Dealing Stories

The Viagra Stalker

The first month I started dealing I was so happy I had a job and was getting paid. I was smiling all of the time, I was really nice to everyone and very talkative. Then I had an 85 year old customer that I was nice to and he took it the wrong way. He stalked me for an entire week! He would play on my table for 8 hours (the poor guy lost so much money), he waited at my car after work, and he would say the grossest, nastiest things on my table in front of my players. My floorman asked if I knew the 85 year old and I told him, “No, the guy has been stalking me all week.” So he asked one of his friends, a security guard, to walk me to my car at the end of my shift. He did for a couple days until the guy stopped stalking me. That was weird, scary and strange.

∾ Heather 2004

Date: July 24, 2010 @ 1:22am PST

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How Casinos Save Money

Usually, the way casinos are built, the dealer’s break room or dining area is usually a level or 2 below or above the ground floor. A group of dealers and I were walking back to our tables after our break when one of the dealers tripped and fell down the flight of stairs. He hurt his head and his ankle so the casino automatically had a security guard drive him to the 24 hour clinic to have a doctor look at him. The first thing they check for was drugs and then they took care of his injuries. Unfortunately the drug test came back positive for marijuana so he was immediately fired. He had to pay for all of the medical bills and the drug test on his own and it was expensive. That’s what every casino does. If their employees get injured on the job then they can get workers comp, they can get disability or they can sue. That is why the casino will make security drive you to the doctors right then and there, so they can have a drug test done. Since a good amount of tests are going to come back positive for drugs or alcohol then that cuts down on the workers comp claims and disability claims that the casino has to pay and that saves the casino money.

∾ Heather 2004

Date: July 18, 2010 @ 7:44am PST

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Don't Tell Me What To Do

I was dealing single deck blackjack in the high limit area and my table minimum was $200. This well known high roller and George walked in and sat down at my table. He changed in $50,000 and both my floorman and assistant shift manager, Jordan, were watching. Jordan knew this player and knew he was a George so he walked over to him, shook his hand, said hello and then leaned over and said to him, “Our policy has changed, you can’t tip the dealers here sir.” I was fuming mad but I couldn’t say anything. The high roller just nodded his head and sat down and started playing. After about 2 or 3 hands the high roller stood up, pushed his entire pile of chips towards me and said, “This is your tip.” Then he looked at Jordan and said, “Nobody is going to tell me what I can and can’t do with my money.” Then he walked away. We lost a good George that day because he never came back but I think we made about $450 in tips. That is a huge amount! The average tips we make per day is $100. A lot of dealers hated Jordan after that.

∾ Heather 2006

Date: June 28, 2010 @ 12:01am PST

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Don't Worry, Be Happy (& Win Money!)

I was dealing blackjack and nearly had a full table. It was great because the players at the table were all family and they were laughing, joking and having a great time. This was their first time in Las Vegas and they had no idea how to play blackjack, but they were winning and having fun so it didn’t matter. After a couple hours this old grumpy man sits down in the only spot available and starts playing $100 per hand. It was a $10 minimum table and everyone there was playing $10. Not knowing any better the family continued playing haphazardly (splitting 10’s, hitting 14 when I had a 6 up card, and so on). I don’t think I have ever seen an old guy get so red in the face. His bull dog cheeks jiggled with rage and he blew up screaming at the family, blaming them for losing his first hand. He would belligerently tell each family member how to play, all the while putting them down in between rough "lessons." These people were scared that they would do something wrong.

Finally one of the players asked me, “What am I supposed to do on this hand?” He had a 12 against my 2 up card. I said, “Well the book says to hit it, but it’s your money, you do what you want to with it.” The old asshole stood up, purple in the face and screamed at me, “How dare you tell him that! You want us all to lose! You’re a horrible dealer!” I calmly said, “Sir, how much do you think the casino pays us?” He looked slightly taken back and then answered, “Uh, $5 an hour?” I put a sarcastic smile on my face and said, “Very good! Now how do you think we pay for groceries, rent, and bills off of $5 an hour? Our tips pay for that, and if the players lose we don’t get tipped. So there is no dealer in Las Vegas that wants their players to lose.” He was silent and he had this look on his face like he couldn’t believe I was talking to him like this. He then gave me the evil eye, took his money and left. The whole table looked astonished and one of the players broke the silence by handing me a $5 chip and saying, “thank you”. After that old geezer left the family was laughing, having fun again and I got tipped much more.

