Player's Lounge: average dealer salary?

I can answer that pretty easily. I'm Atlantic City born and raised, and work in the industry. First, for those that don't know: the casinos have what's called a toke, which is all of casino floor's tips combined together. They're all added up and redistributed back out the dealers evenly at the end of the day or week.

Poker dealers aren't in on the toke rate - they don't get a share. Instead, they get a low wage and keep their own tips, which might work out to $18-$20 and hour, but can be significantly more or less depending on casino, game, limits, dealer skill, etc. This is for cash games - for tourneys, they get a flat rate of about $15 an hour, since you don't tip in tournaments.

The downside is that it's a little seasonal. A.C.'s obviously a year-round resort, but the beaches add a lot more business during the summer.

Also, it's usually difficult to get hired full-time, especially if you aren't trained in other (less cool) games like craps and blackjack. Makes for a good PT job unless you get a lot of experience.

On top of that, the dealer school you need is $400, and the Casino Control Commission gaming license you need is $350 (fortunately, I already have one with with current employer).

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P.S. - Dealer abusers are jerks, and non-tippers are cheapskate stiffs. But if you're both, I just want to take this opportunity to remind you that YOU ARE A TOTAL SCUMBAG.

Good Topic guys. Interesting read.

I was curious about this same thing as this past week when at the Wynn I saw the dealer making great money even at the $5/$5 game. The standard tip in this game was $5 per hand and more than that if a big pot came about. That adds up quickly!

thanks

do they train you after you apply or do you need prior exp.?

It's hard work and some is always ****. But you can learn alot.

I just talked to some asians I used to work with that have a few relatives that are poker dealers at muckleshoot casino in Auburn WA they said they make $80,000 a year and they pay the casino $15 bucks an hour to work there. They must deal the 50-100 tables. This asian chick said her sister made $5,000 in one night in tips.

I saw a report on 20/20 and one on one of the other networks special report news programs (poss 60 mins). They were talking about Vegas and Atlantic City. One said dealers earn around $80k a year, the other one said they earn about minimum wage roughly $20-$25k a year.

One said all the tip money goes into one pool and is divided equally among the dealers. The other said tip money is a big part of their income but nothing about it being split equally. (Although I would bet the pit bosses, et all expect their cut). They both said it's a tedious job, you must be able to handle all sorts of people and have a very tough skin so to speak.

I saw these programs around Jan 05.

why dont you apply and ask them