What's It Like Working In A Casino
I worked in the casino Industry for 10 years in Las Vegas. My experience has been, most people that work in them don't like it but they don't want to leave because they make pretty good money and are afraid of change (I left the casino industry 10 years ago). I like working in casino chefs are helpful, i learnt basics from there and some butchery skills as well.prepare platters for aspinals, salads for buffet. Robin Schooling: Like many people, I fell into HR. I started out working for a recruitment and staffing agency as an office assistant and ultimately moved over to recruiting. When it was time for my next move, I applied for HR positions and landed an assistant role at a bank. You can work as a croupier in land-based casinos around the world. If your casino is part of a group, it can be easier to move around. But you can also get paid to travel the world by working on a cruise liner. But even in the worst casino in probably one of the worst gambling markets in America, it had its definite pluses. It was not difficult work, though it could be hard work. The pay was good, though.
There's a hierarchy of casinos in London, with Mayfair's private members' clubs at the top, and 'grind clubs' — often in or around Leicester Square — at the bottom. It's the casino equivalent of Soho House contrasted with Tiger Tiger, but the 'grind' refers to the action at the table, rather than Sambuca-fuelled stag parties thrusting to Robin Thicke.
Emma, who works in a West End casino, describes grind clubs like this: 'It's bums on seats, without the frills or pandering you get in Mayfair. It's getting people in the door, spending £100. We don't care if they win or lose — because the odds are that eventually they'll lose.'
Steven, who spent a decade in grind clubs, before moving to Mayfair, says: 'The more spins you grind out in an hour, the more money the casino makes. Same as on blackjack — the more hands you get in, the more money you make — that's a grind action game. Physically it's harder work, because you're doing a lot more. In a grind club, you're looking at 20-30 spins, or four to six shoes of blackjack every hour, compared to 12-15 spins, or two to three shoes of blackjack an hour in a Mayfair club.'
While Mayfair casinos offer a bespoke service to gamblers who bet millions, just down the road, this experience is very different.
What's the difference between working in a grind casino and working in a Mayfair casino?
Fred, who worked in a grind club for two years before moving to Mayfair, says, 'when there's more money on the table, it makes more sense — suddenly people are gambling for real things. In a grind club, someone comes in with £50 and it's dull as hell for the croupier. In Mayfair, players place £5,000 bets. It's like, OK this is action! The grind club I worked in was full of pissheads — it was a glorified arcade. Moving to Mayfair changed my whole attitude towards the game.'
Ben spent three years in the West End ('in a really shit grind casino, the second worst one in London') before getting a job in Mayfair. 'In a grind casino, no one's worth any money,' he says, 'any aggression, they know they'll get kicked out, so they just grumble and agree with each other about how shit you are. In Mayfair, the punters have money, so they can be fucking arseholes. They pretty much have to kill someone to get barred — and even then, it would depend who it was!'
Emma, who spent a decade in Mayfair, before moving to the West End to take a more senior role, says, 'Mayfair's very traditional — it's about the money and the bets — nothing fancy. Where I am now, they're more innovative — they're willing to try new technology, and new games coming out. We're always trying to pull in customers.'
In a grind club, someone comes in with £50 and it's dull as hell for the croupier. In Mayfair, players place £5,000 bets.
Jessica spent a year in the West End before moving to Mayfair. She says: 'There wasn’t time for politeness and niceties in grind clubs — it was a mass form of frantic gambling — a production line taking money off people. The maths was harder because of the volume of chips on low value games! The grind club I worked in wasn't so bad, but there was one in Chinatown where I was sent on away days and everyone was playing 25p chips! Loads of them — it's hard work! In Mayfair, you might have three chips on the table and they're each worth a thousand, so it's easy! One customer described Mayfair clubs as, 'the last bastion of English society.' It’s a glamorous world, whereas grind clubs are seedy and uncivilised.'
