Dealer's Salaries

**jaygruden** · 02-02-2012, 12:27 PM

You can see from the tables there are some have's and have not's depending on store and location but you may be surprised how much dealers earn on average due to tips...............

http://www.vegas-aces.com/Root/tips/tips.html

**RWM** · 02-02-2012, 12:40 PM

Wow - you can find anything online these days.

**moo321** · 02-02-2012, 03:39 PM

Really fascinating. El Cortez: $20 a night. Bellagio $200+ a night.

**Anton Chigurh** · 02-02-2012, 08:01 PM

Who would make a career of this?

I can see an under-30 college or junior college graduate dealing for 2-3 years so as to make the rent and afford weed and concert tickets on the weekends. I cannot understand the appeal of multiple decades spent in a career with all the craft drained from it: pull cards out of shoe, pay and collect bets, pretend to root for players in the hope of tokes, remove cards from discard tray and stuff in auto-shuffler.

There are too few honorable blue-collar careers these days. There used to be many professional waiters who were good and stuck with it. Dealing blackjack is not such a career. I want to grab the smarter older dealers by the lapels and shout at them: "For Pete's sake, get the hell out of here! Dealing drugs is more of a growth opportunity than this!"

I suppose some people have an attitude that work is b.s. no matter the profession, but there are many less stressful and more varied options among the vast array of total-b.s. career choices.

Who would do this for decades?

**BJGenius007** · 02-02-2012, 09:47 PM

Originally Posted by jaygruden

You can see from the tables there are some have's and have not's depending on store and location but you may be surprised how much dealers earn on average due to tips...............

http://www.vegas-aces.com/Root/tips/tips.html

Your list confirmed what a friendly dealer told me. I forgot it was 1999 tech bubble peak or 2006 real estate bubble peak, then an Atlantic City dealer told me that he is moving to Las Vegas. His friend dealing at Bellagio told him he is making $150,000 a year. I can also see the dealers at the top casinos are making good money now as the economy is recovering nicely.

**blackjackomaha** · 02-03-2012, 05:09 AM

Interesting. I believe the standard hourly rate for dealers around my area is $4.52/hour plus tips. I have been told that during a "normal" week, dealer usually bring in between $15-$20/hour after tips are factored in.

**21forme** · 02-03-2012, 06:44 AM

Originally Posted by Anton Chigurh

Who would make a career of this? Who would do this for decades?

As we used to say to our kids when they were younger, as we drove by a road crew or a garbage truck on their daily run, "bet they had lots of fun in high school..."

**muffdiver** · 02-03-2012, 07:43 AM

Admittedly not the most attractive livelihood out there but in a lot of cases it's "do what you gotta do". Give them credit for working because it appears that many people don't want to. Also, how could we do what we like to do without them? I don't think I'll play the automated dealer version of the game.

muffdiver

**Aslan** · 02-03-2012, 09:04 AM

My cousin who works at one of Caesar's casinos told me dealers before the bust made $90,000 in tips. As for Bellagio dealers making $150,000, that seems a bit exaggerated. Maybe he was referring to a few super-high-limit dealers entertaining the Shah of Sandland with his $10,000 a hand play, but not the overall dealer year-long split.

Occasionally, I have run into a smart dealer who invested their cash. One dealer last trip told me about her restaurant in Hawaii, currently leased out, and her real estate holdings in that state. When you consider that Las Vegas is the cheapest place in the US to live (maybe Detroit is the exception to that rule), a salary plus tips that reaches $100,000 or more is big money.

**BJGenius007** · 02-03-2012, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by Aslan

My cousin who works at one of Caesar's casinos told me dealers before the bust made $90,000 in tips. As for Bellagio dealers making $150,000, that seems a bit exaggerated. Maybe he was referring to a few super-high-limit dealers entertaining the Shah of Sandland with his $10,000 a hand play, but not the overall dealer year-long split.

Occasionally, I have run into a smart dealer who invested their cash. One dealer last trip told me about her restaurant in Hawaii, currently leased out, and her real estate holdings in that state. When you consider that Las Vegas is the cheapest place in the US to live (maybe Detroit is the exception to that rule), a salary plus tips that reaches $100,000 or more is big money.

Where to deal makes a big different. I met a dealer who is a High School math teacher, deals part time at night in West Virginia and makes under $50,000. He works 12 hours a day! I told him he is better than most LV dealer in speed and accuracy and should move to LV but he said he loves teaching mathematics.

**Aslan** · 02-03-2012, 07:48 PM

Originally Posted by BJGenius007

Where to deal makes a big different. I met a dealer who is a High School math teacher, deals part time at night in West Virginia and makes under $50,000. He works 12 hours a day! I told him he is better than most LV dealer in speed and accuracy and should move to LV but he said he loves teaching mathematics.

Doing what you love is priceless.

**darco77** · 02-03-2012, 09:22 PM

The figures for the El Co, as dismal as they are, do not surprise. I once received the death stare from a miscreant table mate for tipping a single white chip, as if this action set a precedent he couldn't afford. No, what I found surprising was the toke rate for mid-level strip properties such as Bally's, Flaming O, Luxor, MC, etc. If you add in the ~ $65/day base salary you're looking at a decent annual income for LV. As Aslan pointed out, the cost of living in Vegas is incredibly low. I'm assuming a 40 hour work week. Not sure if that is accurate or not.