Dealing with dealers

3 September 2019

By Frank Scoblete

I wouldn’t want to be a dealer. No way. Dealing with the public can be a challenge, but dealing with the public while they are gambling and drinking can be downright annoying and sometimes frightening.

Most players, say 99% of them, are good players in terms of their manners and how they play the game. But that 1% can be awful. A casino with a thousand people in it can have 10 who are just rotten players and people.

Maybe reading about some dealers’ negative experiences will give us some idea of how tough at times it is to deal with the public.

Here is one dealer’s experience: “Most players are nice and friendly. Some are quiet but that’s fine. I understand that losing is not fun so I do not expect those players who are having a tough session to be joyful. Hey, I wish everyone could win!

“But there are players who make the day really rough. Those are the players who blame me for their losses, as if I had a magic wand and I was granting wishes to various players but not to them. I deal the cards or call out the craps numbers; that’s all I do. I have no power over what happens.

“So the complainers attack me like ‘how come you keep beating me?’ I am not beating them. I am just dealing cards. At craps you can’t believe the cursing that goes on! Most of it is under players’ breaths but they head that sour breath over to the dealer nearest them. Yes, you get an earful as if you were actually manipulating the dice to make them lose.”

Another dealer agreed with the above and added the following: “You know you can have a whole day of players who are a pleasure to deal to but just one player – and I mean it, just one player – can make your day a totally negative experience. If the person is confrontational or loudly yelling at you or doing something he shouldn’t, then it gets bad. You take that home with you and a good day is now viewed as a bad day.”

Here is a third dealer weighing in: “I had one guy who shouted to the rafters that I hated him and wouldn’t let him win. He kept saying things when he lost a hand like ‘see, see, she beat me again! Can’t players win in this casino? What? You get a commission if you beat me?’ He could have left my table at any time but he stayed and screamed all the time he had a losing hand. Go away, fella, and let me deal with the nice players. I am not ruining your day, I have no idea what the cards are or what ones you’ll get but you are certainly ruining my day.”

Dealer number four had his say: “Tips go down at tables where losing players are whining about their hands. Good players will often leave the table if the complainer is making it miserable for them. Some of the good players will take a break or go to another casino. That doesn’t help us. It ruins the game for other players and it ruins the game for us too. Fewer tips for dealers can come about because of the ongoing complainers. Look, I prefer when the players win but I have nothing to do with winning or losing, folks.”

Some more negative dealer experiences to log into your memories:

• A craps dealer had a player pee on her leg. The man was escorted from the casino saying, “What did I do? What did I do? I had to go, man.” He was told never to come back.

• One dealer had a woman get so drunk that she puked on the table and blamed the dealer for letting her drink so much! She was escorted to her room.

• One guy reached over, grabbed a handful of hundred-dollar chips and threw them all over the casino. “That’ll teach you to beat me!” he screamed. Not all the chips were recovered. He was arrested.

• One player turned over a whole blackjack table. He was – hold your breath – a surgeon from California. And he threw his drink in the dealer’s face!

• One player got up and pulled his pants down and mooned the player and then mooned the whole casino. Yes, this did bring a lot of laughs as security escorted him out.

• One dealer had a cigarette smoker put his cigarette out on the table then throw it at the dealer and then he spat on the floor – in the dealer’s direction. “That’s what I think of you lady!” he shouted. He was arrested.

• One dealer had a smoker deliberately blow the smoke in her face and kept saying he was going to do this until he got even and started winning.

OK, you’ve seen some bad patron behavior. Yes, some dealers are not angels but again a player can always get up and go somewhere else.

All the best in and out of the casinos! (And be pleasant to the dealers.)

Visit Frank’s website at www.frankscoblete.com. Frank’s latest books are Confessions of a Wayward Catholic!; I Am a Dice Controller and I Am a Card Counter. All of Frank’s books are available from Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, e-books and at bookstores.