Craps Players Tip More than Video Poker Players

I think this discussion deserves a thread of its own.

I think craps players tip more than video poker and slots players -- and if anyone "overtips" it's craps players. Here's why.

It's all a matter of percentages.

I don't know any video poker or slots players who tip without winning first and without a hand pay.

If I get a handpay of $1250 (four of a kind in many $5/coin games) my usual tip is $10. At Bellagio the last ten dollars of the hand pay comes with two $5 bills and that makes it easy to tip $5 and that's what I do at Bellagio.

A $10 tip on a $1,250 hand pay is 8/10 of 1%.
A $5 tip on a $1,250 hand pay is 4/10 of 1%.

Now, tipping at craps.

There are various ways to tip at craps. You can hand in the money (dealer hand in) which goes right in the tip box, or you can make a bet for the dealers. When you make the bets for the dealers the tip percentage skyrockets.

Let's say you are at a $25 table and you make a pass. You might make on the next come-out roll a $5 or a $10 passline bet for the dealers. At $5 the percentage of the bet is 20% of your own bet. At $10 it's 40% of your own bet.

Suppose you make a $5 hardway bet on the 8 for the dealers when the point is 8. If you are at a $10 table with full odds you've bet $60 on yourself with full 5X odds. That $5 hardway bet for the dealers becomes 8.33% of your own wager.

If the $5 hardway bet hits, the dealers get $50 which becomes 83.33% of your own original wager.

What makes the craps players even bigger tippers and they don't realize it, is that they can make these bets even when they are not winning, and they can make these bets multiple times.

I'm not a critic of tipping, as you know. But before you criticize video poker players for handing over tips of $5 and $10 on minimal hand pays, consider what craps players are handing out without wins as big as $1250.

Table games dealers in general make wayyyyyyyyyyy more tips than slot attendants do. This just isn't a craps issue.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jbjb

Table games dealers in general make wayyyyyyyyyyy more tips than slot attendants do. This just isn't a craps issue.

---

Interesting you said that. When I hit my big royal at Caesars I asked the floor people how many would split the tip. They told me about 20 floor people were in the pool. Afterwards I played some craps (by the way, I won about $200) and I asked the craps dealers how many split the tips -- and they told me it was more than 400 different dealers at various games who would share.

There's only one simple reason why table game dealers are tipped way more than vp attendants: Because they are perpetually in a face-to-face situation, and that translates into much more intimidation than what goes on with video poker play. Refer back to the electric meter reader. No one tips them because no one has to face them. Eliminate the potential for an uncomfortable situation and you eliminate the annoying tip in its entirety.

Do you wear a tinfoil hat as well, Rob? You know aliens sunk the Titanic? And the moon doesn't even exist, it's a conspiracy the government has loaded into our brains when we're born.

Rob is right, but not for the exact reason he stated.

Table games see a lot more tippable hands than the machines do (where tips only occur at a handpay, because otherwise you don't interact with a human employee).

That's why they get paid more.

Blackjack dealers at Wynn and Bellagio make over $90k per year (mostly from tips), which is insane.

Don't the blackjack dealers at Wynn and Bellagio share the same tip pool as other table game dealers? And that would be the carnival games, craps, roulette, 3 card poker, etc.

Where I play there are hand pays for as little as $250. This increases the interaction of attendants and players. I suspect they get more tips at this casino because of this situation. They will find out shortly as all the coin games where these interactions occur are being removed by the end of the year. Personally, I have given out over $3000 in tips this year.

I rarely sit at a bj table but for sure a lot of the tips come from the alcohol rather than the person. And for those who are playing seriously, it's a mystery why they would tip the ever changing dealers. Oh wait!---it's because they FEEL the PRESSURE of having to tip them because they have to interact with them. Imagine what a dirty look or two would do to someone's profits!

The largest Indian casino in the Phx. area where I trained players always had handpays required on $400 & higher vp hits. I asked about that on a $1 four Aces BP payout and was directly told by the attendant that it was in-place to generate more tips for the employees. A $250 limit is one of scoundrels.