STREETWISE BLACKJACK

Streetwise Blackjack

Dealer's Choice, Part I

By Peter Ruchman

Las Vegas is full of dealers. They are the front line, dog soldiers of the biggest game in town, the casinos. It has been this way since 1931 when the Nevada Legislature legalized gambling, obviously the right thing to do in a state where many were born with cards and dice in hand and a chip in between the teeth.

From the start, gambling life has paid the freight in this territory, first up north in Reno, settling in Las Vegas during the 1960s, as the economy tilted south. Just as an automobile factory needs assembly line workers, casinos require dealers. In Las Vegas, they are everywhere. Walk into any casino, past the rows of chattering slot machines into the central pits and you can't miss 'em. The job description customarily involves handling cards, chips and dice. The reality is far different. It's like thinking teaching is just about communicating information. The important part is the human interaction and the relationships, however fleeting.

Did you ever stop to think about these folks, their jobs and the life? Combine the finest aspects of a bartender, guidance counselor, psychiatrist, financial advisor, mother, father, pimp, hooker, priest, prognosticator, oddsmaker, probability mathematician, and best friend and you have it The all-purpose casino dealer -- he/she dices, slices, and blends perfectly, on the job with drunks, angry losers, lonely hearts, Romeos and Juliets, nervous floor supervisors, bored shift managers and all other denizens of the casino ocean floor.

The pay ranges from tolerable to fine, much of it depending on casino, location and style. Ask any dealer in a grind joint. These are the beginning spots, the lower-end halls most come to learn the ropes, tricks of the trade, before advancing to a better spot, with increased pay, higher table limits, fatter tippers. Most dealers accept the pay structure from the start -- like a waiter or waitress, you work for minimum wage, or less, and live for tips. You learn to live on your feet 45 minutes to an hour on, 15 minutes off, for eight-hour stretches. Did I hear anyone mention glamorous?

You can get fired for all sorts of infractions ranging from running a losing table to snapping at the jerk who just threw his losing cards in your face followed by his drink. They give you a uniform, you have to provide your own sense of humor. If you handle yourself right, you get a steady job, lower health benefits, and a livable wage. Believe me, the day of moving up the casino hierarchy from grind joint dealer to casino manager are a part of the history. Things are more like the army -- the West Point grads get higher, faster. Dog soldiers rarely get the oak clusters and dealers remain in the pits.

Temptations are huge and never go away despite state-of-the-art, sophisticated high technology encircling the casino 360 degrees -- surround sight and sound. Since gambling began, dealers have flirted with the notion of pocketing coin of the realm, unsuspected. A purloined cheque (chip) secreted in any number of body cavities, orifices, or clothing pockets is one way; a willing confederate on the opposite side of the table is another. Legion are the stories involving dealers stealing and the military stealth casinos employ to stop them.

As the advance patrol, they are scrutinized by the public, surveillance and supervisory personnel -‹ customers suspect they are cheating and casino personnel are sure of it.

Is it any wonder they bond together in a common cause, in the locker and lunch rooms, casino floor, and after hours in the taverns and clubs of Las Vegas. When one of the brethren is in trouble, they usually fight to be first in line to come to the rescue, with food, clothing, shelter, bail, or a benefit to raise cash.

It is a way of life changed as the casinos have been transformed from organization-run skimming operations to bottom-line corporate behemoths, responsive to shareholders and Wall Street analysts In a way life is better and not. Things were easier when the mob ran the joints. Casino life was far friendlier and you didn't have to worry about getting written up over some indiscretion or minor infraction. On the other hand, women dealers don't have the degree of concern over sexual harassment as before. As with life elsewhere, some has been gained and some lost. Many oldtimers miss Vegas' small town atmosphere sacrificed for the current booming megaresorts‹progress to one is paradise lost to another.

Thirty-year veteran dealer Ron Saccavino would know. He runs the Dealer's Employment Agency at 1801 E. Tropicana Avenue and publishes The Dealer's News, a very informative monthly newsletter concerned with this world. He told me the veterans miss the good old days with better pay and fewer bureaucratic controls. He's not a firm believer in that, telling me, "I'm in the trenches. Job-wise, yes, things have gotten better with more benefits and more jobs; money-wise, no. In the old days, don't forget there weren't that many Strip jobs. But the days of the "DCM (Don't Come Monday)" papers are gone, when they could fire you indiscriminately."

Some of the oldtimers' discontent can be laid to Internal Revenue Service troubles of the 1980s, when then-federal prosecutor Barry Lieberman (currently chief legal counsel to Michael Gaughan's Coast Resorts, Inc.) led a charge to enforce compliance taxing the dealers' tips. Prior to that time, dealers were on the honor system, and shockingly, some didn't report the full extent of their earnings. Lieberman and the IRS made a federal case out of approximately 30 individuals. Most plea-bargained, working out arrangements. Several chose to fight and were found guilty handed fines, serving jail sentences.

Since then, the onus is on the dealers and the casinos to report tips or tokes, the weekly amount customarily printed right on each dealer's paycheck to avoid compliance problems. The result has been a loss in dealers' earning/retaining power. Saccavino told me the highest end jobs in Las Vegas are at the Hard Rock, Bellagio, and MGM and pay as much as $60,000 per year. At the other end of the spectrum are the Downtown/Northtown/Boulder Strip grind joints which pay as low as $15,000 per year. He noted that in the 1970s, a dealer could make as much as $50,000 at Caesars or the Desert Inn, but it was worth a lot more in less-inflationary currency and unreported income.

All of this change has brought the latest drive to get the dealers across the city to join a union. The Transport Workers Union has come into the picture making rosy promises to prospective members, giving instant migraines to casino executives, already under siege with increased costs, competition and regular management shuffles. This battle is sure to be in city's headlines in the months to follow.

Next week I'll bring you the story of dealer practicing his trade for more almost 25 years. It's been quite a ride for John Law.