Vegas betting on tourists returning, but will jobs come back?
LAS VEGAS — He wore a silk shirt and kept a slight scent of cologne about him. He liked to talk. There was always someone to talk to, like the production assistant from Los Angeles who blew $1,200 on video poker. They all brought their stories to the 40-foot marble bar at the Rio hotel, and later to a less glamorous joint a few miles from the Strip.
It was a good life, and through the years, Bernard Sykes met Hollywood actresses and local characters, professional athletes including Mike Tyson, and first-time visitors to the United States. Sometimes, as customers swigged beers and sipped martinis, sharing the kind of intimacies told only to strangers, they'd slide a $100 bill across the counter as a tip.
Then, last spring, like a dust devil of bad luck, Sykes' life shattered.
"They let me go immediately," Sykes said, recalling the start of pandemic shutdowns that cost him his $14-an-hour job. "I've been out of work ever since."
A year and two months since the
