Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Caesars makes sure longtime blackjack dealer gets to retire in style

figgins

Caesars Entertainment

Benny Figgins, a blackjack dealer for Caesars Palace, received a grand send-off, as he retired from the job Wednesday. In 56 years since he started working the tables, Figgins has seen it all, meeting “people from all over the world” and dealing cards to stars like Frank Sinatra and Diana Ross.

In 1966, Benny Figgins of Las Vegas started a job at the brand-new Caesars Palace hotel on the Strip.

Except for a four-month stint when he worked at the Nevada Test Site, Figgins remained a Caesars Palace employee — mostly as a blackjack dealer — for the next 56 years.

Wednesday was his last day.

The newly retired Figgins, 78, was sent off from the iconic Las Vegas resort in grand style, complete with a gift from Caesars Entertainment President and COO Sean McBurney and a limo ride to his home.

During a phone interview Thursday, Figgins said he “had a ball” working on the Strip for more than a half-century.

“It was out of this world,” Figgins said. “I met people from all over the world, all different types of people. You might say I’m a people person, so I enjoyed talking to people and mingling.”

When he started, Figgins was a casino porter. When a Caesars casino dealer program opened up a few years later, he took advantage.

From 1972 until this week, he worked as a blackjack dealer.

During his career, he said he had dealt cards to numerous stars, such as Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, Joe Louis, Sammy Davis Jr., and Harry Belafonte.

He also met his wife of nearly 48 years, Shirley, at the casino in 1975. She was also an employee, working at the resort for nearly 40 years.

“I always wanted to go to work back then because you never knew who you’d see,” Figgins said. “Back when I started at Caesars Palace, Blacks couldn’t even deal on the Strip, but that all changed.”

Figgins said his parents moved to Las Vegas — what was then a “little desert town” — from Louisiana in the 1950s. He followed in 1959.

After opening Caesars Palace during the summer of 1966, Figgins left for a few months to work as a custodian at the Nevada Test Site, which is now known as the Nevada National Security Site.

With his newfound freedom from regular work, Figgins said he plans to do some traveling and “do some stuff around the house.”

He said he’ll miss his colleagues at Caesars.

“Caesars has been really good to me,” Figgins said. “I’m going to miss it, yes. I enjoyed working with my fellow employees and with management.