Steven says, 'in grind clubs, the dealers pace the game and run it how they want to — in Mayfair, the customers run the game for you. In grind clubs, the inspectors have to watch up to four tables, so they aren't usually as on the ball as they would be in Mayfair, where they usually watch one table. Grind clubs have chipping machines to sort the chips — you talk to your chipping machine to let off steam and no one can hear you!'
Ben adds, 'working in a grind club, you can be as rude and sarcastic as you like. When you're pushing their payout towards them, you pretend you've caught your finger on the layout and knock all their stacks over, then spin while they're trying to pick them up. I used to inspect the games, and when the dealer hit an empty number on roulette, I'd lean across and give them a high-five! You can't get away with this shit in Mayfair! From the second you walk in, there's an air of grandeur and you know you have to behave yourself.'
What are the punters like in grind clubs – who are they?
Ben: 'Scumbags. On a weekend you get loads of students who'll do £20, but it was mostly Chinese restaurateurs doing £500-£600. You don’t know how much people earn, but there was a lot of money lending that went on.'
Emma: 'The way the industry's going, we know a lot more about our customers, because we have a responsibility to make sure the money we see them spending is equivalent to what we would expect them to earn. We've got people with their own companies, but the majority are chefs, or they work in a bar or McDonald's, or they're taxi drivers or bus drivers, teachers, legal secretaries. We're attached to Chinatown so we have a lot of restaurant owners and kitchen staff who work around there. They're bread and butter customers who'll do a couple of hundred quid.'
Jessica: 'A lot of restaurateurs. The smell of garlic over a table could be overpowering. I think most of them spent their entire lives chopping garlic.'
Steven: 'People with normal jobs — cab drivers, estate agents, shopkeepers. In the day, we had ones that were retired, on the sick, ex-army. Lots of small customers who haven't won in life — they're not successful people. We'd get people who'd been coming in every day for 20 years, doing their couple of hundred, making it last as long as possible. In Mayfair, they're successful people. They're used to winning in life – that's why they've got money to gamble.'
How do you feel when grind club players lose their money – do you have more empathy for them than Mayfair punters?
Emma: 'It depends how the customer takes it. Do I have any guilt about taking people's money? Not really. Everyone is an adult and makes a choice. You don't know the full extent of somebody's financial situation. If your customer tells you they're a chef, is that their only source of income? You don't know. You have concerns if people get distressed — then you query it more, but generally I've never been bothered whether I'm taking £1,000,000 or £100. If it bothers you, you shouldn't do the job.'
Ben: 'I didn’t really give a shit. You get people sitting there trying to make a tenner last all day. It is harder to watch someone getting out their last 50p, trying to scrabble £1 together to put on the number, because you know that's literally the last money they've got, than it is to watch a punter do his last 10 grand, and he's wearing a watch that costs 60 grand! But I still didn't really care. Sometimes if you saw a nice punter lose all their money and you know they're going to be skint, that's not nice. But it's like asking a barman, 'do you feel guilty that there’s alcoholics in the world?' They probably don't.'
It's like asking a barman, 'do you feel guilty that there’s alcoholics in the world?'
Fred: 'It doesn't depend on wealth, it depends on personality, so I felt sorry for people in all situations. I'm a sensitive boy and as a gambler myself, I definitely relate. But yeah, to an extent with the rich people you think, 'you'll probably be alright.'
Jessica: 'In grind clubs you were either dealing to people who were out for a night of entertainment, and you'd ruin it because you took their money in 15 seconds, or they couldn't afford to gamble, so you were taking money off people who couldn't afford it. I didn't feel comfortable with that.'
Steven:'I felt sorry for them, but I'm not their keeper. Some of them play on it, thinking if you feel sorry for them, you'll help them win — which doesn't work! You hope the person doesn't do too badly when you're at the table, but you try not to think about the chips as money. In Mayfair, it's silly money, but in grind clubs it's amounts you can relate to — if someone's lost 500 quid, I know what I'd be like if I was £500 down!'
Is there any difference between staff conditions in Mayfair and grind clubs?
