For Becky Lynn Huston, a career that involved working with money at casinos was not in the cards, at first. When her kids were small, the married mother of three children studied early childhood education, enrolling in general courses related to that field yet took several accounting classes that she says she “fell in love with,” completely capturing and shifting her interest. She put aside her studies for a while before deciding during the COVID pandemic to return to school, motivated by her eldest child who earned master’s degrees in accounting.
Today, Ms. Huston is the revenue audit manager at Caesars Entertainment, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado, joining the company in 2019, and is a recent magna cum laude graduate with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Colorado State University Global more than 13 years after entering the industry as a cashier. Proud of her high academic achievement and unexpected promotion from guest services center supervisor to the audit manager position, she has eagerly applied the accounting practices she learned in school to her real-world career.
Ms. Huston believes her success is due in large measure to the support of her family’s unwavering love and support. She also credits and has been praised for her ability to remain calm in heated situations and gain the confidence to step into her new auditing role. Her advice to other emerging professionals, regardless of their industry, is to never give up, go back to school if it has been a delayed desire, and make the change because it opens more doors. As for her own continuing career goals, Ms. Huston plans to begin a master’s program in the short term and pursue completing the exam required to become a certified public accountant. Within the next five to 10 years, she will work towards becoming an internal auditor, a controller, and elevating to director of finance.
All of Ms. Huston’s casino experience has taken place inside what’s referred to as the casino cage, which is the commerce center where money, casino chips, credit clips, paperwork, and other transactions are circulated and where she was a supervisor. With the casinos in Colorado being in the municipality of Black Hawk and in the city of Cripple Creek, Ms. Huston worked in those areas as well as in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she was a cage shift manager at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, an assistant cage supervisor promoted from cage cashier at ARIA Resort & Casino, and a cage cashier at Monte Carlo Resort and Casino, now called Park MGM Las Vegas.
Now, at Caesars Entertainment, Inc., her duties include managing a team of auditors who are responsible for auditing people working in the cage and in food and beverage. She and her team review paperwork to ensure that all items and figures balance. Ms. Huston produces reports that she sends to the corporate team to show revenue results. She performs audits and reviews audits to make sure everything complies with the Colorado Division of Gaming in addition to completing all gaming taxes, taxes for states, and paperwork that comes through the casino. She is also responsible for cashing out the chips. A respected mentor and authority in her field, Ms. Huston is a member of the Institute of Management Accountants, the Golden Key International Honor Society, and the National Society of Leadership and Success. She was certified in 2021 by LinkedIn to teach the professional development courses, “Balancing Multiple Roles as a Leader,” “Creating Your Personal Brand,” and “Influencing Others.”
While previously seeking a different career, Ms. Huston studied toward earning degrees in early childhood education and teaching and in general education at the College of the Redwoods and in early childhood education and teaching at Humboldt State University. Also, she earned a certificate of completion in airline reservations from the International Air and Hospitality Academy and studied mathematics at Clatsop Community College. In her spare time, Ms. Huston enjoys making crafts, crocheting, knitting, woodworking, and leatherworking.
