TAMPA — The cocktail waitress has always been at the center of the casino business, the scantily clad women waiting on high rollers and would-be winners, serving drinks amid the clouds of smoke and clangs of slots.
Their role is so central, their image so carefully managed that it stirs up controversies and lawsuits regularly. Women have been fired for gaining too much weight or getting too old. Wearing miniskirts and high heels is listed as a job requirement. And at many casinos, men need not apply.
And while those issues haven't been raised at Hard Rock Casino, it has decided that image is out of step with the reality of the gambling business today.
Women account for more than half of the casino's customers these days, said Vincent Turrano, vice president of food and beverage. So in a matter of weeks, patrons will be in for something of a new experience: men serving drinks.
The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is planning to hire 50 men as beverage servers on the casino floor, a first for the property as it looks to bolster an understaffed group. It currently employs 170 drink servers.
The casino had received about 60 applications by midday Wednesday, spokeswoman Nikki Yourison said, but it expects to continue accepting applications on a rolling basis.
"We're expanding the amount of service we have on the floor, so of course, that's going to drive volume. We're going to serve more drinks on the floor," Turrano said. "You're cutting your workforce in half if we interview and say, 'The only thing we're going to hire are females.' Why not say, 'Okay, we're going to hire females and males?' "
Turrano pushed the effort after he came to the Hard Rock from the Borgata in Atlantic City, N.J., where male drink servers were already commonplace. The decision to hire male servers in Tampa has been in the works for close to eight months, Turrano said.
But not all of the old image of casinos will be left behind. Men will wear boots, black pants and button-down shirts with a red undershirt, a uniform meant to match the women's: a red-and-black corset, satin skirt, fishnet leggings and knee-high boots.
Contact Thad Moore at tmoore@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3434. Follow @thadmoore.