TIPPING THE BLACKJACK DEALER

If you play blackjack online you won’t have to worry about who to tip and how much to tip them. If you play in a land based casino, however, there’s no shortage of people who work on tips that must be appropriately compensated. In fact, with the exception of floor managers and pit bosses just about everyone in the casino is working on tips. Valet parkers, bellmen, doormen, food service personnel, cocktail waitresses and even cashiers are all looking for a ‘toke’ or other show of your ‘appreciation’ for their service.

Blackjack dealers are just one of many people in the casino angling for tips but the rest of them are beyond the purview of this website. We’ll focus on the blackjack dealer, how to tip him and when to tip him. There’s a bit of controversy about whether or not professionals or ‘advantage players’ should tip the dealer at all. Both sides of this debate have some good points. On one hand, it’s the courteous thing to do and if you’re a ‘regular’ at a casino you don’t want to get a reputation as a lousy tipper. On the other hand, ‘advantage’ players operate on a razor thin margin as it is and the tip further cuts into their edge over the house.

HOW TO TIP THE DEALER

There are several ways to tip a blackjack dealer. We’ll start with the obvious ones–you can just ‘toke’ him a chip or cash. This can be left on the table after you finish your blackjack session or just pushed toward the dealer’s position if you’re still playing. Blackjack dealers don’t miss much despite all of the chips and cards flying around the table. He’ll know if you’re tossing him a chip for change or a tip–if you think there’s a chance of confusion just say something like ‘change me’ or ‘this is for you’. The question then becomes how much to tip–that depends on the stakes you’re playing for. If you’re playing $100 a hand you don’t want to throw the dealer a dollar when you leave the table. There’s not really a hard and fast percentage–the important thing is to make your tip commensurate with the stakes you’re playing for.

The other method of tipping the dealer is to ‘place a bet for the dealer’. The way you do this is to place your bet in the appropriate area and then place another bet in front of the circle or square. The dealer doesn’t ‘deal himself in’–instead, if you win he wins and vice versa. If you win, the dealer will pay out the appropriate amount first to your bet and then to his. If he loses, he’ll sweep up both bets (but I’ve never had a dealer not thank me for the bet win or lose). If the hand is a push, the dealer will usually let the bet stand for the next hand. As far as the amount of the bet, it’s a similar situation to what we discussed above. The only additional criteria is that the dealer’s bet should be at least the table minimum.

WHEN TO TIP THE DEALER

There’s no hard and fast rule for this and different players tip the dealer at different times. One technique is to leave the dealer a tip as you’re leaving the table after ending your blackjack session. You can either tip the dealer for the entire session at once or give the dealer a smaller tip if you’ve been tipping him throughout the game. Alternately, you can just flip the dealer a tip at various points during the game. This is largely left up to player’s discretion–some tip the dealer after hitting a ‘natural’ blackjack, others do it at random. It’s really up to you when you feel like tipping your dealer.

The same goes for placing a bet for the dealer though–obviously–you won’t do that as you’re leaving the table. You might want to leave a bet for the dealer after hitting a natural, after a good winning run or after you ‘reload’ with more chips. Just don’t interrupt the flow of the game and the timing of when you bet won’t really matter. This is also true for how you’re doing–if you’re on a nice winning run it’s bad form not to give the dealer some type of gratuity. If you’re losing, most dealers don’t expect the same amount of tipping–if they expect it at all.