Damned If You Do & Damned If You Don't
In Las Vegas
prostitution is illegal. I know people come here thinking that
prostitution is legal but they’re actually thinking of nearby
counties that are an hour or so away from Las Vegas. Even though
it’s illegal we have a large amount of prostitutes and escort
companies. As a dealer you will see the same prostitutes hanging
around the same bars night after night. Or you will have a player
come up to the table with a prostitute you know and he will
introduce her as his niece or something. It’s so hard to keep a
straight face and accept their story.
One night I had
a player sit down at the table with a very beautiful young woman.
She was dressed in a long sparkly dark blue dress; she had blond
hair and a blue green eye shadow. The gentleman was much older; he
was in his 50’s or 60’s with grey hair and really winkled. He was
one of those types of men that didn’t age well. They sat down
together and he introduced her as his wife. After playing for a
couple hours he got up and went to the bathroom. While we were
waiting for him to come back she looked at her watch and said, “Oh,
we’re late for a dinner reservation. I’ll meet him at the bathroom
so we won’t be late.” She took his chips and headed for the
bathroom. I was new to the industry so I didn’t think anything of
it. When the husband came back he was furious that she left and took
his money. That was when he admitted that she was a prostitute.
Nothing happened. Security couldn’t find the woman and the man lost
out on all his chips.
This happens more than you think; that’s why there’s a procedure for dealers to follow. I found out about this immediately after the last scenario. A dealer will never allow anyone to touch your money when you leave the table. This includes your wife, children and friends. I had one wife try to play with her husband’s chips while he was in the bathroom. She tried to play $100 per hand and before her husband was playing $25 per hand. I told her I couldn’t allow her to play with his money because he wasn’t there to authorize it. The wife was so mad she started screaming at me. When the husband came back and saw his wife upset he started screaming at me too. I couldn’t get a word in. It’s a double edge sword.
~Heather 2004
This happened in the
early 90’s; I went to a sports book area to bet on a football game
and when I was standing in line I noticed this old 96 year old in
the back with a pad of paper watching the screens intently. After I
placed my bet I walked over and sat down next to him. I watched him
play and he was winning every horse race. “How are you doing that?”
I asked. He pointed at the television set and said, “They play the
horse races on a loop. I’ve written down who has won what race and
then when the loop starts over I bet on who is going to win. It
takes many hours but it’s worth it.” So we sat there for an hour or
two and he would tell me what horses to bet on. We made a good deal of
money. Unfortunately the casino got wise and sent down 2 security
guards to 86 the man for cheating. Luckily they left me alone
because they thought I was just an innocent bystander. The casinos
change that policy shortly afterwards so that the horse races and
everything else is live and nothing is on a loop.
~Anonymous 1991
I was working as a
dealer on swing shift and I used to get off of work at 6 am. I had a
really old crappy car and it kept breaking down on me; so my
boyfriend would take me to work and pick me up. One night he forgot
to set his alarm clock and never picked me up, so I needed to take a
taxi. I looked normal when I approached the taxi because I had
changed my work shirt while waiting for my boyfriend. I got into the
cab and told him the cross streets. That cheating asshole started
driving in the opposite direction. “Where are you going?” I asked,
“We have to get to Tropicana and Rainbow.” “Oh, you know your way
around,” the cab driver said sounding surprised, “You’re not a
tourist?” That pissed me off, “No I’m not a damn tourist. I’m a
native! Now go the right way and you better not charge me extra for
this!” I watched that meter so closely. When we got to the cross
streets I gave him exact change; and that is rare because I tip
everyone.
~Heather 2006
I was dealing roulette in the pit towards the back of the casino near the sports book area. My table was nearly full when a young man in his 20’s with dark skin and black hair walked up and took the last seat. He bought in with two $20 bills and when he handed me the money I noticed that they were greener then normal and strangely cropped. I put them to the side instead of dropping it in the drop box and I gave him his roulette chips like normal. He started playing and I got the floorman, Brian’s attention. I showed him the bills and he thought they looked suspicious as well so he called the shift manager, Karen over to look. I continued to deal and the kid didn’t notice the commotion over his fake bills. Karen came to the pit and took the two bills away. She went to her office to look at a folder of counterfeit money. About 20 minutes later Karen came back to the pit and announced loudly enough for the kid to hear, “The 2 bills you gave me were definitely counterfeited.” The kid started to look really nervous and he tried to pick up his roulette chips and leave; but I called out to him, “Sir, if you take those chips off the table they will be completely worthless. You have to exchange them for normal chips.” That brought him back. I colored him up slowly so Brian could call security and the cameras. While he was leaving, the eye-in-the-sky got his picture and compared it to the video of him giving me the counterfeit money. They caught him right before he left the casino; security called metro police and he went to jail.
~Heather 2008
Craps is a
difficult game to learn. They say it takes 3 years (@ 8 hours a day/
5 days a week) before the break-in dealer is ok… just ok... decent at
best. I had been learning craps for a year and I wasn’t good at all.
