New owners, managers take over at Hollywood Park Casino

Hollywood Park Casino near Los Angeles International Airport in Inglewood, California has changed hands. New management is in place, and the casino regulars are not happy.

Management changed Monday morning.

Among the current complaints:

Many of the dealers and floor supervisors were fired. There are new dealers, many of whom are working in a casino for the first time, and there are managers and supervisors who reportedly came in from casinos in Northern California.

The entire waiter and waitress staff for the kitchen was fired. The entire kitchen menu was changed. I played there Wednesday afternoon and all of the orders came out very late with some players waiting an hour or longer for a burger or scrambled eggs. French fries, toast and even the entres came out from the kitchen cold. The wait staff didn't bring to the players high tables for their meals and served the meals on the low "drink tables." So players had to ask for the high tables to eat.

The computer system is down so there is no "sign up board" for the games. A floorman kept a list with a yellow legal pad.

There was a shortage of dealers, so dealers had to work longer schedules at the tables and this led to some errors and complaints.

Chip runners no longer carry chips. If you want to buy chips, the chip runners have to go to the cage to make the purchase and this causes delays.

Lower limit games have been removed from the casino. Omaha has been eliminated. $1/$2 stud has been eliminated as has $2/$24 limit. There are fewer $40 no limit games.

The players card promotions have been suspended and players could not redeem their comps to pay for meals or to get cash. Casino staffers say the players club program will return and credits will carry over.

Hollywood Park used to offer free coffee, water and tea to players but now players are asked to pay $2 for a cup of coffee.

The new owners are from the same group that plans to get rid of the Hollywood Park race track and replace it with a planned community featuring homes, shopping, office buildings and more. The casino which is in the race track grandstand building is supposed to be moved to a new building closer to Century Boulevard.

Thank you for writing this update. My son is a dealer trainee at HP now under the new management. They have temporarily ceased training until next Tuesday, 3/12/13. Most of the dealers on the floor now are in fact experienced dealers, but they've only had a few weeks to learn the new owner's methods. All new employees are paying a non-refundable $114 - half to the City of Inglewood, half to some private fingerprinting company designated by the owner. New groups of unsuspecting applicants from Craigslist ads are brought in weekly to replace those who've left.

The new owner wants to attract a younger, more vibrant crowd. Just like the hundreds of workers terminated, I really don't think they would mind if the more mature patrons exited through the same door. It is very, very sad.

It's a big mistake if Hollywood is trying to kick out the older folks and bring in the younger crowd.

Who are the ones with pensions, retirement savings, and home equity to tap into? The old folks.

Who are the ones with all the crying babies, student loan debts, and mortgages? The young folks.

As Deep Throat once said in All The President's Men, "Follow the money."

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Originally Posted by ThisWay

The new owner wants to attract a younger, more vibrant crowd.

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I have a surprise for the "new owner." This is not Las Vegas. This is Los Angeles County, and there aren't enough young people to fill that casino. If you go to any casino in Los Angeles County and they include: Commerce (the biggest poker casino in the world), Hustler, Bicycle, Hawaiian Gardens, and then add on the poker rooms at Pechanga and Morongo (not to mention the other small casinos throughout Southern Cal), you will find that "young people" make up only a small percentage of players.

If that is the plan, it is doomed to fail.

To be honest, Hollywood Park had a special clientele of lower income folks who wanted to play in a neighborhood casino. Many retirees, many housewives, many folks who came to sit in a poker room and make bets on the horses.

Remember that about a year ago, this casino downsized by 50% because of a lack of players.

Perhaps bringing in new, younger dealers, wait staff, security and supervisors will help it lower costs, but it's not going to attract a "younger, more vibrant crowd." The younger, vibrant crowd isn't going to drive to Inglewood.

edited to add: Thank you for joining us ThisWay and please contribute!

A trainer told my son's table that they don't want slow players spending their Social Security money there or people begging the guests for money. They want HP to be a place where businessmen will want to come from LAX and the Westside. They want to appeal to the Asian market as well. Newly hired are comprised mostly of aspiring actresses, models and students.

My son truly believes that Mr. Eric Swallow is going to put Hollywood Park back on the map. My opinion is watch what one does more so than what one says. When you remove games and other features of this venue that were once a source of pleasure for the older crowd, what does that say? Even if the casino remains short dealers and guests, I don't think they wish to preserve much from the former HP. They believe that the best days are ahead. Let's hope so.

