Vol. 4, No. 7, July 2007
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Sticking With It
Education, detours, experience characterize Iowa casino exec
The former Atlantic City pit boss shattered the glass ceiling of advancement through sheer will. Meyer boasts one of the industry’s most improbable journeys—from cocktail waitress in Lake Tahoe to senior vice president and general manager of Ameristar in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Atlantic City supplied her bridge between two eras. Meyer worked as a dealer, box, floor person and pit boss for the original Harrah’s at Trump Plaza and Trump Marina from 1982 to 1992. Her ambition included gaining a bachelor’s degree from Stockton and a master’s degree in information technology from Virginia-based George Mason University.
For this type-A executive, perpetual motion was a mere prerequisite.
“You make yourself so prepared that there’s no way they can say you are not the one for a promotion,” Meyer says. “Then you have to ask for the opportunity. If you say ‘I’ve done this for 10 years now; I should get promoted,’ it will not happen. You have to ask for extra jobs, take on additional responsibilities and then go ask for the position.”
Meyer paid her dues after migrating to Atlantic City for personal reasons. The California native broke into dealing in Lake Tahoe, and then followed her casino boyfriend here. The couple later married and he followed her back to the Midwest.
While here, Meyer found abundant opportunity.
“A lot of people from Nevada were going out to Atlantic City and it became a great move,” Meyer says. “Being a woman, I would not have advanced as quickly back in Nevada. Atlantic City was the place to be if you wanted to be in management. It was growing so fast, there was a casino opening every year and the properties were pursuing people with leadership qualities. You had to have experienced people. Atlantic City was growing back then, Vegas was stagnant.”
Meyer was in high gear. Already a pit boss, she sought a gaming alternative. After earning the Stockton degree, Meyer capitalized on Harrah’s tuition reimbursement plan. Meyer selected scheduling hell—working four days here, driving four hours to Fairfax, Virginia, and attending two night classes per week.
The double schedule lasted 18 months, producing Meyer’s ticket to teach college.
Meyer became an adjunct professor at Stockton, but realized she preferred gaming. The degree actually found a better use.
“Harrah’s was starting its comp profiling, players club, Diamond Card, etc.; it was all cutting-edge,” Meyer recalls. “That’s where the information technology background helped me. Somebody would write a part of the program, and then I would help test it. If a player was going to be rated, or comped, we could do that right in the pit. We could generate a rating card, write a comp, etc. Operations would ask if the points got deducted, and then we did a paper trail.
“The same idea applied to a hotel reservation. Did the system really work? When it did, we trained people to use it on the floor.”
Meyer earned two more unofficial gaming degrees here. One came by understanding New Jersey’s intense regulations. A second niche occurred with customers, giving her a sixth sense of player development.
“You come to realize it’s all relationship-building,” Meyer says. “The casino manager on the floor has got to be a problem-solver. It is win-win. The back of the house doesn’t always appreciate win-win, but it’s very important,” Meyer adds, describing situations where the casino may take one step back and two steps forward to accommodate a difficult customer—sometimes to the chagrin of accountants.
“You see where people are coming from,” she says. “On the East Coast, getting in your face is part of the game for customers. You can never look at that as a negative. The game would be no fun for them if it was easy.”
It took a major administrative shakeup for Meyer to leave Atlantic City. The Casino Control Commission changed regulations, allowing casinos to have a pit boss for every 24 games rather than 12. Meyer saw layoffs coming and left the business for a year. She resumed gaming in Joliet, Illinois, still for Harrah’s, which rcredited her time off toward seniority.
Meyer gained slot expertise, human-resource seasoning and food-and-beverage skills in Joliet. The former drink server now runs a riverboat property with 1,300 employees, net revenues of $181 million and margins of 28 percent. On June 1, the company announced a $100 million expansion, doubling its gaming space.
For Meyer, it was just one more career buzz. “Being a general manager was the last thing I ever expected to be when I was a cocktail waitress. I thought it would be a big accomplishment to become a pit boss.”
That’s what tenacity brings—advancement beyond expectation.
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