What Do Blackjack Dealers Make
Blackjack basics for players and dealers. The basic rules of blackjack are simple. Players try to score as close to 21 as possible without exceeding 21. In contrast to poker, where players compete with each other, blackjack is a one-on-one game between each player and the dealer. As the dealer, the basic rules of blackjack still apply. The average hourly pay for a Blackjack Dealer is $10.28. Visit PayScale to research blackjack dealer hourly pay by city, experience, skill, employer and more. How much does a Casino Dealer make in Reno, NV? The average salary for a Casino Dealer is $8 in Reno, NV. Salary estimates are based on 1 salaries submitted anonymously to Glassdoor by Casino Dealer employees in Reno, NV. Date: February 07, 2021 A blackjack dealer deals cards to gamblers who hope to get as close to 21 as they can without going over. A blackjack dealer is an individual who works in a casino and who deals the cards for blackjack. Blackjack is a table game in which players aim to reach as close to 21 as possible without going over.
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- Blackjack Dealer Pay
- How Much Do Blackjack Dealers Make At Winstar
- Blackjack Dealer Tips
- What Do Blackjack Dealers Make
A Blackjack Dealer in your area makes on average $30,949 per year, or $1,700 (5%) less than the national average annual salary of $32,649. Virginia ranks number 4.
The Role of the Dealer, the Role of a Lifetime
The role of the dealer, or croupier, is a prestigious and important duty, integral to the organisation of a casino. Everything that happens at the game table – from the punters and the chips going in, to the winners and the chips going out – is the responsibility of the dealer.
It’s the perfect transition for those who already know a bit about gambling – if you enjoy a good blackjack game from time to time then why not consider becoming a blackjack dealer? You can put that experience to great use and get paid while you win for the house. This is possible for land-based casinos as well as live casino sites.
But what makes a tip top blackjack dealer? Besides the knowledge of the game and its rules and strategies, there’s actually a collection of skills and qualifications that are often required to be a consummate croupier. Some of these can be studied, while other softer, non-technical skills are always a work in progress that can be built up and focused on.
Qualifications Helpful to Becoming a Blackjack Dealer
While in the UK there are no real qualifications that you absolutely need to kick-start your blackjack dealer career, there are some programs that can give you a little leg up against the competition. These are private courses that you can take to get a comprehensive blackjack training.
These courses, such as dealer courses offered at schools such as Ace Academy, teaches not only the technical skills and knowledge that underpin blackjack, but also the etiquette that is to be expected on casino floors, and how to navigate the interviews and table tests that you’ll come to expect as you navigate the entry-level casino world.
Regardless of technical skills and industry know-how, applicants to croupier positions are expected by most employers to have some basic qualifications – at minimum between 3 and 5 GCSEs, with English and Maths included in those. It also would help to have some experience working with money to show them you’ve got the right stuff.
Bear in mind that in being accepted in a position as a blackjack dealer, you’ll likely be onboarded in a vocational training scheme, and you’ll get the gist of how to behave, how to deal and all the other ins and outs for that specific casino. An outside course can never hurt to get your foot in the door, however.
Skills Needed to Be a Blackjack Dealer
In becoming a blackjack dealer, qualifications and knowledge can only get you so far. Sure, you can know your spades from clubs and the values of the chips, but without some of the soft skills that help finesse your craft, it’ll be hard to climb the ranks.
By soft skills, we mean those non-technical skills that define how we work. These are often interpersonal, problem solving, and organisational skills. They’re harder to work on than technical skills, but mastery of these soft skills will guarantee you success in not only a dealing career, but in every facet of your life.
- Communication: The best dealers wield a strong level of communication. On the casino floor emotions can run high, and it can be a very overwhelming environment with lights flashing, and alcohol flowing. To communicate clearly, directly, and with authority is a golden trait.
- Interpersonal skills:
- Customer Service: The punters that come to your table are paying customers of the casino that they’re visiting. You’ll need an open and compassionate approach to dealing with both accolades and complaints. Remember – empathy is key.
- Analytical Thinking: Blackjack is a game of numbers and chance. You’ll need to have a firm grasp of the quick mathematics that the pros use, to keep track of the game. There are always going to be some rotten eggs that seek to game the system and cheat, so part of your analytical thinking will be to detect any potential threats to the integrity of the game.
Although blackjack dealing is all about control and responsibility, you’re a dealer, not a robot. It’s important to make whatever guest is playing at your table to feel welcome and at ease. They’re playing to win, sure, but they’re also there to have a bit of fun.
Perks of the Job
Besides being around a game you already love, there are a few sound reasons why blackjack dealing could be the calling for you. Money is the first one – you’ll be surrounded with it all the time, and if you’re lucky some of it will rub off on you. Flexibility is the other, and you’ll be glad for it.