Fred: 'The difference in how you're treated backstage is huge. In one grind club, the staff room is four storeys up, so you spend 10-15 minutes of a 20 minute break on the stairs. They had a strict 20 minute break rule, so if you come off the table at 2pm, you're expected back at 2.20pm. But you wouldn't even come off until five past, because of all the faffing. It was unworkable. In Mayfair, you could take a 20 minute break from when you got to the staff room. They treated you like an adult and the flexibility meant you could treat customers better — you didn't mind them asking for another spin, because it wasn't eating into your break. In a grind club, you'd spin haphazardly or you'd walk off — it's rude.
Jessica: 'Mayfair clubs had much nicer dresses! The quality of food was superb, and we got a lot more break time. It was much more relaxed.'
Ben: 'In the grind club, all we got was water, a loaf of bread, and a big tub of sunflower spread. In Mayfair you get dinner cooked for you, snacks on hand, and a nicer staff room.'
What's the best thing about working in a grind club?
Jessica: 'There wasn't one. I'm a snob, I didn't like working there. I didn't like taking money off people who couldn't afford to gamble.'
Ben: 'The social life and the camaraderie. You had more control over the game. In Mayfair you're a puppet who spins when they tell you to spin, and the wheel has to go how fast they want it. But in a grind club you'd get on there and try and win their money. It's you against them - it's more fun.'
Flair, customer service — what are you talking about? These people don’t give a shit!
Fred:'There wasn't anything. It was awful. I hate grind casinos more than I can express. In Mayfair you regained pride in the actual craft — it was dynamic and exciting — whereas in the grind casinos, you could be a robot. Flair, customer service — what are you talking about? These people don’t give a shit!'
Emma: It's so much fun — it's never dull. You meet such characters. Watching people, their body language, gauging situations — it's an interesting job. The tips are better in Mayfair but I couldn't go back there. The arrogance of Mayfair customers gets to you — I enjoy the fact that we don't accept behaviour like that.'
Why did you make the move from a grind club to Mayfair?
Jessica: 'I was transferred to a Mayfair club after having neuro-linguistic programming to make me enjoy my job more. It changed my attitude — I became more relaxed, and gave better customer service. Before, I didn't enjoy it and I realised that wasn't good for me, seeing as I did it for eight hours a night!'
Ben: 'I was comfy where I was — I had weekends off and I was well thought of. But my girlfriend was a dealer too — we worked together and she wanted to go to Mayfair, so she talked me into it. We got table tests at a Mayfair club and they took us on as a couple. I sold my soul but I'm glad I did it because I earn at least twice as much!'
Steven: 'I hoped the standards of specialism and brains would be better when I went to Mayfair. I assumed people would do the job the way I'd like to think I did it, but I was sorely disappointed.'
You must meet some interesting people?
What Is It Like Working In A Casino
Jessica: 'One night a gentleman who was not long out of prison came in with a stash of £50 notes that smelt like your grandmother's attic. They must have been hidden for years, because they were old legal tender. We were told to carry on as normal, while security watched him launder the money, then notified the authorities.'
Ben: 'This woman shat herself on my blackjack table. Literally shat her pants. Management wheeled their desk to the other side of the casino because the smell was so bad. They didn't ask her to leave — they just moved away so they didn't have to smell it. There were people eating sandwiches next to her — no one cared. When she left, they barred her. I had another punter sneeze on my hand as I cleared the layout. I had fucking snot on my hand, so I wiped it onto her arm.'
Steven: 'There was one punter coming in every day, getting to be a right pisshead. One day he was watching the wheel and threw up in it.'
Fred: 'No, you're dealing to morons! In a higher end casino, people tend to know how to gamble — and having deep pockets helps. In grind clubs, you've got people trying to cover the whole roulette layout — they're never going to get anywhere. They ask your advice on blackjack and when you explain basic strategy, they accuse you of trying to trip them up. They'll keep their bet the same, which means they're not even gambling — they can only lose, because blackjack's an even money game in the house's favour! You look at people who've been doing this years, and you realise you're looking into the eyes of madness. You've got a roomful of people determined to take control over fate — which is hilarious. People with their different systems. It's an extraordinary arrogance among normal, not impressively intellectual people, like, 'no, I can crack this!' It’s depressing. It's torture for everyone.'
