People who work in casinos, what should we know?

• When playing table games, never play every roll or every hand. You will blow through your money in no time and it’s much easier to get caught up in the excitement. When I play craps I won’t play the pass line until a shooter has established and hit at least 1 point.

• Slots are boring, avoid them unless you need a drink. In which case you can sit for a few minutes and order a free drink.

• Consider playing a poker tournament for $50-100. The cost is fixed and it can take awhile, with the added benefit of a potential huge payout.

• Don’t get too drunk. There is a reason they serve free drinks in the casino.

• Stay away from roulette, it is nearly impossible to play a long session and walk away a winner.

• Craps are statistically the best odds in the casino.

 

 

People who work in casinos, what should we know?

I’ve been a table games dealer for 5 months now. Not a long time, but enough for me to know the lay of the land.

• We can’t take anything from your hands so please put your money/chips on the table and we’ll take it from there.
• If you ask, “what should I do?” we can give you basic strategy but ultimately it’s your money and your decision… I hate to give advice because we get all the blame and none of the credit.
• We want you to win. It is a service job and we make our living off tips. At my casino, base pay is $4.50/hr. All the tips from every shift are pooled and then divided among every table games dealer into what’s called a “toke rate” which is added to our base pay every week (Usually ends up being additional $16/hr)… so if a dealer isn’t giving you outstanding customer service, chances are us follow dealers don’t like him/her because he or she is bringing down the toke rate and making us look bad.
• Yes, surveillance is watching. And if you see the supervisor walk up to the table and pull the paddle up out of the drop box, it means something happened and someone got caught doing something on the table and they’re using the paddle as a marker for surveillance to go back and check.
• The people in suits monitoring us are not pit bosses. This isn’t a big deal but it just annoys me when people call them that… they are floor supervisors. The pit bosses don’t really hang around, they’re always running around doing something.
• PLEASE PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD if you must smoke, PLEASE don’t blow it in our faces. ESPECIALLY if it’s a cigar. I can deal with everything about this job, but this is the one thing that pisses me off the most.
• Our job can be VERY mentally draining so forgive us if we’re not super cheerful or encouraging at times. Like I said, we do want you to win. It’s no fun if you don’t. But we deal with a lot of difficult people and have to put on a happy face while doing so, even if they’re pissing us off. It can be hard.
• We’re not allowed to exchange contact information with our players. I know a lot of dealers do this anyway though. I’m a young female dealer and I get guys asking for my number / asking when I’m going on break or get off my shift all the time… please don’t, it’s awkward and we could get in serious trouble if surveillance sees us talking excessively with you off our game.
• Don’t come to the casino expecting to win. It’s a casino. It was built on losers. Even so, we understand if you get upset when you lose, just don’t take it out on us. We have nothing to do with the game itself other than delivering the results.

People who work in casinos, what should we know?

To be clear, slot machines work off of a computerized random number generator. You will not win more by pulling the handle instead of pushing the button. You will not win more by changing your bet back and forth between the minimum and maximum. You will not win more by pulling out your player’s card and reinserting it.

Most casinos in the US will give you free drinks while you are playing. If you want to maximize your free drinks per dollar spent, find a bar in the casino with video poker.

Treat the casino workers with respect. It isn’t their fault you lost money. At the same time, if you get shitty customer service, tell someone. Most casinos are very focused on making the players happy.

Always get rated. If you’re playing slots, use your card. If you’re playing tables, make sure you’re being rated. This is how you get free stuff.

If you have a gambling addiction, you can request to be banned from the casino and put on a no-mail list.

If you’ve won a jackpot over $1200, you will likely be paying taxes on it and a form will be sent to the IRS.