A while back, I worked in surveillance for a famous Strip casino that looked like a pyramid. (This casino is usually on every Las Vegas commercial or Vegas advertising photo due to its unique design.) Unfortunately, this property was cursed from day one. If I remember right, it still holds the record for the most construction workers killed during construction. It had a "Nile" boat ride that visitors could cruise through tunnels and darn near around the entire first floor; however, it wasn’t long before people were going into the tunnel and not coming out. After numerous alleged deaths, management decided (because they might have pissed of some Pharaohs) to close the ride. They did this by actually sealing the ride and eliminating the Nile water flow. Needless to say, employees are not permitted to talk about this "fatal attraction."

The surveillance room in this property appeared to be an afterthought. The room was so small that if you ate the Mexican special spicy plate and released some gas while in the room, the fire alarm would go off.

The surveillance equipment was not spared either. It appeared as if the General Manager went to K Mart and purchased VCR’s by the dozen. These VCR’s were about as reliable as my ex-wife was faithful. Most of the times, we were running at 50 percent of recording capability. The cameras, unfortunately, were no better. The PTZ cameras (Pan, Tilt Zoom, movable cameras) were so slow you could adjust your calendar to it. It seemed that every time we received a call for help from a floor person to settle a dispute, we didn’t have coverage.

This property was plagued from the start with kidnappings in the parking lot, bomb threats, suicides in the rooms, assaults, thefts, and even a car being set ablaze in the parking lot. It got to the point that the police had special reserved parking spaces in valet, and there was a police car parked there pretty much all the time.

During my tenure there, we pretty much made any and every kind of bust you could imagine and most of them were employees. This included everything from employees having sex behind the nightclub bar (no kidding); valet attendants stealing from cars; bartenders running an escort/prostitution ring; and other managers caught selling drugs. Due to the camera coverage (make that the lack there of), we worked the floor and caught the employees (and sometimes players) via. sting operations. This sometimes caused awkward situations, including being attacked by a couple of cocktail waitresses because they felt that I nailed them soliciting and they received a write up on their records.

I have numerous memories (or nightmares) of having worked there; however, there was one incident that even blew me away and downright shocked me. Hey, I thought I’d seen everything before but this one took the cake.

It was customary for surveillance employees to use their cameras to see how long the line was at the buffet to determine if it was worth going to eat, or waiting a little while longer to save some "standing in line" time.