I had another punter sneeze on my hand as I cleared the layout. I had fucking snot on my hand, so I wiped it onto her arm.
Jessica: 'Some young Asian ladies were playing stud poker on the same table as an elderly gentleman. As the ladies ran out of money, there were conversations, then disappearances to the toilet, and when they came back, items of jewellery would be missing and suddenly the girls had money. There were other occasions when that type of behaviour happened and nothing seemed to have changed hands. But they'd left the table for 20 minutes, then they're back, and the girl's got money. You turn a blind eye, but it's an uncomfortable blind eye.'
Emma: 'This woman came in once — she'd soiled herself, and you could smell it. She came in to use the bathroom and made a real mess of it. There's people that wander around trying to tap people up for money. They might not be wearing rags, but if you look closely, there are signs they don't have a home to go to. They're using the place to keep warm, especially over the winter. It's sad, but we have to get them out. If they're not there to game, they shouldn't be on the premises. In Mayfair, where punters are losing £100K, you take abuse, but where I am now, we don't take any shit — we bar people all the time. Any sign of aggressive behaviour from a customer, within seconds we've got security everywhere — they're bundled out the door as fast as possible. They'll be carried out punching and kicking. One of them spat on the female security staff. We only call the police if someone's injured, but it happens every day.'
How do players try to cheat?
Jessica: 'There was one evening where a gentleman was particularly successful at laying late bets, when he had a stunning lady wearing a see-through dress on his arm, distracting everyone.'
Ben: 'In grind clubs they do a lot more actual cheating than they do in Mayfair. Things like pushing chips on the winning number after the ball's dropped, and trying to switch cards with their mates on poker. The old, 'I said 13, not 30' on roulette, when 13 comes in. There was a guy I worked with who got sacked for colluding with punters. It was a busy roulette game and he was paying out punters for bets they hadn't called, then splitting the money outside. Another punter spotted it and grassed him up.'
Emma: 'The cheats in Mayfair are obvious — usually they're doing it to throw their weight around. Everyone knows they're cheating and you make a commercial decision to pay them, because you don't want to lose a £100K customer. In a grind club, you don't make commercial decisions — if you lose a £100 punter, it makes no difference to you. If they've tried to cheat, you bar them.'
Steven: 'One guy pushed a stack of chips onto an outside bet on roulette, after the ball dropped. I was watching four tables, but I noticed because his table had a weak dealer, so I was keeping an extra eye out. I looked him, raised an eyebrow and he took it off again. It's mainly putting chips on that shouldn't be on there, or taking off losing chips that should be on there.'
All names in this article have been changed. Images of specific casinos do not relate to the casinos in the stories.
Samantha Rea can be found tweeting here.
WHATTHE CASINOS DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW
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Some things the casinos love to tell players (like who hitthe jackpot on their slot machines). But other things they would rather not say(“don’t ask, don’t tell”). What are their secrets?
Single deck blackjack
Wow!Las Vegas casinos are bringing back those good ole single deck blackjack games.They even advertise them on their marquees. In fact you’ll see those gamespacked with players because they know that single deck games have historicallyoffered blackjack players better odds.
Wellhere’s the rest of the story. Unfortunately, those single deck games have onetiny rule change – they pay 6 to 5 on a blackjack.No big deal, you say? How about an 8-foldincrease in the casino’s advantage! That is a big deal.
