I have a background check coming up for a casino dealer position. I was convicted of party to a crime: retail theft, when I was 14, now 24. Was with a buddy who tried to steal a $40 shirt. Nothing major since, alcohol possession and battery at 18, that’s it. Do I even have to report this?
Vegas Matt on Apr 4, 2010 Said:
Law enforcement agencies cannot release the criminal records of minors (or records of crimes committed as minors) to anyone. There’s no reason they should be able to find out about the incident, and I don’t know how any company could hold a weak misdemeanor crime committed as a minor against you.
Anyway, they’re looking at your criminal record (as an adult) and probably your credit report. If those two things are clean, I wouldn’t worry about it.
dark_knight_1735 on Apr 5, 2010 Said:
I worked at a casino.
It is in your best interest to list all criminal offenses that have occurred since you were an adult (18).
The last thing a casino wants is to hire a dishonest person. If you omit an offense in the hopes of improving your chances of getting hired, you appear to be more likely to omit workplace offenses that may jeopardize your employment.
I inadvertently failed to list a battery charge against me. They checked, found it, called me in to meet with a casino representative, HR rep, and gaming board commissioner. That meeting sucked and I was so scared that I wouldn’t get the job, but after explaining the innocent forgetfulness of the event (it occurred when I was 18, and it was against an older brother of mine, who was also charged. We both plead guilty and our sentence was counseling sessions, so it kind of fell under the jurisdiction of family court… needless to say, I have always been embarrassed by that mark on my record and have very successfully blocked it out of my memory).
I was extremely surprised and frightened that they uncovered that. I waited a few days and received the call that they would still hire me, but were a little apprehensive about my ‘lying’ on the application under criminal history.
I’m assuming that if I just listed it, they would have verified it, saw the outcome, realized that that was the last criminal offense against me (not counting moving violations/traffic tickets) and the meeting for me to explain it would have never been called. It really didn’t make me look good to be working with millions of dollars if I was willing to lie on an application.
List your offenses and the outcomes.
Play it safe and start off on the right foot.
ZCT on Apr 4, 2010 Said:
I’d like to hope that the crime you committed as a child is not going to be held against you as an adult.
You might want to tell them about the incident when you were an adult. Make up a story. You got hold of some beer and got into a fight. You were young and foolish, it was a lifetime ago etc etc.
Should you fail to mention it once the background check is run, it makes it look like you were lying to them, which in fact you were. So your dishonesty is going to count against you.