taken thousands of times in this town without my permission. It is part of being out and about in Vegas. And it almost always occurs on private property. I’ve had my picture taken at the Bellagio Conservatory probably 50 times while I was milling about. Nobody ever asked me if it was okay. Being in a publicly accessible place implies consent, and I don’t expect them to ask me.
I have a lot of pictures of the Rio performers. I never stopped the show to ask if I could take their pictures, I just took them … along with hundreds of other people. And most cocktail waitresses will gladly give you a smile. They are part of the entertainment, and they (should) know it.
I have pictures of the Sirens of TI, Venetian gondoliers, Bally’s Showgirls, ride operators at Circus Circus, doormen, cab jockeys, monorail ambassadors, etc, etc, etc.
Hell, the girls at hooters smile and pose when they see a camera come out:
http://www.vegasrex.com/2007/12/10/hooters-girls-and-cowboys/
Why?
Because it’s Las Fucking Vegas. You are going to get on film, and it doesn’t make one shit’s bit of difference if you want to be or not. Big cameras, small cameras, pen cameras, cellphone cameras, everybody has some kind of camera with them 24/7 … welcome to 2008.
If you have an aversion to being on film … don’t come here. You may know it, you may not know it, but someone is going home with a picture of you. I hate to break it to Ms. Bad Aim, but she has been photographed eight bazillion times, probably without her knowledge.
I’m a bit disappointed with the Venetian. I won’t say it tarnished my image of the property, but the unprofessional security and waitress was a bit of a gut check as to how even a great property can still have a strangely off night.
I’m still looking forward to the Palazzo opening in 2 weeks.
Here’s hoping that they continue the practice of hiring waitresses with horribly bad aim.
Oh, I almost forgot, here are some of the other photos that I “deleted”:
