Lest It Be Forgotten After I Am Gone: The Extremes - 4
...Shortly after, the ousted management opened another even more exclusive casino, and I was invited to join them as Chief Cashier, a very important role in any establishment and, for the next few months I filled this exalted position with aplomb....
But Raymon Benedyk was soon to realise that casino work was not for him.
In 1972 there was an internal take-over of the ownership of the casino, and the new proprietors brought in new management. One of the first rulings that they put over was that all employees would have to be clean-shaven. It so happened that I was off duty the evening that ruling
was announced, and the first inkling I had that something was different was when I next came in and found that all my previously hirsute colleagues were now no longer sporting their beards and moustaches, most of which were untidy and unkempt wisps of hair and not the glorious carefully manicured growth I sported. No one ever reprimanded me, and for the remainder of my time there I was unchallenged about it.
Shortly after, the ousted management opened another even more exclusive casino, and I was invited to join them as Chief Cashier, a very important role in any establishment and, for the next few months I filled this exalted position with aplomb.
However, this made me vulnerable. A thing about most gamblers, and casino owners are the biggest, is that they are usually very superstitious and, after a string of nights of losses, look for excuses for them. I found that I was singled out as the 'bad luck' of the management and, one night when coming on duty, was informed that my services were no longer required - just like that. I don't know if the casino's fortunes improved after that, but all I knew at the time was that once again I was out of a job.
I immediately accepted the position of cashier in a small casino just outside London, where my knowledge and expertise was recognised. However, I soon realised that the management was deliberately flouting the law in that they allowed gaming to take place after licensing hours, as well as permitting other irregularities, serving lobster and other expensive delicacies to especially invited guests who, I am sure in many cases included local police and dignitaries. When I queried these actions with the manager, which often necessitated my staying on duty after normal hours for no extra pay, I guess I was suddenly found to be a threat and once again found myself out of a job.
I had had enough of this kind of life and, realising that the hours I was keeping was in reality not conducive of a normal married life in which I was going to bed as Elsa was getting up, barely seeing my children since I was off to work again as they were coming home from school and so on. In 1973, after eight years of a lucrative but highly worrying existence, I decided to seek a daytime position.
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If you wish to make a donation to the Elsa Benedyk Memorial Fund, set up by her friends and colleagues entirely without Raymon’s knowledge to provide funds to support the children's ward of the Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem to commemorate her life of work with children in her nursery schools, it would be most gratefully received. The amount that you give will not be revealed to Raymon. He is not a trustee of the fund. Your cheque, payable to the Fund, should be sent to the fund's Treasurer Mrs I Dokelman, 14 Charville Court, 30/32 Gayton Road, Harrow, Middx HA1 2HT.
