Minding Your Gambling Manners

Playing Well with Others: Minding Your Table Manners

Most of your interaction with other players comes within the context of the games themselves. So whether you’re playing Poker, Blackjack, Baccarat, or Roulette, you want to know how to play the game, and you want to have an understanding of the house rules that dictate your conduct before, during, and after the game. House rules help ensure respect and sensitivity to all players participating, and they protect against cheating.

Knowing your limits

Before you cash in your money and make any bets at a table game or slot machine, be sure you know the rules and parameters of the game you’re about to play. Even popular standards, such as Blackjack and Video Poker, may have weird variations or unusual rules. Avoid disrupting other players — and save yourself some embarrassment — by confirming that you’re playing the game you think you are before you join in. Just ask the dealer (while she’s shuffling is the best time) to give you a quick overview of the game. But most specialty or unusual games have their rules printed at the table, so you can typically read them before you play.

Always check the table limits — the betting minimums and maximums — before you sit down. Casinos usually print the limits on a small, colored placard on the table to keep you from inadvertently joining a high-limit game where you can’t afford even the minimum bet. Making a $5 bet only to have the dealer point out that you’re sitting at a $100-minimum table can be humiliating.

Joining a game

Sitting down at any table or slot machine that has an empty chair is acceptable, but remember these caveats when joining a game:

Ask at a crowded table if a position is open. (For example, someone may have run to the restroom.) Craps doesn’t have chairs or stools, so sometimes you can’t easily determine whether the table has room for you. If in doubt, ask the dealer closest to you or the stickman if the table has room for one more. Some Blackjack tables have a sign saying No midshoe entry. At these tables, you need to wait until the shuffle before you can play.

As you discover in Book 6, Chapters 5 and 6 (on Blackjack and Craps, respectively), some games are played in natural cycles. If the table you want to join has any big bettors, you should politely ask before jumping in midshoe or in the midst of a hot roll. Many players are superstitious, and if they have great runs going, they often prefer you wait. In Blackjack, you hold off until the shuffle so you don’t break up the sacred order of cards. In Craps, you wait until the next come-out roll.
When you do sit down, you need to buy in (convert money to chips), unless you bring chips with you from another table. To do so, place your money on the table (but outside any betting areas) for the dealer to exchange into chips.

Thou shall not touch…and other table commandments

In many games, what you can do with your hands (the ones on the end of your arms, not the ones made of playing cards) is strictly defined, and the reason is simple: The casino wants to minimize your opportunity to disrupt the game or, worse, cheat. You can discover the protocol of specific games in the respective chapters of this book, but for now, be aware that casinos are sensitive about how you handle all gaming material, such as chips, cards, or dice.

In Craps, don’t touch the dice unless you’re the shooter.
In table games, if the cards are dealt face-up, don’t touch them after they hit the felt.
After you place a bet and play has begun, you aren’t allowed to touch your bet again, even to tidy up a toppled stack of chips. (There are a few exceptions to this rule in craps.)
Use only one hand to touch your cards. This is primarily because cheaters use two hands to switch cards.
Understand and use all hand signals or gestures that are part of the game. (Although the dealer or the other players may help you, you need to know the rules before you sit down to play.)
Don’t do anything to mark or damage the cards in any way, such as bending, warping, or scraping with your fingernail.
Don’t give unsolicited advice to other players. Even if you’re offering good strategy, players aren’t likely to accept it in the generous spirit in which you gave it. And if they do take your advice and lose, guess who they’ll blame?
If you bring a friend to cheer you on, remember that the chairs are only for players. However, if the casino isn’t crowded, nonplayers usually can sit in a chair as long as they’re prepared to vacate when the table begins to fill up.
At the end of the hand, place your cards in front of you; don’t hand them to the dealer.
Some slots and Video Poker fanatics play more than one machine at a time. Before you sit down at a machine, make sure someone isn’t playing the machine; arm pullers can be very territorial.
Casinos are sensitive to any kind of electronic devices around the gaming areas. In some places, you aren’t allowed to snap pictures or talk, text, or do an Internet search on a cellphone.

