Potawatomi Bingo Casino - Racism or Classism????

This is something that has been on my mind for a very long time. Friends told me I should blog about it, so that others would be aware of the discrimination myself and my Joey faced at the hands of a group protected by the politians in the State of Wisconsin. This is my experience.
There was an older white gentleman who I heard referred to as "Jim" (I recognize him by his gray hair and suspenders) who had been insulting and threatening to me and Joseph on more than one occasion. "Jim" had spoken to Joseph many times in the Solstice Room and on one instance he told Joseph, "I can't believe they let 'those people' in here!" Jim was looking at a group of African Americans who were entering the Solstice Room. Jim also remarked, "I can't believe they keep letting those people up here," and "This casino doesn't need any of their money." Although uncomfortable with the comments, Joey did not respond.

The next day, I came to the casino with Joey. When Jim saw us together, he stared at us and mocked Joey under his breath. I decided to go into the lounge area. Jim entered the lounge a few minutes later. I heard him mutter something under his breath, blah blah blah, "the coon." I was shocked, but I ignored him. After eating a snack, I approached a security guard named Paul and reported the incident.

Jim refused to let up. He yelled at the Joseph while they were playing blackjack. "What's wrong with you? Why do you go to the bathroom so much?" Joey didn't respond. Jim began to taunt him, calling him names and mocking him as he spoke. Joey was wearing a superman cap I had brought to him that evening. It was clear that Jim was going to continue to insult Joey and me, as he whispered to an intoxicated gentleman at the table. The man said: "Are you talking about the lady next to the guy in the superman hat?"

Again, I called security and informed Paul, that not only was Joey and I offended by Jim's prior racial slur, which mind you, Paul had done nothing about, but that I also felt intimidated and threatened by Jim's current behavior. I asked that Jim be ejected from the casino, but Paul refused, as the man was spending an excessive amount of money in the casino.

Feeling humiliating and intimidated, I turned to leave the Solstice Room. Joey, feeling the need to protect me, went to security as well.

One evening after playing blackjack for two or three hours, Joey decided to cash in his chips so we could leave. Jim (he's a regular at the casino - of course - once again, yelled at him, "What are you doing?!" and began to make mocking statements because Joey decided not to continue playing. Joey re-entered the game, feeling threatened by Jim and the fact that casino security had refused to do anything about Jim's threatening behavior. When Joey finally decided to leave, Jim yelled at him. Again, Joey went to the pit-boss and and security to complain about Jim's behavior. Our complaints continued to fall on deaf ears.

Out of the blue one afternoon, Joey received a certified letter from the casino. On May 7, 2008, he received a certified letter from the casino banning him from the premises, noting that if he attempted to come on casino property for any reason, he would be arrested for trespassing. I was more than outraged!!! First of all the letter was sent to him by security, who did not bother to sign the letter, but refused to give a reason why Joey was banned.

I called Paul directly, and he told me that if I had a problem with the banning to take it up with the appeals board. There was nothing in the letter about appealing the decision and when I asked Paul why Joseph was being banned in the first place, when all he did report a harassing patron, Paul stated that he "didn't know why and he didn't care," about why Joey was banned. I was not allowed an opportunity to discuss the issue with Paul any further. In fact security and table games appeared to be avoiding my calls, and they never bothered to return any of my calls.

Joey asked his casino host (Sean) why he was removed from the casino, Sean said it was because Joseph had, "threatened to do bodily harm" to a dealer named Robert. This is not only false, it is absolute nonsense! I later found out that one of the staff members of the casino that the table games supervisor is close friends with Jim. Hence the reason Jim had not been asked to stop with his harassment. Can you say, conflict of interest? ..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
So in May of 2008, I sent a letter to Alan - the casino's head of internal investigations in hopes that this matter can be explained and resolved. His response to me was, "It's your word against his. I have found no proof to validate your complaint. First of all, the dealers would be put in an awkward position to vouch for me, as they need their jobs. Especially in this economy! The reality is, because this man is wealthy, the casino could care less about him calling me a "coon" and a "nigger" and they would have rather covered it up instead of dealing with the wealthy patron's antics.

I haven't been back to the casino, and I have no plans to ever go back. Why should I give my money to a place that refused to stand up for my rights as a patron, just because I'm not rich and white? All I can say is, watch your back. This place is protected by our "great governor" and his "democratic buddies" and this Milwaukee casino is not required to play fair - even in respects to discrimination or racism. It's obvious the tribe could care less about my plight - I can't prove my Native American background (although you can look at me and tell its in there).

For those who question this blog, answer me this - why would the casino put its grand "Re-Opening Ceremony" on June 19th if they cared so much about their African American clientel? Hummmm...food for thought. What really upsets me is the fact that many of my white friends have complained that they have also been treated disrespectfully by the members of this organization. I guess just because we have a black president, ethnic businesses believe it's perfectly acceptable to discriminate against white people now, huh???