∾ Heather 2007

Date: June 26, 2010 @ 8:14am PST

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Sleep Dealing

I used to work two full-time jobs. I would deal blackjack at one casino on swing shift and then I would go to another casino and deal on the graveyard shift. It was horrible; I would only get 4 hours of sleep during the day. I was dealing baccarat and I was so exhausted, I could feel my head nodding and I was trying so hard to stay awake. I dealt the hand and said, “Player has natural 9; banker has 7. Player wins.” I leaned over and started taking the losing bets when I heard, “Wait! Stop! What are you doing?” I opened my eyes and realized I had just fallen asleep on the table. I just dreamed that I was dealing but when I looked down I saw that I had actually dealt the hand. But I didn’t see a 9 versus a 7, like in my dream, instead I saw 8 versus 8 which is a natural tie and nobody could have mistaken the tie for a player win. But there I was picking up what I thought were the losing bets (a “tie” basically means no one loses). I had already picked up the bets from half of the table and I had no clue how much each person had been playing individually. I had to call my floorman over and try to explain to him why I was picking up banker bets when I clearly had a tie sitting in front of me. It was incredibly embarrassing having to explain to your boss that you fell asleep on the job. Well, now I can truly say “I can deal baccarat in my sleep” because I’ve actually done it.

∾ Heather 2004

Date: June 22, 2010 @ 12:19am PST

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My Biggest Compliment

I was dealing on a 6-deck blackjack table and I was having a great night. I had a full table of awesome people and we were laughing and talking and having a blast. Well dealers get a 20 minute break every hour. So my hour was up and the relief dealer came by to tap me out. I started to leave but one of the guys at the table said, “Ah, you don’t have to go do you? Stay a little longer.” “I’ll be back in 20 minutes,” I replied. “But what if we each gave you $5 to stay?” The table was full so we had 6 players at the table; that was $30 extra to stay at the table 20 minutes longer. “Well, if everyone at the table is willing to do that then I’ll stay.” I was seriously expecting no one to speak up and then I could go on my way, but the whole table agreed to do it. I was astonished. I looked at my relief and said, “Looks like I’m staying. Wanna get me on the next break?” My relief dealer looked surprise, “You’re kidding, right? You’re going to skip your break?” He had this look on his face that clearly said “I think you’re crazy.” I refused to go on break and I took the $30 and stayed for 20 extra minutes. That was the biggest compliment I think I’ve received on the table.

∾ Heather 2008

Date: June 11, 2010 @ 8:17am PST

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The Dangers Of Dealing

I was dealing on a blackjack table with this one asshole that had been there for 6 hours. He had been drinking throughout the entire 6 hours and was completely wasted; plus he had lost about $5,000 total for the day playing, $15 per hand. This guy was rude, obnoxious, and a complete jackass. I had stayed silent for most of the 6 hours, because that is one way not to get in trouble, and this guy was looking at anyone to pick a fight with. I can’t remember exactly what he said but he put me down in some way and I said some smart-ass remark back. The remark came out before I could think about what I was saying. As soon as I said that the guy’s face became contorted and turned a bright red color. He puffed his chest out, stood up and lunged a loogie right into my eye. I didn’t have glasses or contacts, so it went right in; there was nothing there to protect it. I was lucky my floorman, Adam was right behind me because without thinking I ran off the table and straight to the bathroom. Adam was able to step in my place as a dealer and asked another floorman to call the cameras and security. After reviewing the tapes, security 86ed the asshole and I never saw that man again. The security guards were thinking ahead and collected all of his information in case I wanted to sue. I went to the Dr.’s that same night and they ran tests to see if I had contracted any diseases. The results came back normal, thank God.