Enjoying a Smoke and an Adult Beverage

One of the attractions of gambling in a casino is the ability to legally smoke and drink while playing table games or slot machines. Not many places these days allow you to enjoy these pleasures together in public anymore. However, because not everyone indulges in tobacco products or alcohol, you should be aware of some social niceties; by following these, you improve the odds of keeping the peace among other players at the table or nearby machines. The following sections give you the lowdown.

Smoking permitted (sometimes)

In contrast to almost every public venue, most casinos allow smoking throughout their many public areas and offer only token nonsmoking arenas. For many gamblers, their entire casino experience depends on the ability to puff while playing. If you’re in that camp, you’ll find yourself among friends virtually everywhere you go in a casino. However, you should always check first before you light up, just in case you stumble across a nonsmoking table game or find yourself in a smoke-free section of the casino. You can also show good manners by asking other players at the table if they mind your firing up a cig or stogie.

As more casinos restrict smoking, do your research and make sure you’re visiting a place that allows smoking before you find out the hard way. In addition, casino restaurants and bars may also have nonsmoking policies or sections, so look for the signs, or ask a casino employee about the smoking policies.

If you’re not a smoker, don’t automatically assume the advanced filtration systems will remove all secondhand smoke from the casino air. If you’re playing in an older casino that has low ceilings and allows smoking, you’re essentially playing in smog. For the occasional visitor, a few days won’t bother you. But if you have any medical conditions (such as asthma) that bad air may aggravate, don’t expect a smoke-free table in a smoke-filled casino to do you much good.

Like just about everything else in a casino, smoking has its own set of unspoken rules for nicotine fiends to be mindful of, including the following:

Casinos that allow cigarette smoking may have a prohibition on cigars, so double-check before you fire up that stogie.
Cocktail servers are often able to buy packs of cigarettes for you; just be prepared to pay higher prices and make sure you tip generously for going the extra mile.
Dealers for some games ask you to take extra care with a lit cigarette. For example, if you’re playing Craps, never hold your cigarette over the rim where ashes could drop on the table.

Drinking encouraged

Drinking and gambling seem to go hand in hand, so you shouldn’t be surprised to find out that drinking at the tables, slots, restaurants, clubs, and shows isn’t only permitted but also — many would argue — encouraged. After all, how many places aside from casinos offer free drinks on the house with cocktail servers coming to your table to take and deliver your orders? Drinking doesn’t get any easier: however, in some casinos, drinking isn’t free or allowed, especially on Indian reservations.

Keep in mind that, from the casino’s perspective, alcohol is a lubricant that helps loosen your inhibitions — translation: purse-strings or wallet clips. If you’ve had a drink or two, you’re more likely to take risks with your money. So, yes, many casinos encourage alcohol consumption — as long as you’re of legal age, that is. Don’t be surprised if you have to provide proof of age before you can place your drink order. Keeping your identification with you is a wise idea.

You’d be smart to control the amount you drink while gambling. A sober head not only helps you play better but also keeps rein on your emotions and your mouth. Loss of either may lead to trouble with the dealer, other players, and casino security.

Giving Gratuities to Dealers and Others

Most people view gaming as a form of entertainment. And just as you tip a restaurant server, valet, coat-check assistant, or cashier at your favorite coffee shop, offering gratuities to the service staff you encounter in the casino is customary.

Most casino employees, like other workers in the service sector, rely heavily on the generosity of the people they serve in order to supplement their wages. Hard-working dealers, cocktail servers, bellhops, and the like depend on your support, so offering tips — or tokes, as they’re known in gambling lingo — is a customary practice in the casino.

Although some people feel that casino staff have become jaded — eagerly expecting (if not outright demanding) a tip whether or not their service justifies it — most staffers genuinely strive to serve and make your casino experience a pleasant one. So be prepared to tip your service providers; maybe you’ll increase your odds of generating positive casino karma!

Tipping your dealer

Servers, valets, bartenders, housekeepers — you’re already familiar with tipping many of the service personnel you encounter on a daily basis. But dealers are unique to the casino world, so tipping can pose a dilemma to the gambling novice. When do you tip? How much do you give? How exactly does the money change hands? This section helps pare down when tipping your dealer is appropriate and how to tip correctly.

