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Three Jewish managers
play major roles at
Detroit's MotorCity Casino.

BILL CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News

IfilE otorCity Casino's high-
ranking executives who
are Jewish have mixed
records on gambing:
One gambles only once in a while,
one gambles only on vacation and
one never gambled in her life.
David Schugar, Rhonda Cohen
and Cheryl Scott-Dube aren't allowed
to gamble in their "own house," and
really don't have time to go to any
other casinos because they work long
•
hours in tough jobs.
Several thousand people per day go
through the old Wonder Bread facto-
ry on Grand River Avenue at the
Lodge Freeway, playing slot machines,
blackjack, craps, roulette, baccarat
.
and other tables games, spending
about $1 million daily. (Casino offi-
cials say they gave up trying to keep
track of actual attendance.)
"A good percentage of our cus-
tomers are Jewish ... they love to gam-
ble," said Schugar, 48, director of
casino operations for MotorCity.
"They like to go to Las Vegas and
Atlantic City, and now it's easier for
them to come here.
"But we've found that all types of
Detroiters have fallen in love with
gambling. Basically, the people in this
city are entertainment-starved, and
they really were ready for the casinos
to open.."
His biggest personal gambling score
was $1,000 by getting a royal flush on
a video poker machine in Las Vegas.

Schugar is one of five directors
under General Manager Craig Ghelfi,
overseeing all of the table games and
equipment purchases, hiring and
training personnel, adhering to gov-
ernment regulations and handling the
highly sophisticated computer sys-
tems.
MotorCity opened last November, a
few months after the MGM Grand
Casino opened downtown. Cohen, 48,
director of player development, esti-
mated that less than five percent of the
casino's 3,000 employees are Jewish.
Her job is to study the customers
and make sure they're happy,
Cohen, who is single, only likes
to gamble when she's on vaca-
tion — "when I'm relaxed," she
said.
Cheryl Scott-Dube, 49, is
MotorCity's full-time attorney,
reporting to the legal
counsel at the
Mandalay Bay
Resorts Co. in Las
Vegas, which owns
MotorCity. "Each
day is very differ-
ent and a lot of
fun," she said. "It
has been especially
interesting for me
because I have
never gambled.
When I started this
job, I went to the
Windsor Casino and
toured all of the gam-
ing operations to learn
what it was all about."

A

Schugar is a native Detroiter who
was happy to return to his "roots" ---
both geographically and culturally.
• He grew up in Jewish neighborhoods
at Livernois and Grand, then Eight
Mile and Evergreen. He was bar mitz-
vah at the old Congregation Beth
Moses on Seven Mile.
He attended Henry Ford High
School in Detroit, but, at age 15,
moved to Las Vegas with his family,
finding a thriving Jewish community.
Schugar's father, Leo, worked in a
small Nevada casino with 50 slot
machines, fueling his son's life-long
interest in the gaming industry.
The young Schugar's first
job was as a lifeguard
at the old
Tropicana Hotel,
and he also
worked at Las

Vegas' Temple Beth Shalom summer
camp, then as a captain seating
patrons at a Caesar's Palace restaurant.
He admits to becoming a "perpet-
ual student" at the University of
Nevada-Las Vegas, studying philoso-
phy without getting a degree. The
lure of the casino business won out.
He attended a school for craps
dealers and got his first job at the
Golden Nugget Casino downtown,
followed by Circus Circus, Stardust,
Sahara, Monte Carlo, Nevada
Landing (on the highway to
California) and Hacienda.
Along the way, he moved up
through the management ranks as
box man (overseer at a craps
table), floor man, pit boss
and shift manager. He even
spent a year as director of
casino operations in
Tunica, Miss., where he
joined a "surprisingly large
Orthodox congrega-
tion."
To prepare for
the MotorCity
opening,
Schugar came
back to Detroit
a year ago with
his wife, Vivian,
"a nice Jewish

MotorCity's
David Schugar,
Rhonda Cohen
and Cheryl Scott-
Dube.

Photo by Krista Husa

4/28
2000

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