A day in the Life of a Casino Dealer

14 August 2007

Being a dealer can get you called a harbinger of fortune, a liaison to luck and the sweetest angel known to man. That is, when the customer is winning, of course. On the other hand, it can also get named a good-for-nothing imbecile, an honorary member of Satan�s disciples, and the kind of thief who makes the outlaw Jesse James look like the Jesse who stole your lunch money in the third grade. Such is life as a casino dealer.

The gambling industry in the United States nets over $84.8 billion a year, due to the phenomenal rise it has experienced over the past few years. Even in this era of internet, digital miracles and instant transfers of information, most of this money goes through the hand of the pit dealers in just about every game that you imagine. Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a dealer? Ever dreamed of being one yourself?

The bottom line is this: being a dealer is a lot more challenging than it may appear.

For starters, dealers must know how to an inordinate amount of math in a very short time. Some dealer say they do thousands of addition problems in an hour, and that�s only in the card games. If you throw in calculating the payout in games such as craps, where some bets pay out as much as 6 to 5, then you have the dealers being constantly in readiness, enough to worry even Deep Blue in a match against Garry Kasparov.

Secondly, being a dealer requires enormous physical dexterity. Most casinos expect to serve over one hundred hands an hour for blackjack. With seven players at one blackjack table, even dealers who fall short of this amount are still working blindingly fast, at times. Not surprisingly, some dealers suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive strain injuries.

Dealers are also those who enforce game rules, see that all bets are made at the right time, at the right place. And, at the last, while dealing, adding numbers, handing our cards and administering the rules, they must also entertain the customers and keep the interested and engaged. While dealers are not meant to make the players roll on the floor laughing, they are still part of the evening�s entertainment. People like personable dealers that they can relate to, and if they remember them as nice and friendly, they will want to return.

For all this work most dealers earn about $45,000 a year, including the tips that players usually bestow after a good hand or a few entertaining hours at the table. While this salary isn�t as much as it probably should be in a billion-dollar industry, it isn�t shabby.

PERHAPS the biggest perk for casino dealers is the unpredictability that each day brings. Because different players constantly come and go, no two shifts on the floor are the same. But it is a far cry to say that being a dealer is easy. But if you ask any dealer, it is probable that they would say that they do enjoy their work immensely.

OCN Staff

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A day in the Life of a Casino Dealer

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