You may have noticed something different around here lately as well as Caesars Entertainment Atlantic City properties.

See that Millionaire Maker tab in the upper right corner? Read it! Basically, Caesars Entertainment makes the most millionaires of all casinos.  And we’re gonna celebrate making millionaires till our lungs give out from producing the air that allows us to WOOOOOOOOO all over the place. Get it?

If you’ve been to Caesars Atlantic City, Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City, Showboat Atlantic City and Bally’s Atlantic City recently, you may have noticed Millionaire Maker decor all around – up on the walls and down on the ground. Yes, we meant to rhyme there. One place you definitely couldn’t miss the celebration of making millionaires though, is the sandcastle that sits in the lobby of Harrah’s Resort.

Check out a little before and after:

The first steps of the project (sand on the ground):

The finished product:

Matthew Deibert has created amazing sand creations for Harrah’s for years now and ya’ll love every single one. He’s also won numerous awards for his work including the People’s Choice World Championship in 2001, the Team World Championship in 2002 and 1st place in the New Jersey Championship 2007 and 2008. Most recently in March 2012, he was the winner of Sand Wars on the Travel Channel.

Want to know more? It’s probably better that Matthew tell you in his own words. Check out the interview with him, below.

TAC: How do you come up with the vision for the various sand sculptures you produce for us?

Matthew Deibert: Usually Caesars Entertainment has a promotion or idea that they want me to run with. For example, around Christmas time, I’ve done presents and bows and stuff like that and put the Harrah’s logo on some of the boxes. That one was a quick one because it used to be a poinsettia. Then this year, when it was coming up to that time again, I was waiting for the call and they said that they wanted it to last longer, so I said what about a Winter Wonderland type thing? I thought a snowman would be cool because they have a kind of character face, so I enjoyed doing that one.

TAC: How did this Millionaire Maker idea come to fruition?

Matthew Deibert: Caesars called me up and said that this was their next promotion, the Millionaire Maker. The only thing they had for me was this picture here.

They wanted something similar to that. Logistic wise we figured out how I could do it. At first they suggested just a big bag of money, but I said that I thought I could get this and finish it out with the bags. This spot here is more performance art than anything. People just come up and they are constantly interacting. There’s a lot of return customers all the time saying things like “oh it’s about time you changed it” and “we finally see the guy who does this” and things like that. I enjoy it; I have a lot of fun.

TAC: If you had to put this process into steps for the people reading this, what would they be?

Matthew Deibert: The first process with carving sand is that first you have to wet the sand and pack it, so preparing the sand took five hours for this job. It doesn’t usually take that long on the beach, but first you have to pack the sand and wet it or else it crumbles. It’s very moist and after that, it’s a unique art form because it’s almost like clay but it’s also like wood carving because relieve and add. You have the relief and are adding three dimensional elements to it.

TAC: Typically, how time consuming is it to make one sand sculpture?

Matthew Deibert: It depends on the design and if it’s two sided. The type takes a long time. Usually two hours on one line of type and the same on the other side, so that’s just four hours of type.

TAC: What is something that goes into this craft that most people wouldn’t realize?

Matthew Deibert: Everyone thinks that there is a structure underneath the sculpture and there’s not 15 tons of sand here. That’s the main thing. They want to know what’s inside of it. They also want to know if there’s anything else mixed in it besides water and I tell them no. At the end I do spray it with a little Elmer’s glue and water and give it a little bit of a coating, but it’s just sand and water and they can’t believe that.

TAC: You’ve always had an interest in sand sculpting, growing up in AC, but what was your first experience with creating sand sculptures professionally?

Matthew Deibert: I’m a fireman in Atlantic City and another fireman had a book at the kitchen table of sand sculptures around 12 years ago. I’m a graphic artist, that was my degree. I was working at an advertising agency and I was always artistic, but I saw this and was like oh, I could do that. And then the next job was about a week later in New York. I went up with him and started working and right away I started carving and just took to it.

TAC: Do you think your degree in graphic design helps with your creations?

Matthew Deibert: Absolutely. Anybody that is carving sand professionally out there has some type of art background. That’s professionally, but anyone can carve sand castles. I teach lessons all the time to kids on the beach and I do adult team building events. Anybody can carve a sandcastle.

TAC: What are your plans for this summer?

Matthew Deibert: I have a couple jobs, one in Brigantine and the Beach Fest in Margate. They are the local ones. I’m supposed to do a contest in Cape May and actually the world championships are going to be in Atlantic City this year. I think its June 14^th and it’s right on the south side of the Pier. There’s probably going to be about 40 talented artists throughout the country competing. I’m in the solo competition.

TAC: What have been some of your favorite sandcastles you have created for us so far and why?

Matthew Deibert: Like I said, the most recent one is the snowman, but when I did the 30^th anniversary one and I hid 30 thirties all over the whole thing, people loved that. I had so much fun with that one because it was your building plus castle elements and thirties hidden everywhere. It was so much fun.

TAC: You have won many awards and honors doing this. Which one are you most proud of and why?

Matthew Deibert: The World Championships was nice to go compete in. It was early in my career in 2002 and to place there is just always a good thing. It’s not like it’s a lot of prize money, but just for your resume and to be able to say you won the World Championships is pretty cool. The most exciting thing recently was the fact that I competed on the TV show Sand Wars with my son and we won. It was incredible! They flew us down to Siesta Key and treated us like royalty, and here we are just playing in the sand. It was really interesting to go through the process of editing too. Winning and doing it with my son was really cool.

Take a look at Matthew in action here:

Pretty amazing stuff. And be sure to go check it out at Harrah’s Resort yourself. Also keep checking our Millionaire Maker page to see how you can get one step closer to being next!