By Linda Jones
The gaming business employs a high percentage of former servicemen and women, which benefits both the employer and employee. Casinos appreciate the work ethic and integrity of those who served our country. Former servicemen and women find that their military training in security, engineering and other fields has prepared them well for casino jobs that are more specialized.
Through many years of interviewing them, the men and women who staff our Colorado casinos have impressed me. They are a credit to the gaming business and our community, and it was a privilege to meet the men interviewed for this issue.
Don Montroy
Mardi Gras – Engineering Supervisor
The military provided basic training for Don Montroy’s later career. He served in the Navy for eight years, and five of those years were in advanced electronic training. He liked the military, “enjoyed it in fact,” but he mustered out and headed “home” – the area where he was raised around Detroit. He began working as an electrician but moved up quickly to a general contractor. For 22 years he built and remodeled structures, mostly restaurants, and said “a lot of my contracts were to build Wendy’s.” He knew and liked Dave Thomas and reminisced about what a down-to-earth guy Thomas was.
Don has a classic illustration of what happened when the Great Recession hit. After making millions annually, he retired at 50 with his money safely invested, or so he thought. While he was enjoying the good life in Fort Lauderdale, his bank crashed and his life’s earnings were gone. Don’s a survivor and he’s mastered any bitterness he once felt and is savoring his life here in Gilpin County.
While visiting a friend in Colorado, Don discovered Gilpin County. He stayed. One of his five children joined him; the other four are in Florida, Detroit and Chicago. Don loves hiking in the mountains and most of all, snowshoeing. The Gilpin recreational center is state-of-the art and Don is there nearly daily, lifting weights; in the summers, he plays in the softball league.
During his five years here, Don has worked in the Engineering Department of the Mardi Gras and was promoted to supervisor early this year. Seven men are under him in the department “and we’re always busy.” This is the department that repairs everything in the casino other than the slots themselves, and they do repairs of the electrical connections to the machines. They maintain and repair the HVAC system and the kitchen equipment. They tile, paint and laminate, maintain the grounds, set up the barbecues, remove snow. As Don says, they do everything.
Ed Perez
Riviera – Director of Security & Surveillance
Ed Perez proudly showed me the photos of Junior riding with him on motorcycle runs. He’s made replicas of the military ribbons and medals on his leather jacket for Junior to wear on his matching jacket.
Ed is the kind of person who thinks he should give back to the community and one of the paths he chooses to do that is through CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocacy. Volunteers in this program represent the interests of the child in court cases. It was in this capacity that Ed heard of the 4-year-old boy up for adoption. Ed and his wife Heather adopted Antonio Fitzgerald “Junior” Perez, now 8 years old. Junior’s favorite thing to do is to ride with his dad in his three-wheel motorcycle. The two rode with the American Legion in the Fallen Heroes run and with Junior’s Gilpin School teacher on the recent Emily’s Run.
Ed received a lot of awards and medals in his 20 years with the Navy and the Marines. As a Navy medic, he served with the Marines also and earned medals from both branches of service. During his two tours in Vietnam he earned the Silver Star, awarded for “conspicuous gallantry” from the Marines. His final assignment was as Barracks Chief with the Marines at the Embassy in Madagascar, and he retired in 1990.
When he retired, he was stationed in Gulfport, Miss., and started working for the Grand Casino in town in security. He’s also worked in security in Henderson, Nev., for the Reserve Casino, the Monte Carlo in Vegas, the Stratosphere on the Strip and the Seminole Tribe in Florida. His next move brought him to Black Hawk to the Ameristar. He helped open the Red Hawk near Sacramento, Calif., and worked for Lakes Entertainment in Minnesota. But he returned here a few years ago to his current job with the Riviera and is glad to be home; his wife of 11 years is the administrative manager for the Ameristar.
Monarch Gaming recently purchased the Black Hawk Riviera and Ed can’t say enough good words about the new owners. He says Monarch has made the Black Hawk team feel very much an important part of the family, which also includes the Atlantis in Reno. Monarch was wholeheartedly behind The Riv’s longtime support of Heather Grove, a home for homeless vets.
Gus Swartz
Century Casino – Slot Tech
Gus Swartz said, “I wish I’d stayed in [the Marines], but I got out to follow a girl.” One thing led to another and that girl is history, but another girl led him to Colorado – and that’s a good thing.
Gus was in the Marines for five years but didn’t see any action. He grins, “I earned my National Defense Medal on television.” That was an accident of timing. After training in San Diego, he was stationed in Virginia, North Carolina and Yuma, Ariz., where he was mustered out with a sergeant’s rank. The only times he left our country in the service were when he was deployed in Norway and Turkey. His expertise was in Logistics and Embarkation –“getting everything from Point A to Point B.”
In 1997, a year after mustering out, Gus began his career in the gaming business, first with Bull Durham, then with Mountain Gaming Distributors for 10 ½ years. Mountain Gaming was the distributor for Bally slot machines, but when the parent company purchased Mountain Gaming three years ago, Gus moved to Century Casino.
His leisure-time passions are golf and skiing, but they’re both on the shelf for the moment. “My hobby is being a dad right now.” He and his wife have a 2-year-old daughter and expect a second child on Veterans Day – yes, on 11/11/11. They’re waiting to be surprised by the gender. Gus says his wife is also from Michigan and she’s a snowboarder, not a skier like him, and she plays ice hockey and enters triathlons. This active family lives in Morrison.