Spreading the wealth

Dealers make most of their income from tips. But casinos don’t work the way a restaurant works. When your food comes on time and your server remembers to put the horseradish on the side, the extra buck you toss him goes directly into his pocket. However, casino tips are almost always pooled, and with good reason.

Pooling eliminates any direct incentive for a dealer to cheat on behalf of a player.
Pooling provides equality for dealers, some of whom deal at low-end tables while others get the high-rollers who toss black $100 chips around like they were nickels.

Tips are usually pooled based on shifts, which allows for a simple daily calculation for everyone who worked at the same time.

If you think you can get by without tipping your dealer, you may be surprised to feel the overt pressure to tip at the table. Some dealers are out-and-out rude if a winner fails to share his good fortune with them.

So the first question is, under what circumstances is a tip to the dealer customary? The standard practice is to tip when you’re winning, but winning or losing has nothing to do with the dealers. Tipping is a way of showing appreciation, but it doesn’t change the odds, help you in the future, or give you better cards. Tipping only changes the way dealers, players, and pit bosses treat you while you’re sitting at the table. So if you want to be loved, tip generously whether you win or lose.

How to tip the dealer

The most common method of passing a tip to your dealer is placing an extra bet in front of your regular bet. You also can place any amount on top of your bet for the dealer. Adding to your bet basically makes your dealer a partner with you on that hand. Dealers usually enjoy being able to participate in the game.

Giving the dealer a chip or two when you leave the table after collecting your winnings is also common. Dealers often have you color up (exchange your many smaller denomination chips for chips of higher value) before you leave a table, so make sure you set aside some small chips for the dealer before this process.

How much to tip (or not)

Casinos have no universal tipping standards such as those recognized for valets or bellmen. Most dealer tips are based on how much you’re betting or how much you’re winning. Unfortunately, most gamblers tip far more than they realize — and win far less than they think.

For example, suppose you bet $10 every hand at a full Blackjack table (typically six players). You decide to tip only when you get a Blackjack (an ace and a face card, or 10). Because a Blackjack pays you an extra $5 (at 3-to-2 odds), you share that bounty with the dealer by placing a $5 bet for her on the next hand. That action translates into approximately $15 worth of tips for the dealer every hour (or one tip every 20 minutes).

Your expected loss during that same time period is $6.70 (assuming that you master the condensed basic strategy for Blackjack in Book 6, Chapter 5). So your modest tipping actually gives the dealer more than twice as much money as you lose to the casino. If everyone at your table follows this same tipping practice, the dealer averages close to $100 an hour in tips!

Now that I’ve told you how not to tip, you may still be wondering how to tip. Keep these few guidelines in mind when tipping:

Think of tips like dog treats. The quantity of cheddar cheese is less important to Fido than the frequency. He’ll roll over just as enthusiastically for a sliver as he will for a chunk. So spread out your tips and make them in small amounts.
Start off on the right foot. Making a small bet for the dealer when you first join a table is always appreciated.
Make amends. If you’re getting bad service or you’re playing with a rude or indifferent dealer, a tip is a good way to end the cold war and get the dealer back in your corner. But if that’s not your style, or if you simply don’t think he deserves it, by all means don’t hand over a gratuity.
Keep track of your tips. Most important of all, keep a very rough estimate in your head of how much you’ve tipped. The number may surprise you.

Tipping doesn’t have any hard-and-fast rules. A casino or dealer will never kick you out or ban you for refusing to tip. Remember that these guidelines are simply that — guidelines. Observe how more-experienced players at your table give gratuities and make note of the rapport they build with the dealers. Before long, you can develop a feel for what’s appropriate and what isn’t. Just as important, you get a feel for what kind of tipping pattern fits your personality and budget.

Tipping other casino employees

From the valet who parks your car to the cocktail server who delivers your complimentary drinks to the hotel housekeeper who turns down your bed, you encounter plenty of casino employees who anticipate a gratuity of some sort. Some services — waitresses and concierges — are universal, and others — slot attendants — are unique to casinos.

This section provides a quick rundown of tip situations you can expect to encounter on your casino adventure. Table 4-1 breaks down the customary tip amounts for all the different service workers who may serve your needs.

