Debra Nutton was studying to be a nurse when fate intervened.

Why not try her hand at being a craps dealer? It was the early 1980s and there were few women holding such positions.

Intrigued, Nutton took a six-week course hoping to earn a position. She eventually found employment at the Silver City Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Unbeknownst to her, it was the beginning of a Gaming Hall of Fame career.

“You look at the list of past nominees, and it’s such an incredibly accomplished and talented group,” Nutton says of her induction.  “I was shocked and super pleased and happy to represent people that come from the casino gaming floor.”

Nutton eventually rose to hold executive positions with Wynn Resorts and MGM. But she began her journey in craps and was fortunate to hone her craft with long-time employees at stops at the Flamingo, the Sahara, and the Las Vegas Sands.

Eventually, she was promoted to the box position at the craps tables at the Sands.

“Taking the box position at the Sands really changed my life, because it got me out of that dealing role and got me into low-level management,” Nutton says. “The dealers at the Sands were incredibly skilled craps dealers, much older than me, 20 or 30 or 40 years older than I was, and they weren’t too thrilled to have a female box person.

“But most of them took on a kind of mentorship. ‘Let’s train her, let’s teach her the ropes.’ What battles to fight and what battles not to fight.

“Technically, the box person, is in charge of that game. But I had to learn I was in charge, kind of, but you’re not in charge. They’ve done this job for 20 years. You know a fraction of what they know. So, you pick your battles wisely.”

When the Mirage opened in 1989 – “all I wanted to do was work at this beautiful new casino,” she says – Nutton sought and eventually gained employment. Initially, she was only woman pit manager.

When Nutton first addressed her crew, she was direct about her gender, telling them to give her a chance. If they did, they’d have the best pit in the Mirage.

“We all have to work together, and we all have to know that openings aren’t easy, but with a little bit of thick skin, a little bit of flexibility and tenacity, we can get through this,” Dutton recalls saying. “And I absolutely had the best pit there. They were the most supportive, kindest, funniest, easy-going group I could ever imagine.”

At one point, Nutton was asked to go to the Golden Nugget as a shift manager. She at first resisted, worried how the work would affect her then young family. And she liked working at the Mirage, being on the Las Vegas Strip.

But in a conversation with a fellow employee, it was emphasized she had no choice even though it would wreak havoc in her family, particularly with her five-year-old son.

“I knew that ultimately I did want to move up in the company, and then I had to kind of put my personal life aside,” she says. “Not to neglect my son, but be flexible enough that, if they said you’re on day shift, that I had to find a way to make it work.”

Nutton went on to work at other casinos, including Treasure Island, before returning to work at the Golden Nugget. When the casino was bought, she went to the MGM Grand as vice president in 2001 at the behest of CEO Bill Hornbuckle. Among her first assignments was to deal with a labor dispute with the dealers, who were making noise about starting a union.

“I knew it was going to be a tough job because they had seven different casino VP’s,” Nutton says. But Hornbuckle’s faith in Nutton paid off.

“I knew that they were disgruntled. They wouldn’t have filed a union petition if they weren’t disgruntled,” Nutton says. “But I was super humble.  I come from their beginnings. I was no different from them, I was a dealer. (I told them) I didn’t come here to fail, if you give me a chance we will get this right together. … Bill’s vision for me was work with them and understand what it was, the petition for the union, and sort this through. And he strongly believed I had the soft skills to do that, and I believe he was right because the union was voted out and the dealers worked with me.”

In 2013, Nutton started working for Wynn Resorts.  It was the last professional stop in a career that defied expectations, that saw Nutton reach for and achieve all her goals,

Nutton, who currently serves on Everi’s board of directors and runs an executive consulting firm, is grateful for the people she has met, the relationships she’s forged, and for a career that exceeded expectations.

“It was a wonderful, wonderful way to end a career that I was blessed to have,” Nutton says, adding that she stepped away because she didn’t want to work full-time, “because all we do is work. When you work in casino operations, your phone is by your bed, 24/7, or in my early days, your beeper, because if there’s any customer issues in the middle of the night, it’s your call. You make those decisions. And I always believe that it was my job to make those tough decisions in the middle of the night and not burden my property president with them.”

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