Abstract
Oral history interviews with Grady Aitken conducted by David Schwartz on June 03, 2015 for the Table Games Management Oral History Project. In this interview, Aitken discusses his upbringing and early interest in the gaming industry. He remembers completing dealing school at the Harrah’s Casino in Reno, Nevada, working for Bill Harrah, and interacting with high profile players. Aitken talks about junkets, differences between casinos in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada, and the licensing process to become a casino floor manager. Later, Aitken describes the opening of the MGM Grand Hotel in 1993, becoming a pit manager, and auditioning dealers. Lastly, Aitken discusses his role as Director of table games at the Westgate Las Vegas Casino Resort.
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Scope and Contents Note
Oral history interviews with Grady Aitken conducted by David Schwartz on June 03, 2015 for the Table Games Management Oral History Project. In this interview, Aitken discusses his upbringing and early interest in the gaming industry. He remembers completing dealing school at the Harrah’s Casino in Reno, Nevada, working for Bill Harrah, and interacting with high profile players. Aitken talks about junkets, differences between casinos in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada, and the licensing process to become a casino floor manager. Later, Aitken describes the opening of the MGM Grand Hotel in 1993, becoming a pit manager, and auditioning dealers. Lastly, Aitken discusses his role as Director of table games at the Westgate Las Vegas Casino Resort. Digital audio available; no transcript available.
Access Note
Access to this oral history interview is restricted until 50 years from the interview date. To protect sensitive content, while also ensuring that the interviews are preserved for the historical record, some oral history interviews in our collections may be restricted (closed for an agreed-upon number of years), or may require permission from the narrator or interviewer before allowing a researcher access to a restricted interview. This collection is open for research use on January 01, 2065. Please contact special.collections@unlv.edu for further information.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish. Some transcripts do not exist in final form, therefore any editing marks in a transcript (deletions, additions, corrections) are to be quoted as marked.
Preferred Citation
Grady Aitken oral history interview, 2015 June 03. OH-02731. [Cite format consulted: Audio recording or Transcript.] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of the UNLV University Libraries Advisory Board. In 2015, the Center for Gaming Research undertook a series of interviews with casino table games managers in order to capture the complexity and history of this position. This interview is part of that series.
Processing Note
Interview materials were processed by UNLV Libraries Special Collections and Archives in 2016. Miguel Dominguez wrote the collection description. Access copies were created for born-digital audio files. The audio has been minimally reviewed and all readily available information has been included in the description.