Key Takeaways
One of London’s most exclusive gaming establishments, Aspinalls, is facing claims of race discrimination by a former dealer who says that the racist abuse of staff is commonplace at high-end, members-only casinos in the UK.
Aspinalls, in the heart of London’s Mayfair, has traditionally been a place where the more louche members of the British aristocracy blew their unearned dough. (Image: Aspinalls)Semhar Tesfagiorgis, 40, claims that Aspinalls’ management could not see past the pound signs when dealing with high-rolling clients, which helped it to ignore abusive behavior towards employees. This included frequent use of the N-word, and Black dealers being compared to monkeys by customers, according to a filing with an employment tribunal in London, viewed by The Times.
Tesfagiorgis, originally from Eritrea, worked for the members-only casino in Mayfair for 13 years. During this time, she claims she witnessed gamblers ask for “white, whiter, or lighter-skinned” dealers, and that management was only too happy to comply.
‘All Too Familiar’In 2007, on her second day in the job, Tesfagiorgis said a Turkish gambler called a Black dealer a “n*****” in her presence. Two years later, the same regular bombarded another Black colleague with racial slurs, saying, according to the filing, “That f
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