Dealers Tokes: Going for your own or not…
(Originally Published in Table Talk)
By Simon Burden
Gaming Analyst
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Did you know that the word” toke” is short for tokens of appreciation? I had an interesting question posed to me the other day about dealer’s tokes/tips: What is the best way for table game dealers to split their tips? Should they “go for their own” or is it better to do a shift for shift or 24 hour split. This is a tough question and depends on many variables.
First and foremost as a manager you must think about what is best for the casino; however, it is critical to include employee moral into that equation. As in any business that has face to face relationships with the general public, your employees are usually your best asset. If the majority of the employees are miserable and rude, the players will either limit their time or find another place to play. And in this day and age of gaming proliferation, the numbers of gaming choices are many.
Now let’s look at other variables. Unlike many parts of the world, most players in the USA expect and understand that tipping your dealer is standard fare. Usually the more they win the more they toke and this is money the casino will never get back Unless, of course, you allow your dealers to play at the establishment they work which is another topic all together.
Knowing that you may never get these tokes back, you now have to decide how they should be distributed. First of all let’s look at “going for your own”. This is where the dealers get to keep their own tips. The advantages are the dealers will almost always be pleasant and polite to the players because they see $ signs. If they go for their own, you don’t need a toke committee to split and distribute the tips; neither do you need to set up procedures, security and an area to do the counting of the tips. You have no fear of dealers stealing from other dealers and generally from my observations, the players seem to enjoy the atmosphere because of the employee’s congeniality.
The negatives are the dealers may hustle tips, they may run players off if they do not tip and sometimes have been known to offer a little too much playing assistance to the Georges (players who tip heavily). Most of these negatives can be dealt with by good security and good pit staff. Speaking of pit staff, you may find that the dealers are making more than the managers and, therefore, those managers often become dealers.
I am not sure whether the IRS can be considered a positive or negative, but they are definitely part of the equation, bless them. It’s so much easier for the government to get their bit if it’s a 24 hour equal split; there is usually somebody on staff that has run a foul of the IRS and part their agreement is to report on their exact tip income to IRS. So rather than hope everybody is honest and reports exact amounts or rather affix an expected hourly amount to a dealer’s income, the IRS can know exactly what a dealer makes and tax accordingly.
Scheduling can be a huge negative for the ‘go for your own” Casinos. Roulette is a tough game to make tips on, dice tables can be up and down and Baccarat is often feast or famine; therefore, it is tough to get experienced help to run these games if the dealer can make twice as much pitching cards. Then, of course, there is the high limit blackjack versus low limit blackjack question. In the old days in Vegas the scheduler’s girlfriend always seemed to be on the best tables on the right nights. Imagine going for your own when Kerry Packer (God rest his soul) was due to play. Packer was known to tip out $100,000 or more on a single table. Imagine what one dealer getting that would do to employee moral?
How do you decide who goes on what shift? Usually day shift doesn’t do as well as swing, and graveyard can be fantastic due to a smaller spread. And who doesn’t work weekends, although these days most casinos have a full spread on Friday, Saturday and holidays. From my years as a dealer and from being on the toke committee, I found that although day shift didn’t make as much, the dealers were happy to spend time with the family in a more normal environment. And as far as Graveyard dealers go, the attitude was anyone willing to work those hours deserved the extra money they made.
So now you are thoroughly confused about what to do, well here is my advice. If you are faced with this dilemma, the first thing to do is see what the competition is doing. If everybody nearby is going for their own and you decide to start splitting, you may lose good employees and perhaps more importantly good players. Good dealers with positive attitudes understand that because of their personalities they can make better tokes by going for their own. You all have those people on your staff that complain whine and moan about everything; ask yourself why a player would tip them. Having been a host for years, I know that players come to win but they also come for the entertainment and the last thing they want is some miserable, sour faced dealer that gives one word answers and reeks of bad attitude. Ask a few of your players for their opinions. Better yet make an event out of it for your good players. Invite them in for dinner, give them a few chips in appreciation of their answers and voila you’ve got an extra trip out of a good player. On top of that you’ve not only got some good feedback but also the player likes that fact that you’ve asked him for his opinion and advice.
Critical to your assessment is to gauge the morale and friendliness at the casinos where the dealers do “go for their own” and compare it with the casino that splits. Rather than going by yourself, send somebody that has no vested interest in the outcome. Unfortunately we all observe with a bias. If you are trying to decide which route to take, the chances are that you are already leaning one way or the other and the things you observe will only serve to reinforce that decision. Whereas if you send somebody not affiliated with the decision making process, you are more likely to get an unbiased report. The observations need to occur on all 3 shifts and with as many dealers as possible.
My advice is that if you have a multi-game Casino, as in Vegas, Tahoe, and Atlantic City, stick to the 24 hour split; it is easier to manage and the dealers in these jurisdictions already expect to split their tips. However if you have mainly blackjack with just a few other games, carefully assess the competition, your employees and your players before making a final decision. If you decide on the “go for your own” method, try to be a little creative and link the roulette table to high limit 21 table making it more equitable.
Finally, the most difficult transition for a casino will be making the initial change in your toke split policy. No matter what change you make the response at first will be negative. You must remember that dealing once you have been doing it a while can be quite dull. Dealers have a lot of time to think and during their breaks will discuss why these changes are being made and the possible negative effects it may have especially on their incomes. If you are going from a “go for your own” to an equal split, the only people who are going to be happy are the miserable dealers who see this as way to give even less customer service and get a larger share of the tokes. You need to communicate the reasons for the change fully and also let them know when the change will take place. For many of your staff they will be faced with having to re-budget and change their spending habits so give them time to think the changes through. In other words do not make the change overnight. |