When I played yesterday we had a total of five (5) dealers and I was there for about 8 hours... way too long for each dealer. Of the five, only two were "experienced" dealers and the other three were new. I asked each of them if they were 21 yet. All had just gotten out of dealer school.

One of the young men told me that they were hiring younger "personable dealers" who were supposed to "chat it up" with the players. Really? This is poker. It's not a craps table. Dealers in poker are not supposed to "chat it up." They are supposed to deal and keep quiet and keep the game going. They are not supposed to interact with players.

The best dealers in the world are the WSOP dealers who do their business and keep quiet. I was always impressed with the way they stay still, alert, quiet, and wait for players to take their action in a game.

Sure it's okay to greet players and to thank them for their tokes, but a dealer's place is not to chat it up at poker.

Now... over at the "California side" where they play blackjack, card craps, let it ride, 3 card poker... it's a different story. Had that new dealer been over on the "California side" and said they were changing dealers there to make them friendlier it would make sense. But on the poker side? Absolutely not. We don't need the young dealers fresh out of school at cash games. The Bike and other casinos use the new dealers to staff tournaments -- that's a good training ground for them.

By the way, the young dealers have much to learn. When they cut the deck coming out of the card shuffler, they ALL made the mistake of lifting up the upper cut at an angle which exposed the bottom card to players in seats 1 and 9. If it had been a tournament, I would have reported this to the floorman. But at my table, the players in 1 and 9 weren't looking at the cut. This is a common problem among new dealers. They don't realize how they are holding the cards when they cut the deck.

Very bad marketing plan. It is all older retired players during the day. The kids play Thursday, friday and saturday nights. If they want an empty card room all during the week during the day they are well on their way.

Interestingly, Alan, there is an article online where Mr. Swallow stated that he wanted people to think "Las Vegas" when entering his San Jose casino. He went into that city and fired hundreds of existing employees just like he did in Inglewood.

They need to replace the current dealer trainers with people who have hands-on experience with the games and have worked in a casino. Instructing trainees to go home and watch dealers on YouTube does not seem like a sound training program, but that's what exists at present.

I'm not sure how realistic it is to expect someone with zero experience to be casino-ready in 6 weeks, but that's about all these job applicants get. It seems pretty intense to me, but I don't know.

Thanks for posting that, ThisWay. If you're telling us that there isn't much training for the new dealers then it really seems that this new management team is going to have a lot of "growing pains" as they try to make a transition.

This evening I got an email from Hollywood Park Casino -- it's an email blast that went out to players who are members of the players club. If you click on the thumbnail you can read the email which discusses their plans to upgrade the casino and deliver a superior guest experience. The email says they will have the best trained and friendliest dealers.

In large part, my son says the trainees are learning from each other. He said there's a trainer who openly fawns over a female trainee young enough to be his granddaughter while ignoring everyone else in the group. Yet another, the lead trainer, who yells and pounds his fists on the table like a mad man and freaks out about phones in the training area. They call it "boot camp." (eye roll)

I told my son if this is something he really, really wants to do (I really hope not), we'll help him find and pay for a reputable school. No matter how they advertise the position, HP is a business, not a school. He hasn't heard anyone say anything at all about a specific customer service component of training, just that they were all supposed to be exceptional at it. I want to know if we'll see a female dealer over 50 at the new HP. Hollywoodparktomorrow.com is the site where plans are laid out.

Slight modification to the above post - I understand the no cell phones in the training area rule. I actually believe that they should impose a one strike rule and you're out. That's it. Because most phones have the ability to capture audio as well as take pictures/video, there are many situations in which phones just are not appropriate. Whether the "bootcamp" style is working to produce skilled dealers remains to be seen. Right now the emphasis is on cosmetic changes. He wants you to walk in and say "Wow." I think with his money, he can easily accomplish that very quickly.

This is a brand new project. I have no doubt that when Mr. Swallow realizes the training program needs help, he will make the appropriate changes.

"It's a business" is right, so give them a chance. The same people will flock to the place the same as they've done before, because gamblers craving action cannot stop. Management knows this, and the most profitable way to radiate that thought is to sugar-coat every published word.

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Originally Posted by ThisWay

Hollywoodparktomorrow.com is the site where plans are laid out.

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This is the site for the overall redevelopment of Inglewood, but is there a particular page for the casino plans?