Las Vegas Weekly

Everyone into the pool!

Just another typical day of debauchery at the Rehab pool party.

Photo: Tiffany Brown

Maybe you’ve noticed the recent flurry of full-page ads for jobs that started popping up in the Las Vegas Weekly over the past few weeks. This is unusual: Most employers, even in Las Vegas, don’t take out full-page glossy ads to fill vacancies. But this is a particular, peculiar niche of employment opportunity: The big casinos are hiring for their pools and “daylife” parties, cocktail servers, bartenders, porters, bussers, bar backs, security officers, runners, VIP hosts and amenities girls. Oh, and lifeguards, too.

The new Encore Beach Club and Surrender nightclub alone will fill 400 positions. More than 1,500 applied for the 160 positions at the Hard Rock’s two pools. With the Las Vegas unemployment rate at 13.1 percent, this is just a drop in the ocean, of course. But it’s something. And when the four-month Spring Break known as pool season begins March 12 at MGM Grand’s Wet Republic 53,000-square-foot “ultrapool,” it will bring a much-needed splash of cash into the local economy. Pool parties = liquidity.

Several new cement ponds have been added to our pool of pools: In addition to the $100 million Encore aquatic complex, this season sees the debut of the Liquid pool party at Aria and the Lavo party at Palazzo. These join the other luxe swimmin’ holes, including the venerable Rehab party at the Hard Rock, Relapse at the Flamingo, Tao Beach at the Venetian, Voodoo Beach at Rio, Venus Pool Club at Caesars Palace, Bare at Mirage, Day Dream at M, and Ditch Fridays at the Palms.

The hiring process for these parties is called “casting,” and applicants are instructed to “bring your swimsuit for your audition photo.” In other words, these jobs aren’t available to every body—the beauty bar is set pretty high. But those of us who wouldn’t dare to bare it at these parties—even as a guest—can take cold comfort in the fact that pool-season employment will keep a few thousand dangerously pretty people off the streets.