Interview of Las Vegas Blackjack dealer

Deal Again!!!

Every one that comes to Las Vegas to live or as a tourists wonders what it would be like to be a dealer. The following is an interview by your site guide of a single parent of two and grandmother of three, an attractive lady in her late forties, that we will call Sandy, a Las Vegas Blackjack dealer.

Guide: How did you get into the casino business?

Sandy: Actually, I started out as a front desk clerk in the Westward Ho. When I turned twenty-one, I got a job as a baccarat shill in the Sands. I went from making $90.00 a week in wages to $500.00 a week in tokes and $1.60 and hour in pay. Being a shill has to be the easiest job I ever had. You just play the game with the house's money until enough real players come to the table, then you take a break until the table needs you again. I could see that the dealers were making the really big bucks though.

I decided then, that I wanted to deal. There was only one female dealer in the blackjack pits when I started to shill in 1972, a black woman. When I decided to do it in 1980, women were starting to deal in all of the casinos.

Guide: You've been dealing for twenty years, then. Where?

Sandy: All over. You see, you keep switching to get a better job. Money wise, that is. Tokes. I started out Downtown at the Mint. In those days you worked Downtown for three to five years before you could even get to the Strip. Now, you can do it in a year and a half. I then did the Fremont, the Silver Dollar, a country and western place that used to be on Boulder Highway, the Westward Ho again, the Union Plaza, the Maxim and the Rio.

Guide: What games?

Sandy: Just Blackjack and Pai Gao. I would say that Blackjack and Roulette are basic to moving up. I know. It doesn't speak well of my ambition that I don't deal Roulette, but I've always been fast at Blackjack, so I moved up some, but not to the jobs at Caesar's, Paris or Bellagio, that kind of place.

Guide: What kind of money did you make in those years?

Sandy: Well, Downtown I made about thirty thousand a year, forty to fifty on the Strip. Bellagio is about fifty to sixty thousand and Caesar's, which has always been the best, about eighty thousand. But you buy a job there or you have to know somebody. You know, juice. The wages to deal in almost all of these places is little more than minimum wage. You make your money in tokes.

Guide: Dealers were most envied for their money back before the IRS cracked down on their tokes. How does the IRS handle the toke situation?

Sandy: Before the middle '80s, it was fine. We were taxed on our wages, which were damned near nothing, while we picked up our tokes in cash in an envelope every day. Depending on what you felt the IRS should get, you declared so much for tokes and paid taxes accordingly. After IRS got on to us, each casino had to set up a toke committee that would split the tokes and report the daily envelope amount to the IRS every two weeks. The payroll office would use your whole pay check to pay taxes and you would be informed whether you needed to pay more taxes for the period or not. If you needed to pay, you worked payment out with payroll. Now, most places have gone to giving you your tokes every two weeks as part of your paycheck. The taxes are already taken out. I don't like it. Don't know anybody that does.

Guide: Would you join a union?

Sandy: I would, and so would most dealers that I know. You see, things have really changed, money wise for dealers, because things have changed in the casinos. What I mean is, in the old days, the houses were owned by people that made money for themselves and their families. You know, strong individuals. They 'gave the house away' to attract the high roller and keep them. The players toked the dealer, and the dealer spent the money. Now, the corporations own the joints. They feel that the toke that you get is theirmoney. Money that you shouldn't be taking from them. The IRS gets their part of all of your wages and all of your tokes, and the wages are minimum. This is a right to work state. I've been told that I was laid off by phone, with no explanation given. They can do that. For example; before, many of the places had retirement plans. Now they got 401Ks. With a union we could go for higher wages and try to get back some of the esteem that we used to have. I don't think that you'll see the dealers organized in the near future, though. The houses don't want to see it.

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