∾ Anonymous 2004

Date: June 1, 2010 @ 10:07am PST

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The Way The Law Works

I was dealing Pai-gow one night when a co-worker of mine, another dealer, flew past me running as fast as he could. 5 security guards followed him and I saw him throw something in one of the trash cans that he passed on the way out the door. The security guards caught him and called the police. We found out later that this dealer was caught slipping several black chips into his pocket while he was working on the toke committee. That was what he threw in the trash can, the bag of black chips he stole that night. He had been working at this casino for 20 years and had been on the toke committee for 10 years. They found out that for the entire 10 years he was on the committee, this dealer had been pocketing several black chips per night. The total amount he stole was $5 million. He was fired and blacklisted from working in any casino in Las Vegas, but he wasn’t prosecuted or taken to jail. Why? Because the money he stole was the dealers not the casinos, so the casino couldn’t press charges. And the police couldn’t get all of the dealer’s to press charges (there was over 1,000 of us), so this dealer got away with the $5 million. Since he isn’t allowed to work in any casino again, he is probably living happily somewhere not working at all. Lucky.

∾ Heather 2005

Date: May 30, 2010 @ 10:45am PST

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The Casino Freaked Out

When I first started dealing, I worked with this dealer who was also a newbie. She was beautiful, had a perfect body and long black hair but she wasn’t a very good dealer. That’s the thing about Las Vegas now days. If you are gorgeous and you have big boobs, the casino will hire you even if you can’t deal worth shit. Well, it ended up that she had a high roller playing on her table betting $500 a hand. After 4 hours he walked away with $30,000 and the management at that casino was pissed. They freaked out and immediately fired the dealer claiming that she and the player were scamming the casino together. They said that she had purposely showed her hole card to help him win. They told her they had the proof on video but when she asked to see the video they wouldn’t show it to her. She hired a lawyer and sued the casino for wrongful termination. I haven’t seen her since and I don’t know what happened.

∾ Heather 2004

Date: May 22, 2010 @ 9:36am PST

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Dealer's Are People Too

I use to work with a dealer once who was addicted to gambling. She would come in on her days off with her 9 year old daughter and tell all of the dealers how she couldn’t afford to pay for her utilities or food. People, including myself, would lend her money and never get paid back. I got a second job at another casino on graveyard. I would work my swing shift job and then go to my graveyard job 4 nights out of the week. Every night at my graveyard job this dealer would come in and gamble for hours blowing more money than she made. I know how much she made because she only had one job and I was getting paid the same amount as she was. I always felt bad for her daughter.

∾ Heather 2004

Date: May 15, 2010 @ 8:02am PST

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Incredible Dealer

In the gaming business, when you are first starting out dealing, you learn either blackjack or craps; then you get hired into a break-in house and then you learn other games from there. On the dealer’s break the dealer can go to a live game or a dead game and practice. When I was learning how to deal roulette, I went to a dead game to practice spinning the ball. There was a 40 year old dealer at the game who loved to show-off (in a good way). He asked me to pick a number, so I picked 16. He picked up the ball, waited and then spun… and 16 hit. I blinked a couple times and then I said, “Do that again… 31”. So, for a second time, he spun the ball and it landed on 31. I think my jaw hit the floor. The floorman John, who had been, watching came over and said, “There is no way you can do that again, the odds of you hitting this next number is so low I’ll bet you $20 you can’t hit 24.” So the dealer spun the ball and amazingly hit 24. When John lost his $20 his face quenched up so tight and his fist clenched and he stormed off. We laughed and then the dealer told me that he would do this when a player came to his table. He would hit their number once or twice to see if they would tip. If they tipped he would keep hitting their number and if they didn’t tip he would hit a different number so they would lose. Unfortunately, he is working as a floorman at a strip casino right now; otherwise I would be on his table playing instead of writing this.

