And where is it written that dealers get tipped for merely doing their job? They are not performing a service for you like the butlers and servers are. They simply operate a vehicle of entertainment that's no different than the person who operates the ferris wheel or merry-go-round at the State Fair. Same for those floor people you feel obligated to throw your money away on lest they give you a dirty look, whisper something that could bother you, or how you'd worry about how you look to other players in the area. When have you ever tipped the butcher you asked for a certain cut of meat who then delivered it to you on the market floor? When have you ever tipped a bank cashier who had to go into the safe to fetch a few stacks of hundreds and count it out for you? When have you ever tipped a store clerk who had to go into the back room or the warehouse to find something you came in for and just HAD to have?
As I said, casino tipping is all done thru intimidating the weak, and these people know EXACTLY how you'll feel if and when you did not tip and others were looking on. It is probably the biggest scam perpetrated by casinos overall.
I think we might want to blame the American casino culture for being expected to tip the service staff (dealers, cashiers, slot attendants). It is my understanding that most foreign casinos pay a better base wage than American casino workers receive, and they generally do NOT expect tips from players. The American casino operators make more money from the lower labor costs and the gambler is expected to foot the difference through tipping as compared to the wage structure of many foreign casinos.
Bad examples and irrelevant. None of these occupations are in the service industry where wages are typically at the low end and tipping by customers provides them with additional income. People of your insufferable ilk don't want to accept that employees in service industry jobs are actually an important part of our economy and way of life. As is often stated on the interwebs: SUX 2 B U .
Tipping overseas in any business is either non-existent or it is considered a major insult if you give anyone too much--too much being anything over 2%-3%. Completely different philosophy all around. I don't know about the casino wage structures, but being expected to subsidize workers' salaries here for any reason is nothing more than another method of casinos taking money out of their customers pockets. And those who are incapable of saying no are being played like fiddles by any casino they tip in.
Hey Rob... would you call yourself a cheap SOB?
I spend more money than anybody you know Alan. And I have a vehicle that gets 4-5 mpg that I drive an awful lot. So am I cheap? No one in my family thinks so, and those who serve me meals, drinks, park my car, or move my luggage feel the same. But all those who feel entitled--like casino workers, hotel maids, and indirect 3rd worlders on cruise ships--likely think I am, and I offer them one great big smile!
No doubt VV. But where you're mistaken is in believing it is the responsibility of the customers of the service industry to make up for the shortcomings of their salaries. I care nothing about them, their lives, their families, or their problems. In turn, they care nothing about me other than the work at hand. They get the job done or they get fired. Whether or not I give them a perceived "entitlement" is irrelevant to the work they are doing for me.
Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya.
All I know for sure is God didn't create the 3rd world drug addicts who migrate to the bottom decks of cruise ships, he had nothing to do with Hitler, and he's still trying to find & punish whoever's responsible for creating Obama.
Believe it or not, I agree with Crackpot Rob when it comes to casino tipping -- sort of.
A recent lawsuit verified Wynn blackjack dealers make $90,000 per year after tips:
http://www.casinocitytimes.com/artic...g-policy-62225
In Vegas' better times (2005-2007), dealers were making over $100,000 per year at high-end strip casinos.
They were making this much because players were made to believe that dealers were "working for minimum wage", and these players felt guilty for having nice blackjack runs and not sharing at least a little of it with the dealer.
In 2005, I was told by a Bellagio insider that their blackjack dealers made $100k per year. That was when I stopped tipping them. I found it both hilarious and sad that people making $50k per year were tipping $100k/year employees out of sympathy, believing them to be minimum wage earners.
In reality, while many casino employees DO earn minimum wage, they aren't working for their wage. They're working for their tips. You aren't truly a minimum wage earner if you also pick up $75,000 in tips on top of that.
However, cruise employees are a bit different.
Most of them are not drug addicts as Rob portrays, but rather hardworking third-world people who leave their families 11 out of 12 months per year in order to support them.
They use the fact that they have no living expenses to send almost 100% of their salary back home to support the rest of their family, and without tips, they would be making almost nothing. Basically, they are giving up their life with their family in order to work for these tips, and even WITH the tips don't make all that much, so I don't want to stiff them. As I said earlier, however, I will not tip staff that don't actually work with me. So, for example, if I don't use the main dining room, I'm not going to tip my assigned water, nor will I tip the maitre d' there.
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The article doesn't say what the dealers make without tips. What do they earn without tips?
I don't tip when I lose. I tip only when I win.
If I tipped when I lost it might indicate that I feel sorry for them for being minimum wage workers. But since I don't tip when I lose and I only tip when I win I therefore must tip for another reason -- other than that they are minimum wage workers. Might the reason be I appreciate their work, and I appreciate the luck they brought me?
No one forces you to tip. That would be wrong to force you to tip. But it's wrong to say others are wrong when they tip unless the other person is asking for advice.
The only tipping advice I would need is if I hit a $400,000 $100/coin royal flush. How much should I tip? I haven't figured that one yet. But I'm not losing sleep over it. It will be a long time before I'll have to think about it.
I wasn't aware of the dealers, but I know about the bottom deckers because I spent lots of time in their countries. These people leave their countries for work on ships first and foremost to be able to feed their drug habits, then to escape the law after committing multiple crimes, and THEN as a result, it's a method of taking care of their stunned and disappointed families.
No amount of virtual justification....and no amount of long-winded posts....will ever support that tipping casino slot staff after handpays is anything but stupid. And even though Vegas Vic likes to look the other way, the notion of tipping a poorly paid casino cashier is 100% comparable to tipping the poorly paid bank teller. It should not be done. The only difference is the bank teller is usually healthy looking, on the attractive side, they have some education and all of their teeth, and they work in a smoke free environment.
Have you ever seen those blackjack betting limit signs with a digital LCD display showing the minimum and maximum bets allowed? They would be digital so management can change the limits on the fly for slow and busy nights.
What about having an LCD digital display of the current (tips included) earnings on the jacket lapels of the different casino and hotel service workers so the public would be better informed as to whether to tip (eg. 'feel sorry') for them? If the salaries are too high on the lapel LCD digital display, their tips will shrivel up until the digital salary display declines during a weekly update done by their supervisors. When it gets down far enough people start to feel sorry for them again and a long-term equilibrium is reached with a newly-informed public?
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