Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Caesars Palace Owes Him Money, Host Says

LAS VEGAS (CN) — A former "executive host" sued Caesars Palace, claiming it shorted him on his 10 percent bonus for the $2.5 million his client lost, then fired him for providing another high-roller with two "masseurs."

After going to work for Caesars Entertainment in 2001, James Bean worked his way up to executive host, with a $120,000 annual salary, plus bonuses, he says in his Aug. 26 federal lawsuit.

As a casino host, Bean says, he was given a book of about 1,000 high-rollers, which he grew to 1,800.

Caesars Palace has a "bonus structure for executive hosts with incentives to earn 10 percent of their player's losses in the casino during their stay," Bean says.

One of his clients lost $2.5 million on two trips to Caesars, but the casino paid him only $15,000 of the $250,000 it owed him, citing an "ailing economy," Bean says in the complaint.

Bean, who is black, says other executive hosts were paid their bonuses in full.

Another VIP client asked for two masseurs, for himself and his guests, and Bean sent them to his room. The next day, the VIP guest "asked if he knew of any masseur outside of Defendant," Bean says, and at the suggestion of another executive host, he sent up "two females that were masseurs."

The next day, Feb. 18, 2015, a vice president in human resources interrogated him for two and one-half hours, demanded his phone for a "forensic scrubbing," then fired him the next day for "gross misconduct," according to the complaint.

Bean says he demanded the balance of his $250,000 bonus, and Caesars refused to pay him.

He seeks back pay, front pay, lost benefits, and punitive damages for racial discrimination and bad faith.

His attorney M. Lani Esteban-Trinidad was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.

Caesars Entertainment did not respond to an email request for comment.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...