Jerry Tiehm

Bellman

When I have free time, I’m a botanist. This plant is one of eighteen I’ve discovered new to science and one of five that’s named after me. It’s called Stroganowia tiehmii.

I have a Masters in botany, and I had worked at the New York Botanical Garden herbarium. But there aren’t any botany jobs in Nevada and the jobs out West tend to be seasonal. You have to eat. I needed a job, and I wanted something people oriented. So I found this job.

I’ve been a bellman for three years. We’re basically concierge, information service and bellman, all in one. People from out of town ask you where to rent a car, where the closest beauty salon is, how to get to a house of prostitution. It can be chaos. I’m talking to people and helping them out all day long. I really enjoy it.

The customers are very responsive as long as things with the hotel have gone OK. Occasionally someone will yell at you, and you have to just let it go by. Next person that comes up, put a smile on your face, and treat them like you treat everyone else.

We’re paid minimum wage. And we get a commission if we sign people up for tours, anywhere from five to nine dollars. The IRS says my tips are $2.50 an hour. They take taxes out of that extra $100 a week even if I don’t make that much. Most of the people around here are in jobs for tips. They work their eight hour shift and go home. There’s no responsibility to it.

If people are winning they aren’t necessarily tipping. We’ve had people who won ten thousand dollars and tip nothing. Others lose five thousand and tip all kinds of money. It has nothing to do with winning or losing. It has more to do with how their experience was here. Then there’s a small percentage who wouldn’t tip if they won a million dollars. There’s nothing you can do with those guys.

I grew up in Reno, so the casinos were always there. We all thought it was more glamorous than it actually is. You wander into a casino and the cards are flying, the chips are flying, you have a drink and everyone’s having a good time. Well that’s fine when you’re not exposed to it day in and day out.

Now I see what I call the dark side of the casinos. For a certain percentage of people who work here, this is also their social life. They’ll get off work or come in on their day off and go sit at the bar. Somebody has a few drink tokes. Pretty soon they’ve been there for hours. It’s so easy to meet people. Sex is also a commodity in the casino. If you get off work and your wife is working, you go to the bar, and there’s always people around.... It can be tough on marriages.

Casinos are great because they make a lot of money for the community and a lot for the owners, but where’s the money come from? I have seen people walk into the casino, cash their paychecks and lose their entire paycheck. And then they’ll try to borrow ten dollars from you till they get paid again.

You have to have a life away from the casino. If you don’t, it’s going to get to you. Booze, clothes and casinos, to me it’s just a waste of time. As long as I can be out the door at three o’clock every day I could do this job forever. It’s not a life to me. It’s a job.

Being in the field is a vacation to me. It’s so peaceful being out there and I camp everywhere I go. One thing I’m delighted about in Nevada is there are places you can camp where you don’t see a light, and then you sit on the tailgate until it gets pitch black.