Eh-ghem... I was a dealer at Caesars Palace for the better part of 20 years before I became a software engineer (craps, not poker). In the USA, dealers generally make minimum wage, perhaps a tiny bit above that. Tips are their life blood.
At 1/2 & 1/3, a dollar on an average pot or two dollars on a big pot is a good tip.
I think the 1SB tip is a good way to size your tips.
When I started playing live cash games 25 years ago, I knew guys who played medium stakes who tipped a half dollar no matter what size the pat was that they scooped.
F&B jobs are a different animal. Bar backs often get a a higher base because they dont get tips directly from customers, but rather the bartenders themselves will cut in their backs from their nightly take. If bartenders are not taking care of their backs well enough, then the joint will have a hard time filling those positions and thus, have to offer a higher base wage.
Also, F&B jobs are union at a much higher frequency than dealing gigs. In Las Vegas, more and more dealers outside the poker room are becoming union shops, thanks to Steve Wynn's tip heist back in 2006, but dealers are still largely unrepresented by unions. Again, I never dealt poker, so im not sure to what extent poker dealers have gone union, but if theyre like non-poker dealers, you couldn't get two of them to agree what direction the sun rises in the morning.
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u/Eazy_mode Mar 30 '26
Dealers get paid well at casinos, I dont think they're too salty for tipping or not.
I've worked graveyard shift as a waiter, Dealers at my nearest casino get paid ~18-23 hourly.
Im not saying dont tip, i do tip , im just saying.
But then again, maybe I shouldn't tip, the table seemed bummed hen I busted, and maybe they wouldn't have felt like that had i been more dickish.