Indiana Casino Dealers Are Bringing Back the Recognition Strike

November 10, 2025 / Alexandra Bradbury


Ninety years ago, this was the main way to unionize. "Everyone keeps asking if we're scared," said striking casino dealer Tera Arnold. "I’ve never been so not scared of anything in my life. I feel powerful." Photo: Teamsters Local 135

There are no clocks in a casino, so the dealers all set their phone alarms for noon. Everyone was a bundle of nerves. Before work, a couple of people threw up.

But when the cacophony of alarms sounded, everyone lifted their hands in the air, slammed down the lids on their games of baccarat, blackjack, craps, and roulette, and announced they were on strike. “It was more powerful than anything I’ve ever felt in my life,” said dealer Tera Arnold. “I had goosebumps head to toe.”

The other dealers were waiting outside. When the strikers began streaming out the doors and moving their cars out of the employee parking lot, “the sheer amount of joy, raw energy, seeing my colleagues from all walks of life pull around that corner, hands out the windows—everybody lost their mind,” said dealer Dakota Massman. “It was one of the most beautiful moments of human solidarity I’ve ever had the pleasure of being part of.”

As of October 17, the dealers at the Horseshoe Indianapolis Casino in Shelbyville, Indiana, were on strike for union recognition.

FULL story: https://labornotes.org/2025/11/indiana-casino-dealers-are-bringing-back-recognition-strike