Howcan that be? Normally the casinos pay 3 to 2 or 7 ½ to 5 for a blackjack. Thismeans if you bet $5 and get a blackjack you’ll get paid $7.50 (assuming thedealer doesn’t have blackjack). But in a 6 to 5 blackjack game, your blackjackwill get you $6, a buck and a half less. And you’ll get short-changed on yourblackjacks about once in every 21 hands or about 4 times every hour on average.This adds about 1.4% to the house edge and makes this game far worse for abasic strategy player than a standard single or multi-deck blackjack game.Shame on the casinos for not telling players this!
ContinuousShuffling Machines, known as CSM’s, are those new shuffling machines being usedon some blackjack tables. But don’t confuse a CSM with an automatic shuffler,which has been around for awhile. With the latter, the 6 (or 8) decks of cardsare shuffled while the dealer uses another 6 (or 8) decks to deal the game.When the shuffle occurs, the dealer puts the just used 6/8 decks of cards intothe shuffler and places the just shuffled 6/8 decks of cards into the dealingshoe. The automatic shuffler simply saves on down time and doesn’t changeanything else about the game.
Buta CSM is different. There is only a single stack of 4 or 5 decks of cards inthe CSM. After every round or two the discards are placed back into the CSMwhere they are “randomly mixed” with the other cards. It’s a continuous gamewhere the cards go around and around.
ACSM has a dramatic effect on card counters because the unplayed cardsconsistently maintain the same ratio of high and low high cards (counters varytheir bets when the latter gets unbalanced). In fact the main reason that CSM’swere developed were to thwart card counters.
Two Decks or Six Decks?
Youglance at the blackjack table and see a dealer with 2 decks of cards in herhand, manually pitching the cards to players. So you take a seat at what firstappears to be a good 2-deck blackjack game. Right?Not always.
Somecasinos in their paranoia over card counters have implemented the fake 2-deckblackjack game. Here’s how this secret works. The game is actually a 6 to 8deck game. After the cards are shuffled the dealer picks off 2-decks and dealsthe game with them. So what appears to be a double deck game is not really a doubledeck game. Ain’t that something?
Join our Player's Club, use our free Player's Card whenyou play the machines, and you'll earn cash back and comps galore. But notevery machine. You see, if you happen to play video poker you may be earningpoints at a lower rate than slot players.In fact in many casinos it takes twice the coin-in to earn a point. Andif you always play video poker machines that have good paytables (or even ifyou get lucky and win a lot of jackpots on any VP machine and/or play only onpromotion days), the casino might pull your player's card so you can’t earncashback or comps and/or they might take you off their list for valuable mailoffers, including bounce-back. They might even bar you from playing in their casinoat all. And just to be sure they might even downgrade the paytable or points onevery one of their high-paying video poker machines and not tell anyone aboutit. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
You’veprobably seen these electronic displays on roulette tables. The deviceautomatically records the last 20 or so winning roulette numbers for everyoneto see. It seems as if the casinos are doing you a favor to help you find thoseoverdue numbers (or maybe certain numbers that are hitting more often).
Guesswhat? That device has as much chance to help you find winning roulette numbersas a crystal ball does.The rouletteball doesn’t have a memory and it doesn’t know or care what numbers just hit.The only one profiting from that that device is the company that manufacturedit and the casinos for not telling you it’s worthless.
Crapless or Never-Ever Craps
Casinoslove to advertise this game. The come-on is that you can’t lose on the come-outroll! If one of the craps numbers – either the 2, 3 or 12 - is rolled on thecome-out they become the shooters point with a fairly large winning payoff.What a deal for the craps player. Or is it?
Itturns out that even though you can’t lose on the come out roll, the 2, 3 and 12are tough point numbers to hit. If you do the math a crapshooter faces a 5.4%house edge on the pass line (no odds) compared to a standard game. That’s abouta four-fold increase in house edge compared to betting the pass line in astandard game So even though the advertising says, “you can’t lose on the comeout roll”, trust me you will lose more in this game in the long run.
Formany unsuspecting players, this is an example of a good game gone bad. WhenThree Card Poker was first introduced into the casinos by it’s developer, DerekWebb, it paid 4-1 for flushes on the pair plus wager. This made the casino’sedge 2.32%, not bad for a new game. In fact of the three poker based tablegames – Let It Ride, Pai Gow Poker, and Three Card Poker – Three Card Poker wasbest.