When you’re new you have to act like you know what you’re doing
because there are players that look for a nervous or unsure dealer
so they can take advantage of them. These people are called
Strokers, they come to a table with a new or bad dealer and they
call out crazy or confusing bets that are not normally made. If the
dealer pays the Stroker over the amount the Stroker won’t say
anything and he will take the money. But if the dealer pays under
you know the Stroker will be screaming at the boxman about how he
was robbed and how the dealers should know his numbers. I had this
Stroker on my side of the table and he gave me $60 and said “6 and
8”. So I put $30 on 6 and $30 on 8 because this is a very common
bet. Two rolls later an 8 hit and I paid him $35. He threw the money
back at me and screamed “No! This is wrong. I said $60 on 8 you
moron!” My floorman made me pay him $70 instead of $35 and I was so
pissed because I know I heard the bet correctly the first time.
~Heather 2008
It was the start of my
shift and I was dealing 6-deck blackjack that day. I had a 45 year
old Asian guy on my table, alone, playing $1,000 when I arrived. We
played for 15 minutes and he was extremely sporadic with his
betting. He would bet $1,000 one hand and then go down to $10, then
up to $500, and down to $25. When I had to shuffle he went to the
bathroom and my floorman, Tom, came over to me as soon as he was out
of hearing distance. “Cut the deck in half,” Tom said. “What? What
do you mean cut the deck in half?” I responded. I have never heard
of that before. We have a specific place where we are supposed to
cut and it was 1 ½ decks. He was asking me to cut 3 decks. That is
unheard of because then you are shuffling more and the house gets
less money that way. Well when the Asian guy came back I let him cut the deck and then I did as Tom said and I put the cut card in 3
decks from the back and started dealing. The Asian guy kept changing
he’s bets from $10 to $1,000 and everything in between. He didn’t
play consistently either. Sometimes he would hit a 16 when I had a
10 showing and sometimes he wouldn’t. After about 30 minutes, 2 Las
Vegas Metro police officers and a security guard came up to the
table. Nobody said one word. The Asian guy looked up, stood up,
placed his hands behind his back, got handcuffed and walked out of
the casino. The security guard took his chips and went to the cage.
Not one word at all. I think my mouth was hanging open. “What the
hell just happened?” I asked Tom. “That was one of the M.I.T. guys.
They are blacklisted from playing in Las Vegas. The facial
recognition software in our camera’s spotted him and called the
police. That’s why he was playing like that and that is why I told
you to cut the deck in half. He is one on the best card counter’s
out there.” “What are they
going to do with his money,” I asked. He had about $35 to $40
thousand dollars there. “The security guard is going to cash the
chips in, take taxes out of it and then give it to the cops who will
hold it for him until he gets out of jail” Tom replied. “Why is he
going to jail? Card counting isn’t illegal.” I said. “He isn’t going
to jail for card counting, he is going to jail for trespassing. This
is private property; if anyone that is blacklisted comes in here
they will be arrested.” “Oh, ok.” Well, at least I can say I met one
of the M.I.T. guys.
~Heather 2007
I was dealing blackjack
on a Friday night when, out of nowhere, a man and a woman sprinted
past the table pushing people away and knocking an old woman down. 4
security guards were chasing them trying to go as fast as they
could. I was told later that the people were eventually wrestled
down in the parking lot and taken to prison. Apparently, they had
come in a couple times and cashed counterfeit checks. The cage
cashiers finally got wise to the plan and when they came in a 3rd
time to cash another bogus check; the cage cashier called security,
who then called the police. The cashiers tried to stall the people
for as long as possible, but when the couple saw the group of
security guard’s heading towards them, they bolted.
~Heather 2004
When I first started
dealing, I worked with this dealer who was also a newbie. She was
beautiful, had a perfect body and long black hair but she wasn’t a
very good dealer. That’s the thing about Las Vegas now days. If you
are gorgeous and you have big boobs, the casino will hire you even
if you can’t deal worth shit. Well, it ended up that she had a high roller playing on her table betting $500 a hand. After 4 hours he
walked away with $30,000 and the management at that casino was
pissed. They freaked out and immediately fired the dealer claiming
that she and the player were scamming the casino together. They said
that she had purposely showed her hole card to help him win. They
told her they had the proof on video but when she asked to see the
video they wouldn’t show it to her. She hired a lawyer and sued the
casino for wrongful termination. I haven’t seen her since and I don’t
know what happened.
~Heather 2004
I was dealing Pai-gow
one night when a co-worker of mine, another dealer, flew past me
running as fast as he could. 5 security guards followed him and I
saw him throw something in one of the trash cans that he passed on
the way out the door. The security guards caught him and called the
police. We found out later that this dealer was caught slipping
several black chips into his pocket while he was working on the toke committee. That was what he threw in the trash can, the bag of
black chips he stole that night. He had been working at this casino for 20
years and had been on the toke committee for 10 years. They found
out that for the entire 10 years he was on the committee, this
dealer had been pocketing several black chips per night. The total
amount he stole was $5 million. He was fired and blacklisted from
working in any casino in Las Vegas, but he wasn’t prosecuted or
taken to jail. Why?
Because the money he stole was the dealers not
the casinos, so the casino couldn’t press charges. And the police
couldn’t get all of the dealer’s to press charges (there was over
1,000 of us), so this dealer got away with the $5 million. Since he
isn’t allowed to work in any casino again, he is probably living
happily somewhere not working at all. Lucky.
~Heather 2005