TABLE 4-1 Tips for Proper Tipping

Occupation	Standard Tip	High-Roller Tip
Bartenders	$1 per round	$5 per round
Casino cocktail servers	$1 per round	$5 per round
Dealers	$2 to $10	$25 to $100
Hotel bellhops	$1 to $2 per bag — more for heavier bags	$3 to $5 per bag — more for heavier bags
Limo drivers	Minimum of $5	Minimum of $10
Maids	$1 per night	$5 per night
Room service personnel	15 percent of check	20 percent of check
Servers in restaurant	15 percent of check	20 percent of check
Keno runners	$1 to $5	$10 to $25
Taxi drivers	Minimum of $2	Minimum of $5
Valets	$1 to $2	$5 to $20

Pay attention to the following tips for tipping the different casino personnel and hotel, restaurant, and bar staff in a casino hotel:

Cocktail servers. Many casinos provide free drinks while you’re playing any game in the house. Like most other casino employees, cocktail servers receive low wages and count on your tips. Depending on your first few tips, cocktail servers can leave you either high and dry or refreshed and relaxed. A standard tip is $1 for every one or two drinks, and you can always use chips for tips.

Servers record what you order based on where you sit in the casino. They work by sections, and each server stays in her area. Therefore, if you move, don't expect your server to find you and deliver your drink.
Other hotel workers. Just as in any resort hotel, the service personnel at a casino hotel expect a commensurate gratuity, more or less, depending on the level of luxury and hoopla provided by the house. Therefore, even though you only pay $1 to park your 1998 olive-green Chevy at your hometown country club, consider upping that amount to at least $5 if you’ve rented a Ferrari and pull into the driveway of Caesars Palace. The same goes for your other service providers.

Be prepared to tip the cast of characters by having plenty of one-dollar and five-dollar bills handy before you arrive.

Avoiding the Appearance of Cheating

Cheating in casinos is a subject worthy of its own book because it has a long and not-so-distinguished history. But as a novice casino visitor, you need to understand some basic facts about the subject and how it affects you.

With so much money flowing, casinos are an inevitable target for cheats. But put your mind at ease because the casino virtually can’t cheat you. Gaming commissions and competition ensure fair games these days, and besides that, casinos don’t have to cheat. Probability theory guarantees them long-term profits on the games. Nevertheless, some cheating still goes on — from both sides of the table — just not in the way you may think. Casinos catch dealers cheating from time to time, but the dealers’ targets are rarely the gamblers at their tables. The few dishonest dealers try to swindle the casino by palming chips, overpaying an accomplice, or some similar technique.

You may not be able to imagine yourself cheating in any shape or form to win. But if you devote any good amount of time to gambling, chances are you’ll be confronted by temptation. A dealer may overpay you, or your slot machine may malfunction and spit out extra coins.

You may also experience casino protocols that, on the surface, seem irrelevant but are actually in place to avoid situations that can be interpreted as attempts to cheat. One example is the marking of cards. Of course, you didn’t mean anything by getting your chili-cheese-fry fingerprints on the ♥Q in the last hand. But you find that casino personnel are very unsympathetic to your tragic lack of a napkin.

Make no mistake about it: Cheating when gambling is an extremely serious offense. If a casino catches you cheating, jail time is in your cards!

Following are some efforts made by casinos to eliminate cheating among players. Some examples appear elsewhere in this chapter, but they bear repeating.

Casinos typically have the legal right to ask anyone to leave their premises at any time for any reason. If casino employees suspect a customer of cheating, they can detain the person and possibly arrest him or her.
Even though casino personnel do their very best to be polite about it, touching taboos are taken very seriously. Casinos expect neophytes to accidentally violate these rules from time to time, but repeat offenders are eventually asked to leave.
Theft is a problem that casinos take seriously even though they aren’t directly in harm’s way. Gamblers are caught snagging chips from stacks of other players every day. You’re especially vulnerable at Craps and Roulette tables because attention is so often focused away from your stack.
Casinos are also sensitive to violating interstate gaming laws, so they’re wary of cellphone use in certain areas. For example, don’t make or take calls while you’re in the race and sports book.
Casinos invest millions of dollars in security technology to protect themselves against cheaters. You can use this technology to your advantage as well. For example, if you believe a dealer made a mistake, the tape can be rolled back to see what really happened. And the lens doesn’t lie.