Nowadaysthings have changed. A new company owns the game, casinos are under pressure toincrease profits on table games, and walla without much fan fare the payoff fora flush on the pair plus wager was quietly reduced from 4-1 to 3-1. Most playersnever noticed the change. But I did.AndI’m here to tell you that this change in payoff boosted the house edgethree-fold (up to 7.28%). Also, the ante/play bonus payouts for straightflushes and three-of-a-kinds were also shorted. Uggghhh.
Let It Ride Bonus
Thelure of Let It Ride is the promise of a big jackpot for a small bet. It evensays so right on the felt - a 1,000-1 payoff if you hit a royal flush. Buthere’s the rest of the story.
Itturns out if you bet too much you won’t get the full 1,000-1 payoff. How canthey do this? Easy, just read the fine print where they talk about “aggregatelimit.”This means the casinos limit thetotal amount that they will pay on a winning wager. Suppose this limit is $15,000.If you were to bet $5 on each betting spot and hit a royal flush you’d get paid$5,000 for each wager or a total of $15,000. But if you bet $10 on each spot,you’d expect to be paid $30,000 (just like it says on the layout) but you’llonly get paid the “aggregate limit” of $15,000. Interesting.
What's It Like Working In A Casino Slot Machines
Yousee those fancy marquees above certain slot carousals touting “99% Payback”.What they don’t tell you, unless you read the fine print, is that thesemachines pay “up to 99%.” That “up to” means that you don’t know which machineor how many machines for that matter have been programmed to pay the advertised99% payback (or return). Worse is you don’t know what the other machines in thecarousel are programmed to pay out. Good luck.
Even Money
Geta blackjack when the dealer shows an ace face card and the casinos will gladlypay you even money on your bet beforethe dealer checks her hole card.That’sright nice of them to do this and the vast majority of blackjack players gladlytake the even money. In fact most table game supervisors and dealers will touteven money “as the best bet in the casino”. But here’s what they forget to tellyou. In the long run you will win about4% less on your blackjack hands every time you take even money. In otherwords ‘even money’ is one of the worst plays you can make in blackjack (unlessyou are card counting). In 32 years of playing blackjack, I have yet to hear acasino employee tell a player this. Enough said.
Insome casinos the listed payoffs on the felt for bets in the center of thelayout use the word “for” instead of “to” (like “5 for 1”). To the unwary itlooks like the casinos are going to pay you 5 chips for the one youwagered.Ugh, ugh. Whenever you see theword “for” listed on a payoff it means the player will win 5 chips includingthe original one chip wagered. In other words “5 for 1” is the
Betting Systems
Casinoslove players who think they have a betting system to beat them. In fact, if youare willing to wager a sizeable chunk of cash using a betting system give thema call. They’ll come running to pick you up with a limo, put you up in a firstclass suite (comped of course), and wine and dine you as long as you play yoursystem in their casino.
Arethe casino bosses worried that maybe this sucker (oops, I mean player) willbreak their bank?Hardly. Casinos arebuilt on math not luck, and because they have the math on their side they can’tlose in the long run. Betting systems were invented hundreds of years ago. Theydidn’t work back then and they don’t work today. But the casinos prefer not totell the system player this. Now you know why.
Nowthat you’ve finished reading this article, you know a lot about what they don’twant you to know. Use this information wisely. Until next month, play smart andstay positive.
HenryTamburin is one of America’s most knowledgeable and popular casino gamblingwriters. For a free subscription to his monthly Blackjack Insider e-Newsletter or to read the latest issue visit www.bjinsider.com.For a free copy of Tamburin’s CasinoGambling Catalog featuring discounted, best-selling products for casinoplayers call toll free 1-888-353-3234 or write to: RSU, PO Box 19727,Greensboro, NC 27419.