London Casino Pandered to Rich Gamblers’ Demand for White Female Dealers

(Bloomberg) -- An exclusive London club racially discriminated against one of its dealers by pandering to wealthy customer demands for White female croupiers only, a London employment tribunal ruled. 

Crown London Aspinalls, known for attracting multi millionaires to its Mayfair club, prevented Semhar Tesfagiorgis and her Black female colleagues from going on duty in 2019 because they were not “fair skinned, female” or “western looking female staff,” as one of its patron’s had requested, the tribunal judge said in the judgment.

The casino’s argument that the decision wasn’t based on race but because they were bound to accommodate customer requests “no matter how unreasonable,” was rejected by by the London tribunal.

Crown Resorts Ltd., which owns Aspinalls, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A lawyer who represented Aspinalls at the tribunal didn’t respond to an email asking for comment.

“I took on the might of a multi billion pound industry that has exploited the whims and wants of rich patrons to the detriment of its hard working staff for far too long,” Tesfagiorgis said in a statement. “The direct race discrimination myself and my other black colleagues received was not an isolated incident.”

Damages will be determined at a later hearing. By proving discrimination the cap on British employment cases at just below 90,000 pounds ($122,750) won’t apply in this case.

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