I always hear them spoken of in regards to Casino’s, and also, what is a “shift boss”.
A pit boss is the guy who supervises the dealers. Anytime you deal with large amounts of cash it’s a good idea to have many people looking at the money. It cuts down on theft. Never, ever, try to steal from a casino. Someone is always watching.
And instead of calling the cops, they’ll poke you with a cattle prod, drag you to a back room and bust up your hands with a big rubber mallet . . . at least so I read . . .
Actually, those that watch the dealers are called box men. Then, the floor men watch the box men. Then, the pit bosses watch the floor men. The shift bosses are watch the pit bosses. And the casino manager watches the shift bosses.
See the movie Casino before trying to rob one.
Beg to differ. “Box man” is a function only of a craps table–he’s the guy who sits in the middle by the chips. Then there’s two guys on each end who handle bets, and a 4th in the middle with the stick who retrieves the dice.
Pit boss is an administrative/supervisorial function, not attached to any particular game. The pit boss supervises all the games in his/her pit (piece of real estate on the casino floor)–first-level problem escalation, schmoozing the customers, etc.
Someone mentioned rubber mallets and whatnot. I can honestly say that they won’t do that sorta thing anymore. Too risky. Hell, even the security guards don’t have guns. Probably better that way, maybe not. Point is that just last night a security guard got shot in the gut and an innocent tourist from Hawaii died from a shot to the back of the head when someone was trying to rob Harrah’s. People are asked to leave, 86’d from the property (read article 86 of some law code or something), and in extreme cases, arrested by Metro.
Now, if you want violence from the house, try going to a strip bar and getting four lap dances, then claim that you thought it was twenty bucks total. In some places in town here, they’ll beat the hell outta you and drop you off in trash can.
It’s odd, since this place was built with mob money, that the mob now only controls a few strip clubs, most, if not all, of the outcall services are still mob run. The Outfit is still in town, but it’s lost a lot of its muscle here.
Posting this link as a source of info for the OP: http://www.frankleftyrosenthal.com
Also curious, what do people in Vegas say/think about Frank Rosenthal these days?