Since my last post generated more quick responses than anything this side of the cole slaw discussion, I figured I should explain a few things about life in the Poker Room versus life in the Pit.
First of all, the house only pays me about seven bucks an hour. Yep, that's it. I have to punch a time clock every day like those hair-net wearing drones at the fast-food joints for barely minimum wage. The majority of my income comes from tips.
Now, working in the pit, whenever I get a tip from a player (a 'toke' in casino language), I have to drop it in the toke box. Every table has one. At the end of each shift, a couple of dealers will go around emptying all the toke boxes and collecting all of the chips ('checks'). All of the checks go into a couple of huge 'treasure chest' boxes that are padlocked and kept in one of the pits. At some point the next day, four dealers on the 'Toke Committee' come and fetch the treasure boxes and Security escorts them to an undisclosed location where they dump them out, sort them, and count up all the money. They also get a list from the Pit of all the dealers that worked the previous day, and how many hours each dealer worked.
Once they get a total number of 'dealer hours' worked, including full-timers who were on vacation, they divide up the total toke amount by the number of dealer hours on the books. A list is then published with everyone's take. Obviously, if the tokes for working eight hours were say, $180 per dealer, than those that only worked four hours would get $90, those that worked seven hours would get $157.50, etc.--plus their hourly wage from the house.
Back in the old days, that would immediately be turned into cash and you'd get an envelope at the cage the next afternoon. In fact, at the El Cortez and some of the other small places, that's how they still do it--you have to go in and pick up an envelope full of cash every day. But in most modern casinos, mine included, it's all bookkeeping, and payroll tracks it all and puts it all on a paycheck that I get every two weeks, just like a regular salary, except that the amount can vary wildly from week to week. Of course the gub-mint gets it's greasy hands on it first, and taxes are taken out just like everyone else's paychecks.
So in the pit, all tips are pooled. It doesn't matter if I drop almost $400 one night, or if I only drop $60 in tokes for the entire shift--I get the same amount as everyone else. Granted, this has it's pros and cons. I'm a 'producer' on our shift, and I almost *always* drop more in tokes than we make for eight hours--I'm generally always ahead of the curve. But there are some nights, if I'm stuck on dead games the whole time, where I struggle to drop fifty bucks. The problem is, there are a few bad dealers just getting a free ride, and every casino has them. But the house won't get rid of them until they start costing the casino money. The house doesn't give a rat's ass if they cost their fellow dealers money. For the most part, however, we have a pretty good crew on my shift and most of the dealers speak decent English, smile, and have some personality. I can only think of a handful of jerkoffs I'd love to get rid of if I were in charge.
Now, in the poker room, that's a whole different animal altogether. Generally, as a dealer, once you push a pot, the winner will toke you a buck or two. And poker dealers keep their own tokes--there is no pooling or sharing in the poker room. In the pit, we're not allowed to have pockets showing on our clothes--that's why we have to wear aprons, and our shirts have no pockets on them either--the house doesn't want dealers to EVER have casino checks on their person. In fact, if I were to show up at the cage trying to cash chips, I'd probably be fired, or at least get a stern talking-to.
But all of the poker dealer uniforms have a breast pocket that is designed especially for tokes. Once you push the pot, move the button, drop the rake, and muck the winning hand, (in that order), you tap your toke on the edge of the rack, say 'thank you' and then put it in your pocket.
Once you get done dealing the tables on your rotation, you cash out all your tokes at the desk in the poker room before going on break--not the cage in the casino. And that cash goes directly in your wallet, no deductions, no sharing, it's all yours. So the better dealer you are, the more money you make, and nobody else gets a cut.
As far as taxes go, each casino has a tip compliance contract with the IRS, where a certain amount of income per hour is reported. I'm not sure what the exact amount is--and it varies from shift to shift, too, but I think swing shift poker dealers at our casino only have to declare about eight or nine bucks an hour in tips, (along with their hourly wage getting taxed).
So every two weeks they get a paycheck too, but it's generally somewhere around $560 before taxes. It's a pretty good deal because as far as the gub-mint is concerned, you're making less than 30K per year, but the truth is a far different amount. Of course, when it comes to getting financing on a house or a new car, it can be a pain in the ass to prove income. But this is Vegas, so there are businesses here that cater to people who live on cash tips, and they all know what your real income is, based on where you work.
Would I be interested in making money that way instead of tip sharing in the pit? Hell yeah I would! Not only would I get a huge raise, being rewarded for my own work, but I like dealing poker so much better than dealing in the pit. More money, more enjoyable job, what's not to love?
Oh, and my student loan payments would go down, too. Right now I'm on the hook for almost $450 a month, based on my reported income. If that went down about 60%, so would my monthly payments next time I filed my taxes. Yes, I know it would take longer to pay off, but at this point, I don't care. I'd rather have the income available to invest. Or do whatever else strikes my fancy.
Anyhow.
Others asked about the floor/brush tip bucket. Let me explain that one. In our poker room, there are a handful of dealers, and generally one floorperson at night. Some of the bigger poker rooms have people working in them known as a 'brush'. Their job is to make change, bus the room, run chips, seat players, etc. They get an hourly wage, and just like the cocktail waitress tipping out the bartenders at the end of her shift, the dealers toss a few bucks to the brush each night for helping them perform their jobs.
But we don't have a brush, so the floorperson has to do all of that, plus work the desk. And on the desk there is a tip bucket, in which players will generally toss an extra dollar or two when they cash out. And since the floorperson is taking on all those extra responsibilities, they are entitled to earn a few tokes, too. So every time a dealer cashes out, it's standard practice to toss a few bucks into the bucket for the guys doing the dirty work. In some houses, (the Flamingo, for instance) the floor people cannot take a toke directly from a player--but that's not a law or anything, that's just house rules. But if there is a tip bucket for the poker room crew aside from the dealers, they can earn a few extra dollars.
The dealers also help out with brush duties--once you get tapped off the 'break' table (the last table you work before going on break) you're supposed to spend a minute or two straightening up the room, picking up empty glasses and trash, and also making sure all of the tables have enough aces in the racks (you can never have enough $1 chips on a table). It's a good system and it works pretty well, and there is no need for an official 'brush' person to be there in a room the size of ours. Between the dealers going on break and the floorman, all the work gets done and everyone still makes decent money.
And this is still Vegas, and so you still gotta take care of people that can take care of you, so I don't mind one bit putting a few of my tokes in the brush bucket at the desk--those floor guys not only helped me out all night long, they are the ones who decide who gets the shifts when they are slammed. So I took care of them, and they'll take care of me. It's the way things work in this town.
Now you know.
Mikey
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