What's It Like Working In A Casino
Just like any other ordinary Malaysian, we go through various exams during secondary school. After I completed Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) in Form 5, I had about four months to go before attending college. During this period, some students will get selected to go for National Service (NS), others may stay home, or work part-time to earn some pocket money. I chose the latter, which led me to apply for a job in a casino—and I got it.
What’s Been Your Favorite Job So Far? Working as a consultant later in my career has been my favorite yet. I’d been away from that world for many years, so it was a big challenge. I had to familiarize myself with all new industry practices and, at times, I was scared that I didn’t know enough. Casino dealers work in shifts and night shifts are the busiest hours. Most dealers choose this job because it pays the bill, not because they enjoy playing the game. Our shifts can be from 7 am to 3pm or 11 am to 7 am. Most of us don’t really bother to dress up and look hot while we are working.
In today’s massive casinos, five-star hotels merge with gargantuan, themed buildings, encompassing entire city blocks and housing restaurants, bars, theaters, nightclubs, gaming tables, slot machines, ATMs, snack bars, gift shops, and even the occasional theme park. A casino’s security division, therefore, must function much like the police department of an entire town. This discussion. Many reasons spring to mind for choosing to work in a casino. Sure, many people have a general idea of what it would be like flipping cards or spinning a roulette wheel at a high-energy casino where the tips are good and the interaction with customers pleasant. 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.
I was still underage then, so needless to say, I’ve never stepped into a casino before. The closest thing I’ve encountered to a casino is watching casino-related movies, such God of Glambers, starring Andy Lau and Chow Yun-Fat; and 21, starring Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth.
At that time, no one has ever educated me about working for passion and not the money—I was clearly doing it just for the salary. Compared to working as a waitress, being a casino dealer with SPM as my only qualification pays a lot more than most other jobs out there.
If you were to tell someone that you’ve worked in the gambling industry, they’d most likely say whoa and wow. Well certainly, there were some wow moments, so now I’m going to share a few things that only people who have worked at a casino will be able to tell you.
P.S.: I was Pontoon dealer, which is the British version of Blackjack. Both have similar rules but they are actually played quite differently. The most notable difference is in Pontoon, all cards that are 10s are removed.
1. The dealers can’t help you win money.
This is one very most annoying part of being a casino dealer. Some people actually come up to me and ask me questions like, “Hey so you know how to win, right? Because you’re the dealer?”, “Teach me how to win,” or “What system do they use in the machines that cause us to lose?”
I wish I could help these people sometimes. But the truth is, we’re practically like a robot, albeit a bit friendlier (we provide customer service like answering questions, smile while greeting them, etc.). We just follow the rules and play the game with the players.
To sum it up, we’re just doing our job which includes shuffling cards, paying bets, and keeping the game going. No magic, no tricks, nothing.
2. Feng shui and superstitions are heavily practiced.
Have you heard of stories that the casinos are built based on certain shape to create a better feng shui for the casino to earn more money?
It’s somewhat true.
If you’ve been to a casino, you might know that the interior design of casinos are specifically designed and decorated according to certain feng shui elements. One popular practice is that there are no windows or clocks in the casino.
The casino that I worked at had a ceiling that is shaped like a coffin in the middle of the casino.
Besides that, most gamblers wear something in red before going into a casino because it is believed that the red colour brings good luck. This might sound a little pervert-ish, but if you are observant enough, you might be able to notice many people wearing red undergarments, especially if they are wearing a white coloured outfit.
3. The dealers are not yeng at all.
Sure, in movies, you’d be amazed by casino dealers who are very proficient in distributing the cards, and paying bets and payouts at a very fast speed. They look so cool and professional. Well I must warn you to not fall for this delusional glamorous scene of the world of casinos.
Casino dealers work in shifts and night shifts are the busiest hours. Most dealers choose this job because it pays the bill, not because they enjoy playing the game. Our shifts can be from 7 am to 3pm or 11 am to 7 am.
Most of us don’t really bother to dress up and look hot while we are working. Sometimes we don’t even shower before going to work because we are constantly exposed to second-hand smoke, so we’re going to be very smelly anyway.
4. Mistakes are inevitable, and the casino won’t care (about the small ones anyway).
Newbie mistakes are unavoidable and one common mistake is paying extra winning bets to a customer.
For example, you have to pay the player RM100, and you’re supposed to give them 4 RM25 chips, but you took 5 pieces accidentally and unfortunately your mistake was caught by the surveillance camera.
In the case of such a mistake, the player will think that your salary will be deducted, but in actual fact the casino management don’t really see it as a big deal. The player could even keep that extra chip if they don’t want to return it, but the dealer’s salary will not get affected at all.
They see the bigger picture: It doesn’t matter if the player takes the extra chip, because it’s just more money for them to lose during the next few rounds.
5. The house is always the winner.
Bear in mind that casinos are not the place for you to earn money. The house will always be the winner; they need profit to survive, and that is your losing bets.
I have seen player after player lose their money. I’ve seen someone take out his phone to sell it to the player sitting beside him just to get cash in return to continue playing.
I saw an elderly woman who broke down and cried after losing all her money at the table. I have also seen a player emptying his wallet and then going to the ATM to withdraw a stack of money, desperate to win, but losing it all to the casino again.
Gambling makes people, no matter if they are rich or poor, think that they always have the chance to win more money. You may win occasionally during the first few hours, but you will lose eventually. Winning may be fun; however once you’re an addict, it’s all downhill from there.
And it’s only a matter of time before you get addicted—human beings are weak after all.
WHATTHE CASINOS DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW
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.
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.
Is Working In A Casino A Good Job
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.
What's It Like Working In A Casino Slots
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.