The Ultimate Dealer Tip Hustle

I just got back from an overnight jaunt to various Southern California casinos to check out their card craps games. I'm going to write a separate article about the game at Barona Casino in San Diego, and ironically it's one of the casinos I did not make it to last night or early this morning.

This article is about one of the casinos I visited where I think I saw the "ultimate dealer tip hustle."

It's about 2-AM and one of the players -- a green chip ($25) player -- is drunk. I mean drunk. But he is a quiet drunk and a respectful drunk, and he isn't giving anyone any problems playing card craps. But he didn't know what he was doing with his bets, and kept throwing green chips on the layout.

For the short time I was observing the table, the dealers helped him out -- pointing out what bets he had, what the point was, making the correct payoffs when numbers hit, etc.

For the most part, he was betting $25 on the passline with double odds ($50) and he was betting the field either for $25 or $50.

The points and passes were coming and this green chip player, betting double odds, when a point was made threw the dealers a $25 chip. That was very generous. And if the player had $50 on the field, and the field hit, he'd throw the dealers another $25 chip-- and that was even more generous.

Then the drunk player was throwing the dice. He had no problem throwing them to the end of the table, and for awhile he was making a lot of numbers and several passes. And that's when he decided to start making bets on the numbers for himself starting with $10 on each number, and a place bet for the dealers on the point of 9.

Each time a number hit, he was paid in red ($5 chips) and white ($1 chips). The player put the red chips in his rail and started to stack up the whites on the 9 for the dealers. And with each number that hit, more whites would go on the dealers' stack on the 9.

Well, after a few rolls the dealers caught on to what the drunk player was doing, so they changed how his bets were being paid off. The reduced the number of red chips, and gave him more white chips. And -- you guessed it -- the player put the white chips on the dealers stack.

One of the dealers started to joke "on the next hit pay him in all whites." And with about 40 white chips now on the 9, another dealer said "there's a 3-foot limit on the 9 for the dealers."

Well, the player hit the 9 and I never saw such a happy bunch of dealers before.

By the way, there was a "suit" -- a floorman at the table -- who said nothing about what was going on.

I've been at tables in different casinos before where dealers have asked for tips, suggested that players give tips, and even loudly thank players for tips as a way to encourage other players to tip -- but this routine at this particular casino takes the cake and the crown as the ultimate tip hustle.

When you come down to the bottom line, it was the player who kept stacking the white chips on the bet for the dealers. The dealers didn't ask for any tips or for any bets. It's just that they made it very easy and convenient for the drunk player to keep doing what he was doing. And for that reason I am not going to mention the casino. I don't think the casino was at fault. I think the dealers didn't have to make it so easy for the player to add those white chips to their "stack" but the player was winning too.

If there is a bottom line, it's don't be too drunk at the table.