Salary
Blackjack dealers get a fairly decent starting salary, beginning at £17,500 a year and climbing once you prove your worth and get to more prestigious tables. Poker, for example, pays a bit better than blackjack, as the skills and attentiveness required to deal the game are a bit more advanced.
While it doesn’t happen as frequently as in the movies, from time to time big winners will tip the dealer a huge portion of their winnings in their ecstasy, and often you’ll get smaller tips too. Dealers can expect to net about £400-500 monthly in tips. It’s most common to have a shared tipping pool amongst the dealers at a casino, but most poker table dealers get to keep theirs, acknowledging the expertise that poker dealers put into the game.
Hours
As casinos are often 24 hour enterprises, dealers need to be present behind the table all the time. While this might sound bad at first, believe us, you won’t be working like a horse! This means that dealers get a huge flexibility of hours. If you want your days free, you can work evenings, and vice versa.
Promotion
The gambling industry is going through huge shifts and changes in recent times. Part of that is growth, and casinos are continuously creating more professional opportunities for their dealers to step up and take a firm hold of their careers.
After entering the gig as a blackjack dealer, if you play your cards right and give a professional and consistent experience to your guests, you can expect to move up to becoming a pit boss, or a dealer inspector. You can even take it all the way to casino manager- the casino floor is your oyster.
A Professional Opportunity That’s a Safe Bet
When you reflect on all the responsibilities and skills that comprise the esteemed croupier profession, it all comes up a bloody respectable job. It requires some technical know-how, a handful of interrelated and indefinite skills, and a love of the game. What’s more, there’s no denying that it’s a classy job.
Frequently Asked Questions
There’s always bound to be some questions with starting a new job, and our readers are a very inquisitive bunch. We’ve compiled all the most common questions we get asked about how to become a blackjack dealer, check them out below.
How long does it take to become a blackjack dealer?
Find a job post and apply in no time at all, easy as that. You might be put through a training program beforehand that could last around six weeks, but if you have the knowledge of the game already, through a course or prior experience, you’ll be off to a great start. If you would like to know more about the game, check out our blackjack guide.
Do blackjack dealers make good money?
Dealers make decent money for an entry level job. £17,500 a year can be expected as a starting wage, but remember - you can add an extra £6,000 on top of that to account for tips if you can turn on the charm like the best. You will find that many of the best live casinos do not allow tipping, however.
How do you become a blackjack dealer?
Becoming a blackjack dealer is easy, and you don’t really need any specific training. Of course it helps, as does being a people person, good at customer service, and having a history working with money, but you can bring a good attitude and a general knowledge of the game to an interview and be successful. If you need to brush up on the rules of blackjack, then click to go to our detailed page.
Blackjack Boat Dealer
How much do blackjack dealers make in tips?
Blackjack Dealer Pay
Blackjack dealers can rake it in with tips - it’s part of the big draw to the profession. On top of their wage, blackjack dealers can expect to make an extra £400-500 in tips from a shared pool. It depends on the casino that you are playing in, and online casinos tend to be different.
Is it hard to be a casino dealer?
That’s a difficult question that changes from casino to casino, and situation to situation. Generally, casinos are pretty flexible with hours, and you can fit the job around your life. If you are a dealer at one of the top UK live casinos, you will also be working for a prestigious developer.
Table Of Contents
Whether it's poker or a casino pit game, players wouldn’t have the experience they do without one important person – the dealer. While they’re responsible for slinging cards and facilitating games, they’re also a silent observer of human nature.
Recently, we asked specifically blackjack dealers to share their wildest stories from working in the industry. No names nor locations are being reported to respect the privacy of those who shared. While we cannot 100% confirm all of the stories below, the dealers claim to be speaking from their own personal experience.
Please note, so stories contain actions and behaviors that some may find offensive.
Editor's note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or/clarity.
The Biohazard
Dealing in high limit blackjack. A regular (drunk) player is playing, but his hand is down and in front of him. I understand men have itches or need to adjust so it doesn't bother me, but it’s there just a little too long. Figure I would get the suit's attention and let them know I'm uncomfortable.
Just as I glance over my shoulder I hear the suit say to the other suit in the pit., 'OMG! You call surveillance, I’ll call the manager.' I’m thinking, “Well shit, now I have to wait to say anything. Something is going on back there.”
Next thing I know security comes in and escorts the man out. Lead security is standing in front of my game. A person walks up to my game to play and lead security says, 'I'm sorry, this table is closed, we have a biohazard.' Then it dawns on me. I lean back and look down. The man had whipped it out and peed under my table. He splashed onto my shoes! I was never so thankful we can't wear open-toed shoes!