∾ Heather 2004

Date: May 6, 2010 @ 10:09am PST

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When Managers Suck

I was dealing in pit 4, the carnival pit, and there were 7 tables open but only 1 floorman, Eddie, watching them. Normally a floorman only has 3-4 tables to watch so one floorman to 7 tables is incredible. Eddie had been working as a floorman for 40 years; he is either in his late 60’s or early 70’s with gray hair and an ‘I don’t give a shit’ attitude. Normally when a dealer has a player change in for $100 or more we are supposed to call it out and the floorman will ok it and mark it down. If it is really busy we will mark it ourselves and then just tell the floorman later so that way we won’t hold up the game and lose the casino's money.

But there are some things we absolutely must get approval on; for instance if I color up someone for $300 or more or if a player changes in $500 or more. So all night we are completely busy and you could hear all the dealers in the pit screaming “change” and “color up” and Eddie was ignoring everyone. He was standing on the far end of the pit talking to the only dealer that had a dead table. I would call out something 5 or 6 times and he would finally begrudgingly come over and act like I was making his job difficult and I shouldn’t be bothering him. This kept on for the rest of the night and all of the dealers experienced the frustration that I felt when dealing with Eddie.

By the end of the night I had this young couple come to my table. They were a really nice Asian couple who looked like they very well to do. They said they just saw a show and went to dinner. They wanted to try their hand at 3 card poker and they played one hand. The husband put $250 on pair plus for himself and $250 for pair plus for his date. This is something I have to get approval on so I spent 5 minutes calling Eddie before he finally stopped talking and came over. He was pissed but watched the hand. I dealt the cards and told the couple not to touch it, since they were playing just the pair plus they didn’t have to make any other decision. So I flip over my cards and I qualify with a Queen high.

I turn over the woman's cards slowly, one by one, and the couple loved that. The lady didn’t have anything and lost so I took her $250 and moved on to the gentleman's cards. I slowly turned them over one by one again and Eddie got so pissed off at me he complained loudly, “Oh, come on and just flip it over already. I want to go home sometime tonight!” The couple gave him a look as if to say go away. It was 3:20am and we were going to be off at 4am so this was going to be one of his final tasks for the night. I was so mad because of the way he acted plus the bullshit I had to deal with all night that by the end I was fuming. So I ignored him and went much slower than normal just to piss him off. He stomped his foot like an infant having a temper tantrum. The man got a flush and ended up walking away with $1,000. “Finally,” Eddie said as he stomped away. Like that extra 5 minutes just killed him. I was just happy I could piss him off and not get written up for it.

∾ Heather 2008

Date: July 26, 2010 @ 4:03pm PST

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Sexual Hypocrisy At The Top Level

The casino I use to work for was horrible when it came to sexual harassment. For 2 ½ years one of the bars would show soft core images on the TVs that surrounded the bar. The images were all women wearing see-through lingerie and in provocative poses. The men running the bar saw no problem with it. The women who worked there and the female customers all had a problem with it. The casino was finally forced to take it down because so many customers complained. We also had a casino manager who would hire these beautiful women with large boobs as dealers even though they would have no idea how to deal. I’ve heard him talk about woman dealers as “stupid Barbie’s” or “whores”. Women who worked at the pool had to wear a tight skimpy bathing suit; one female dealer really wanted to deal at the pool but the casino manager told her she couldn’t because she didn’t fit his ideal body type. All of the employees are forced to go to a sexual harassment seminar once a year and the casino manager would show up and say a few words. In 2010 the same casino manager got fired because he texted a dealer requesting a blowjob. The casino found out that he had been having sex with female dealers for years; by the way the slime ball is married with kids.

∾ Heather 2010

Date: July 25, 2010 @ 11:19am PST

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Casino Customer Service

As a dealer I’m in the business of customer service. 85% of the time I’m taking people’s money and that pisses them off so, after they’ve been drinking, they tend to blame the dealer for those losses. Because they are so mad I’ve had people call me names, throw things at me, and be general dicks. If the player is losing and is smoking a cigar he will blow the smoke in my face. I have to hold my breath and act like nothing happened because if I show any reaction he will do it again. When I’ve had a player that really pisses me off I will be overly polite to him so that way he gets more pissed and he can’t complain about me being nice because then he would look like a douche and I won’t get in trouble.

∾ Heather 2010

Date: July 27, 2010 @ 1:50pm PST

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