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Working for a hotel in Las Vegas is not like working for a hotel anywhere else. They say the more problems one has in learning a craft, the better the craftsman will become. With over 5,000 rooms, working for the largest hotel in the world created unbelievable challenges I experienced each day on the job. Ultimately, I learned
wisdom and patience. My stories and the challenges I faced were dramatic as well as humorous. From the guests to the cabbies, from
management and hotel policy to stories that throw policy out the window.

Jay Rankin is available for speaking engagements,

Topics include:

• Surviving the bottom line: from the hotel perspective, from the guest perspective, from the hotel employee perspective.

• You won’t believe what I’ve seen, witnessed, and experienced from the Vegas guests.

• The challenges for the hotel. The challenges for the hotel employees.

• Learning to be nice to guests without getting an ulcer.

• Employee techniques in engaging the guest.

• Management techniques in engaging employees.

Jay Rankin didn’t research Las Vegas; he lived it.

His six years as an MGM Grand doorman gave him the insider’s view of real Vegas life, the grit behind the glitz. Jay reveals a Vegas few people know exists.

In his position as a doorman, Rankin found himself at the intersection of two worlds: the flashy, electric exterior of the Las Vegas strip, and its gritty hidden infrastructure. Surrounded by hordes of visitors whose singular goal was often to cross lines, Rankin faced a nightly fight for his sanity and his safety.

Visiting Vegas, says Rankin, is one thing. But trying to live and work in a gambling town that never sleeps, all the while struggling not to succumb to Sin City’s temptations yourself? Well, that’s another thing entirely.

Imagine working a 2 a.m. cab line populated by the desperate and the drunk, by high rollers and hookers. Imagine a workplace characterized by up-close-and-personal vice and violence. Now imagine getting through each shift under scrutiny from surveillance cameras, supervisors, and guests alike, knowing that one false move-whether in self-defense or in the best interests of another-might get you fired, or worse.

“Vegas is carefully constructed to propel visitors toward disaster,” writes Rankin. “Most guests are in freefall. Naïve, unsuspecting, they have no defense. I witness the assisted suicide every night; I’ve seen it a million times. I’m almost guaranteed to be there when the thrill ends.”

“I have a master’s degree in psychology, which doesn’t mean I’m less crazy or self-destructive than anyone else, but I can see when someone’s about to cross the line into ruin. I can’t do anything to stop them-or myself.”

Take a step into the Las Vegas you never knew existed, seen through the eyes of a resort employee whose job was to offer the impossible. How do you ensure that boundaries don’t exist for guests while your life is defined by them? How do you maintain a normal life in a city that’s anything but? And most of all, how do you salvage your own soul when you’re drawn to the thrill of ruin? These are the questions with which Rankin wrestles on the pages of Under the Neon Sky.

Rankin, a former probation officer and television host who holds an advanced degree in psychology, worked the graveyard shift as a doorman at the 5,000-room MGM Grand hotel for six years. A memoir of sorts, Rankin’s book tells the true story of this turbulent period in his life.

One thing’s for sure: Vegas is not your average American town, and working as an MGM Grand doorman is not your average briefcase-toting job. Earning a living in Las Vegas is a nonstop thrill ride with an unknown destination. Look over Jay Rankin’s shoulder as he navigates pitfalls and temptations, and gets off the tracks just in time.

He began writing in 1993 and is currently working on his second book, about his life after escaping Vegas. He resides in Los Angeles, California.

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