After that disastrous graduate school experience, I decided to stay in the area rather than go back to my childhood home like a loser. I was going to try to make the best of things. Get a job. Whatever.
So I got a job in a casino. I had previous casino experience so it wasn’t difficult.
I remember the job interview. The guy was impressed by the college that I went to. Not the graduate school, I don’t think I put it on my resume, but the undergraduate. And I didn’t even go to any kind of prestigious place. But I think that very few university graduates were applying for jobs at this casino.
He asked where I saw myself in five years. That lazy question beloved by shitty job interviewers. And I said that I’d like to be a professor. I still had this idea that I wanted to do something that actually required a university degree. Because otherwise, what was the point of going to college for that whole time?
So I got the job. It was as a security guard. There were a bunch of security guards at this place.
It was a two hour drive from my home to this place and then a 30 minute bus “shuttle” from the parking lot to the casino. So I commuted five hours a day. I had to fill the tank with gas every day, which cost about $15. My rent was $500/month. And I was making $8.50/hour.
I did the orientation. It lasted about three days. All new employees had to do it. There were about 30 of us there. Different departments.
There were two other guys who were also starting as security guards. It was an old white guy and a black guy about my age.
A lot of these new employees didn’t speak English. They weren’t Mexican, though, as you might expect. They were from India and China. I don’t know where this casino was getting so many Indian and Chinese workers but they were there. And they had no idea what was going on at this orientation.
It was the usual orientation bullshit. Stupid group work and shit. I hated every second of that nonsense but put up with it.
Then after the three days, we get our assignments. We didn’t even know what days or times we’ll be working until after orientation.
So I’ll be working the evening shift (5.00 pm to midnight), as was this old white guy, and the black guy will be working overnights (midnight to 8.00 am). He was not happy with that. And it did stink of racism. But what are you going to do?
We were also divided into two teams. It was a big casino so half of the security team worked in one area and the other half worked in the other area. One team clearly had the better candidates. I was in this elite team.
And then I saw the overnight crew. Holy shit. Absolute dregs of society. There was a fat goth chick with a bunch of crazy makeup. Shit like this. And that black guy was there. Clearly the most professional-looking guy in the group. Some woman who trained us during this orientation kind of apologised to him for him going to the overnight crew.
The woman who trained us had absolutely massive tits. She was in her mid to late 30s and not a looker. But massive, massive tits. Like freak show material. She was from West Virginia. This casino was in New England.
Most of the security guards were either in their early to mid 20s or like in their 50s or 60s. Very little in between. It was either people who were in their 20s and desperate for any kind of work and people in their 50s and 60s who were only doing the job to get medical insurance and trying to coast to retirement. The job had medical insurance and in the US, at least 20 years ago I don’t know about now, the only affordable way to get medical insurance is if your job offers it. And if you don’t have medical insurance, you’re completely fucked, especially if you’re an old person who needs medical care.
So I was doing this job. It was fucking shit. I was the only person who had a degree.
There were a lot of hot chicks there, though. Many of them prostitutes. I remember seeing this one Chinese woman, big tits, in a little dress, and she’s with some old fat white guy in his 50s who spent a lot of time in some poker tournament.
I saw a homosexual couple at the slot machines just feeding $100 bills into the machine. It was $100 a pull. And they were getting nothing. Hundred dollar bill after hundred dollar bill. They didn’t get anything back.
And a lot of old people. REALLY old people. They would literally bus them in from nursing homes. So you’d see these senile people in front of slot machines everywhere you look. Some would have colonoscopy bags and respirators and whatnot. This is the lifeblood of the casino industry: dementia patients.
A lot of Chinese people too. There was a whole section of the casino just for Chinese games. There are casino games that are popular in China and they’d be played here. All of the dealers were Chinese. All of the players were Chinese. And it was overwhelmingly old men. Gambling is popular in China but mostly with old men.
I made friends with an 18 year old guy from New Mexico. He was a security guard too. He started a little bit after I did. He said that that Chinese prostitute with the big tits talked to him. Just asked how he liked working here and shit like this. So I was jealous of that.
He had moved to New England to be with his girlfriend. They met on the internet. This was a pretty new thing 20 years ago. He said, “I know it’s nerdy but whatever.” His girlfriend’s parents had a separate part of their house that they rented to this guy and their daughter.
A lot of hot Asian women there. There were a lot of entrances into the casino floor and you’re supposed to check ID’s and whatnot if people look under 21. But whenever I worked one of these entrances, my policy was to only check ID’s if you look under 21 and you’re not a hot Asian chick. Hot Asian chicks got a free pass when I was working there.
There was also a middle aged black guy who started working there. He was a security guard too. And he was really unhappy with the pay. I don’t know what job he had before this but he was not pleased with $8.50/hour.
One time, I was guarding the entrance to the bathroom and I noticed a woman sitting on another woman’s lap at the slot machines. Just right in front of me. They were carrying on. People would walk by and stare. Some guy came over to me and said something like, “I bet you wish that was you.”
Then this middle aged black co-worker guy came over. And he’s looking at this and I thought that he was going to make a comment about how sexy it is that there’s these two hot chicks getting it on with each other. But no. He was really disappointed with what he was seeing.
He said, “Look at that. Two women wasting their lives. These are good looking women. They could get husbands. They could have families. But they’re doing this instead.”
Anyway, another perk of the job were the free meals. We got one free meal a day. That’s why people would work there, along with the medical insurance. People worked just for the free meal a day.
And it was like a buffet style thing. You could take as much as you want. They had a big Chinese food selection to cater to all of the Chinese people working there. I’m guessing more than half of them weren’t in the country legally. None of them seemed to speak English.
There were a lot of Polish people working there too. They were exchange students at some college or something. They would work there in the summers.
One time I was in the hotel, there was a hotel attached to the casino, and a prostitute got into the elevator with me. And she said, “It must be fun working in a casino.” She was just trying to be friendly. But by this point, I really hated the job and I wasn’t thinking, and I said, “This is the shittiest job I’ve ever had.” And she just smiled.
It didn’t occur to me that this is a prostitute and I shouldn’t complain about my job because she’s getting fucked in the ass every night for a living.
There was a manager there who was a real asshole. He was in his 30s and like five foot two. He had little man syndrome. And he didn’t like me because we had an argument over some bullshit. So he started giving me the shittiest jobs. Every two hours, you worked a different job. You could be at an entrance or wandering the casino floor, or whatever. I don’t remember exactly but some jobs were easier than others. Some jobs allowed you to sit, for example.
But whenever he was in charge of the schedule, he would be all the shitty jobs. So one day, I just said fuck it, I’m quitting.
There were like five managers. So I speak to the two top managers, tell them that I’m quitting and it’s because this manager keeps me the shitty jobs. And one of the guys says, “Well, what jobs would you like then?” And I said, “It’s not my job to do the schedule but he’s intentionally giving me all of the bad jobs, every single time.” So this manager said, “No, don’t quit, I’ll talk to him and it will all be resolved.” So I didn’t quit.
And I told these managers, “I don’t need this job. I have a degree.” At the time, I was thinking that having a degree counted for something.
Things were fine for a few days. I got the really cushy jobs at first. That’s not even what I wanted, though. I just wanted things to be done fairly. Give everybody an equal turn at the good and bad jobs. But no. You give somebody the tiniest bit of power and they abuse it.
So things quickly just went back to how it was. When I saw the schedule that had me in the basement all day, that’s when I quit for good.
The whole experience lasted three months.