How much do poker dealers make?

[Dharzhak]

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I am curious as to how much poker dealers make on a hourly basis.

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I can't speak to other cities, but the dealers at the three casinos in Detroit all belong to the same union and they all make between $6-9/hr based on seniority.

The dealers in the poker room at Motor City Casino deal *only* in the poker room and their tips are counted separately from the tips given to the dealers at the other table games. The tips are counted in the presence of a poker dealer, taxed and then divided equally among all poker dealers. I don't recall whether the poker dealers at Greektown Casino are able to deal other games or not, so I don't know for sure the method by which their tips are divided. MGM Grand in Detroit does not have a poker room.

Regards,
Noal

[snakehead]

dealers in ca and az make about $40-$50 thousand per year. or approx. $25/hr. lv dealers make less, as do dealers in places where they pool their tips.

[snakehead]

the ones in az do, and I think in the palm springs area the probably do also.

[cgwahl]

When I was trying to get a job at Casino Morongo I saw the poker dealers there made $6.75 an hour, plus tips. Probably not a lot of money for that type of job (in fact, pretty much all the jobs there paid fairly smaller than I expected). Then again I neither know how easy or how hard being a poker dealer is, so it may be a lot. However, the benefits at that casino were awesome. Plus, I am not even considering the tips, so they probably make a decent amount of money.

Not sure how this casino's benefits compared with other places, but I am guessing they are similar to one degree or another.

[bigfishead]

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Also the weekly hours rarely work out to 5 X 8 = 40. Early outs and downtime costs most dealers a (potential) bundle. Poker dealers that keep their own tips are hurting financially when not dealing unlike BJ dealers that typically pool tips.

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Very well stated. Tonight I worked 1 hr. Games broke down early, it's my friday, etc. Actually this week I took the "early out" 4 of 5 nights. It's been slower than normal.

As was mentioned in another post on this thread. Some times dealers are also required to tip the floor staff a certain percentage of their respective gross. I once worked in a room where 20% went to the floor person, and 10% went to the Cage. Hence 30% was toked off. We had no problem doing there at the time. We made more back then (1984) than any dealers do night in and night out anywhere today.

Benefits aint that great for me. Takes 2 yrs just to get them where I work. But hey, I sure as hell am glad I got them now! They are a hell of alot better than no benefits.

[Keres]

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When they work overtime, they only get time and a half on the minimum wage part, not the toke part.

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What are talking about? When my dealer is working overtime, I make sure to tip time and a half. You mean I'm the only one that does this?

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Well Sunshine, at Foxwoods there's a dealer toke rate pooled from all tables so your individual tips wouldn't make more a difference in any one dealer's pay - no matter how snidely you give them. The dealer I was talking with was explaining how at Foxwoods, being paid time and a half on the min wage while the fixed toke rate stayed at $14, gave little incentive for anyone to want to work overtime. She wasn't too thrilled about it. And someone who hears dealers get paid a fixed rate of $19.35/hr by foxwoods may assume that the overtime rate would be close to 30/hr - when thats hardly the case.

[lowroller]

Sorry. I was speaking of Indian joints in California. In Palm Springs the do not kickback.

I know dealers in every Southern California Indian casino and none of them kickback. Floormen accepting tips is against house rules in at least 3 places that I can think of off the top of my head.

[bigfishead]

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Sorry. Floormen accepting tips is against house rules in at least 3 places that I can think of off the top of my head.

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Sometimes this rule only applies to accepting tips from customers. In those places they can still accept tips from dealers. Not all....but it isnt a "blanket" thing.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

In most rooms, dealers keep ALL their own tokes, save for perhaps "tipping out the chip runner" or something like that. A few rooms make their dealers tip out the floorpeople, which I think is BULLCHIT. As a dual-rate (both dealer and floorguy) I certainly don't expect dealers to tip ME when I am getting floor pay! Floor pay is MUCH higher than dealer hourly rate (typically $6.00 an hour for dealer pay, give or take).

If a dealer gets out 30 hands in a hour and gets a buck a hand, then you do the math what they are going to make.

Obviously faster, friendlier, and generally BETTER dealers are going to make more, and deservedly so.

al

[lowroller]

That's what I meant when I posted my reply. I know this because I asked my friends/dealers to toke the floormen for me (knowing I couldn't). Their reply was that it was against policy for dealers to tip as well.