Casino worker gets ‘grand send-off’ into retirement after 55-plus years with company
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LAS VEGAS (KVVU/Gray News) - A casino employee who has called Caesars Palace home for more than 55 years has officially retired.
According to Caesars Entertainment, Benny Figgins was hired at the property on April 27, 1967, and held positions in five different departments. He was also the final first-year employee working at the resort.
KVVU reports Figgins began his career with Caesars as a casino porter, assisting with maintaining cleanliness throughout the casino floor. He then became a convention porter and helped set up various events. Later, Figgins worked as a dishwasher at the original Bacchanal restaurant kitchen and a busboy in the Circus Maximus showroom.
Since 1971, Figgins served as a blackjack dealer in the original Palace Casino dome, the company said.
On Wednesday, Caesars Entertainment said Figgins received a “grand send-off fit for a Caesar” to help celebrate his retirement.
According to the company, Caesars Palace team members sent Figgins on his way through the resort’s main entrance after his final shift with “good wishes and cheers.” He left work for the last time with a special limo ride to his home.
Caesars Entertainment said that in honor of Figgins’ retirement, the company gifted him a commemorative plaque and a string of crystals from the chandelier that hung in the original casino dome at Caesars Palace.
As part of a recent renovation of the resort’s main entrance, the company notes that the gaming area where Figgins worked for the past five decades underwent an upgrade that included a new chandelier, columns and carpeting.
In June 2016, Caesars Palace noted that Figgins was one of five year-one employees still working at the property. The group received a 50th anniversary pin in honor of their work.
According to the company, some of Figgins’ most memorable moments included meeting celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Diana Ross, Henry Belafonte and Joe Louis.
Those weren’t his only highlights, as Figgins said he met his wife while working at the property in the early 1970s. The company said Figgins’ wife retired after working at the resort for 38 years as an operator and also a table games dealer. The couple has three daughters.
Figgins said he would miss working at Caesars Palace, which has been his home away from home.
