Last remaining year-one employee retires from Caesars Palace after 55+ years
By Caitlin Lilly
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LAS VEGAS, Nevada (KVVU) — A blackjack dealer who is the last remaining year-one employee at Caesars Palace officially retired on Wednesday.
According to Caesars Entertainment, Benny Figgins celebrated over 55 years at the resort.
The company says Figgins was hired at the property on April 27, 1967, and held positions in five different departments at the property. According to Caesars, Figgins began at the property as a casino porter, assisting with maintaining cleanliness throughout the casino floor. Figgins then became a convention porter and helped set up a variety of events. Later, Caesars says Figgins then 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 casino says.
Caesars Entertainment says that Figgins received a “grand send-off fit for a Caesar” to help celebrate his retirement.
According to the company, at the conclusion of his final shift, Caesars Palace team members and Caesars Entertainment leadership sent Figgins on his way through the resort’s main entrance with “good wishes and cheers.” He then left work for the last time with a special limo ride to his home.
Caesars Entertainment says 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 multimillion-dollar renovation of the resort’s main entrance, the company notes that the gaming area where Figgins has worked for the past five decades recently underwent an upgrade that included a new chandelier, columns and carpeting.
In a post from 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 include dealing to and meeting celebrities including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Diana Ross, Henry Belafonte and Joe Louis.
Those aren’t his only highlights, as Figgins also met his wife while working at the property in the early 1970s. The company says Figgins’ wife retired after working at the resort for 38 years as a PDX operator and a table games dealer. “They are happily married and have three daughters,” Caesars said.
Figgins said he will miss working at Caesars Palace, which has been his home away from home, according to the company.
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