High-limit VIP members. Gotta love 'em!
Pop a Squat
I was working valet at my first casino job. I took a break one night and headed towards the break room. I have to go through the casino and doing so, I witness a woman playing blackjack stand up on the table, pull up her skirt, squat, and piss on the table. Never seen that before.
A Short Partnership
How Much Do Blackjack Dealers Make At Winstar
At an Indian casino 20 years ago, an elderly man was playing blackjack $100 a hand. He got a pair of aces, had no money left, and asked if anyone would go partners. A big guy gave him $100. The player split and got a and a . He won one and lost one. The backer said, “Where's my half.?”
The elderly man says, “Your half lost.”
The big guy picked him up by the neck and both got escorted out.
Double Down
About 20 years ago, I was dealing blackjack at about 3 a.m. with two players at the table. A third player walked up, an older lady, and plunked down $20, so I dealt. Action got to her, she has and I have a showing. She slid up another $20 and said, 'Double down.'
We had a bit of a language barrier, so I asked her, 'Do you mean split?” (Showing two fingers and spreading out her two nines.
She grabbed the cards, put them together, and said again, 'Double down.'
After I scolded her for grabbing the cards, I asked her, 'Ma'am, do you want to split and play two hands?'
Blackjack Dealer Tips
While I'm motioning to her that she has that option...assuming she doesn't understand me, she got loud and said, 'DOUBLE DOWN...ONE CARRRRRD!!' waving one finger in my face, like her hand was on fire.
I'm convinced her decision is clearly shown on video, so as loud as I could I yelled, 'DOUBLE ON A HARD 18.' Then I peeled off the card, and of course, it was a three.
I busted my hand, sized into her bet, and she scooped up her $80 before waddling off into the night. I never saw her again. The other two players and I just froze there for a second, dumbfounded.
There Goes the College Fund
Years ago, I had a regular that I saw on a weekly basis. Nice guy, would play between $300-$500 each visit with an average bet of $20-$40 a hand on blackjack. One day I walk into the pit and see he’s got $5,000 in front of him. I look at my boss and said, 'He's doing good today.”
My boss looked at me and said, 'He's down $25k.” I was confused because I'd never seen him play that big. I’m on the next table over watching him play two hands at $300 each (our casino max) and watch him get hammered. The look on his face told me he was freaking out. When I left my table, he was down to his last $500 and shaking.
I walked to the bathroom on the gaming floor and did my business. As I'm washing my hands I hear some screaming outside. I see the guy run into the bathroom looking like he saw the grim reaper. Right behind him is his wife, red in the face from yelling. She runs up on him, punches him straight in the face, and knocked him out. She left and security showed up a moment later.
Security took my statement, called for an EMT, and that was the last I ever saw of that player. When I got back to the pit, everyone was talking about the guy. Turned out he had a few good days at the tables so decided to cash out his kids’ college funds and try to make more.
Where Did They Go?
One night I was dealing blackjack and I noticed this girl was losing and losing. She was almost down to her last few chips when a guy comes and sits down. They start chatting and he starts winning. She eventually loses all her money and he started giving her some chips.
The talking turned more into flirting as time passed and he continued to give her some chips. I noticed she had a wedding ring on earlier but after about five minutes of him giving her money, the wedding ring was no longer there. They continued to flirt and joke and he kept winning and she kept losing. I eventually get tapped out, and when I came back 20 minutes later, both were gone.
Almost a Dead Man’s Hand
On my second or third day at a new casino I was dealing shoe blackjack and had a pretty good table. I was full so got almost to the end when I noticed spot three had his head down on the table. I said, “Sir, you can't put your head on the table.”
The lady to his left tapped him and he just fell back out of the chair. It was insane. I yelled for the floor and no response. So, the whole table yelled, and finally, a floor showed up, and then the EMTs got there. The guy was technically dead. It took 14 minutes to revive him and get him into an ambulance. Turned out he had an aneurysm.
After that, I got left in for three hours. Didn't even realize it until I had to pee. Was some straight crazy shit. His sister came in the next week to tell us he was going to make a full recovery.
No Drinks on the Table
A player sits down at my blackjack table and sets his drink down on the layout.
Floor: “Hey man, you need to put that in there.” (points at cup holder)
Player: “Oh.” (Begins to pour his drink out into the cup holder)
Floor: “No! That isn’t what I meant. The glass goes into the holder.”
Player: Picks up the cup holder and drinks what he poured into it and then sets his drink into the holder.
What Do Blackjack Dealers Make
Do you have a casino story to tell for future editions of “Tales from the Pit”? Feel free to reach out to PokerNews on either or Facebook or Twitter accounts. You can also email [email protected]
*Images from wiki commons.
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