Before he became a travel agent, Live The Dream Travel owner and Travellers Choice member Greg Close travelled the world as a cruise ship casino dealer.
Close has been a member of Travellers Choice since 2011.
Greg Close of Live The Dream Travel. (Supplied)
Here is Greg’s journey
How did you become a casino dealer?
I was on a ferry from Calais to Dover when I met a lady working in the casino and she told me what a great way it was to travel the world. So, when I got back to Manchester, I took a 12-week training course and then started working in a casino in the city. You had to work for two years before you could apply to join a cruise ship, and so in 1996, having done my two years, I flew straight to Miami and started work on my first ship. I worked on ships for the next four years.
What did the role involve doing?
We dealt blackjack, poker, roulette and craps. The casino was only allowed to open when we were in international waters – that meant we’d work pretty much every night, but during the day, when we were in port, we were free to get off and do what the passengers did. We’d be doing shore excursions while everyone else on the ship was working.
The atmosphere in the casino was dependent on where the ship was sailing. If you were working out of somewhere like Puerto Rico, Miami or Los Angeles, and doing the Caribbean or Bahamas, it was a party atmosphere because people were there to have a bit of fun. But if you were in Alaska, it was much quieter because it was generally an older clientele, who were there to see the scenery and went to bed early.
Greg Close has served as a director of the Travellers Choice Board (pictured) since 2017.
What did you love and hate about the job?
I loved travelling to so many destinations I wouldn’t normally have visited, like the Panama Canal and Costa Rica. And working on a ship meant I always had a roof over my head, food and a wage. The hard part was that the food was often terrible! We would get the food the passengers hadn’t eaten the night before. So, if there were excess green beans, we knew we were getting green beans the next day. There was also a strict routine, which meant we had to go to bed at set times and work specific shifts.
Why did you decide to change careers?
I moved to Australia with my partner and worked in a casino in Adelaide, but then the kids started arriving and it was clearly not the best job in the world if you had a family. I’d be working night shifts until 5AM in morning and the kids would wake at 5:30AM. My life had changed and I needed a different career.
Why did you choose travel?
Really it was a natural progression. I’d lived for several years in Greece, then travelled the world on cruise ships and finally moved to Australia. Travel was what I knew, and it was something I could do while having a growing family.
How has your experience as a casino dealer helped you as a travel agent?
You certainly needed great customer service working on cruise ships because we worked pretty much for tips, with little in the way of wages. Good customer service got you those tips, so you learned to be nice all the time. Also, like all good salespeople you learned to mirror the behaviour of the person in front of you. Some people wanted fast and professional service, others wanted a chat – whatever it was, that’s what they got. In that sense, I guess working in a casino helps you get good a reading people.