A friend originally from out of state, Sam, told me that tipping practices in Las Vegas seemed strange to him when he first moved here. After class one day, he asked me my opinion and felt I gave him a self-contradictory answer.
“Tell me more,” I responded. “What inconsistency did I give you?”
I had told him that I typically tipped little or nothing when it came to video poker jackpots, but generally left between 15 and 20 percent in restaurants — except buffets where I left less because far less service was required.
His question was what was the difference? It was all people serving me. Why did I tip some places and not others?
Although understanding that my answer is personal and everybody else will have a different point of view, tipping in restaurants is a well-established custom in this country. (Other countries vary on this.) Tipping is just a cost of eating in restaurants. But if I were barely scraping by financially, tipping would be one of the first things I gave up.
In casinos, however, I believe it is optional. People tell me I should tip such-and-such percentage on jackpots. This really depends on what stakes you play. If you play for stakes where W-2Gs are few and far between, these are rare events. You are usually ahead on any day you get such a jackpot. Tipping doesn’t affect your bottom line very much.
If you play for stakes where you get many, many jackpots, tipping can easily eat up all of your profits. Just receiving a taxable jackpot doesn’t mean you’re ahead today — or this month — or this year. Twelve hundred dollars is an arbitrary amount set by an old tax law.
I’ve written many times about when I tip in casinos. I don’t need to do that again today.
One thing I haven’t discussed is that the failure to tip can sometimes lead to attitude and retaliation by slot employees. Not so much in major casinos, but in small places. Nevada has a number of 15-machine gaming establishments — and if you don’t tip here, you can really get the cold treatment. (And I do tip in these places. If I’m playing in one, you can bet there’s a good promotion going on. I would never play at one without a profitable situation.)
Can you deal with employees giving you bad attitude and slow service? If not, you will be easily shamed into tipping more. I usually have a book with me (often on my cell phone) and I can outwait such poor service. If it gets too bad, I’ll make a judgement call. Sometimes I end up tipping. Sometimes I just give a silent FU and never come back.
When I explained all this to Sam, he explained that where he came from there were very few establishments where you could gamble. You got to know the employees. Nobody was a stranger.
I gamble mostly in Las Vegas and other places where there are numerous casinos. I can see how the circumstances Sam came from might make things different. If I tried to be a professional player in such a place, perhaps I’d come up with a different tipping strategy than I use today.
I tip just about everyone during a casino visit, from a dollar on up depending on the service. Have never, ever, received less than a gracious expression of thanks even from the smallest amount. Years ago I would tip too much for a slot/vp jackpot before I knew better, but lately I keep fives handy in my purse for this. Might give one five or two, depending on my own situation. Only in restaurant situations do I consider the customary percentage for tipping; I don’t tip jackpot wins by percentage.
But never has anyone asked me how I justify amounts of tipping this or that service provider. Kind of rude to do so, IMO. I’ve never asked that of anyone else and would never.
Casino in sweden we dont tip at all. They dont expect you to give a tip.
Here in Reno sometimes the casino people leave so quickly that I don’t have time to tip. In Southern California they always gave the last $100 in twenties in the hopes you would tip.
This past weekend playing Airport Deuces in Laughlin, I hit a non-wild Royal for $4,000. Processing the W-2G took about 25 minutes. It seemed longer since they took my player’s card; the machine was locked up; and there was nothing to do but sit there. Eventually, I was given 39 hundreds and five twenties; but as with Gary’s experience, they didn’t wait around expectantly. I don’t know what I’d have done if they had.
One of the reasons you’re supposed to tip is to reward fast and efficient service.
The Las Vegas economic model revolves around tipping, always has, in a perfect world those casino jobs would pay a living wage, but we are not in a perfect world. In video poker context it’s at least controversial about the hand pays and tipping, the threshold is so ridiculously low that folks who play larger denominations indeed have to endure an absurd amount of government paperwork and intrusion. I say tip the dealers, cocktail servers, and all the traditional jobs that get tips in Las Vegas, otherwise nobody will want to do those jobs moving forward. We have the Las Vegas we have, the casino resorts pay what they pay, non-tipping is decidedly not an act of defiance in support of workers, it’s the opposite. If the resorts can’t hire enough people to work the service levels will tumble and the housing markets will crash…
For those of you who file as professional gamblers, aren’t tips considered an expense that would reduce your taxable income?
This is usually one of my favorite topics which I love to discuss with the people who like to tip and the ones who are rather on the other side of this line. Over the years I got to know the American way in terms of tipping. I learned the rules and understood why it’s like that. However, it doesn’t change my opinion at all. I know that we Europeans are not much welcome in Las Vegas because in many countries tipping is not overrated and just minor issue. It seems to me that corporate greed turned tipping by courtesy into a mandatory matter to make ends meet to some people. I understand that all readers who depend on tips or grew up within the system will probably disagree with my point-of-view. People from the service industy may totally disagree, professional gamblers on the other hand should see at least a little bit of truth behind my opinion. But then , on the other and, if anybody of these fine readers will ever happen to visit one of our countries, that person will learn that life without or with little tipping is possible and in a way, it’s not all that bad.
Before bringing this to a conclusion, let me tell you that I do tip but over the years I realized what a tremendous impact generous tipping has in terms of travel expenses. If you for instance come to visit Las Vegas and stay a bit longer, let’s say, 2 or 3 weeks, then the amount that you are tipping can easily go into the high hundreds, if not a couple of thousand dollars, even if you do it wisely. So, let’s assume your gambling bankroll is 10k for a standard trip of heavy videopoker (that’s about my personal standard bankroll), then it makes a bit of a difference if you tip 500, or 1500 during that trip and believe it or not, if you try to play perfectly or at least 99 per cent accurate or higher, what good is it if you then tip 20 dollars on a 1000 dollar hand pay?
Folks I understand that the people working in the gaming industry depend on those tips. What I always found strange, if not bizarre, that’s when I learned how the system actually works. If a poker dealer needs to “tip” the floorperson in order to make sure to be on the work schedule the next day or the cocktail waitress needs to share a portion of her tips with the barman in order to get the drinks ready in time, then the term tipping comes at bit wishiy-washy to me and we could also call it ” to bribe”, don’t we?
Let’s go a little bit further and think about what would happen if that cocktail waitress can’t share her tips with the barman because she has big bills to pay. Same applies to the poker dealer who has bills open from a car accident and needs those 180 dollars he just made on a good day dealing 1-2 nol Texas Hold’em? What if he decides that the tips are his and he won’t tip/bribe the floor person while cashing them in? Would that guy be on duty the next Saturday again?
To the people that say this doesn’t exist and it’s something created by some upset tourist, then maybe you should double-check on that and see how it works next time you go gambling. I still believe that it would be fair to pay the staff a paycheck that allows them to make ends meet and live normal. Unfortunately, because casinos like to squeeze out profits no matter what, this will probably never happen. And that’s why the entire discussion is pointless. I still like to give you my opinion on that and tell you that in our “world” in Europe there are many casinos that function well without this neverending hassle for tips.
From Switzerland
Boris
p.s. I used to tip those 20 dollars while being paid a 1000 dollar hand pay from my Royal Flush hit when the attendant paid me 9x 100 and 5×20. Those days are gone long time ago. I also know how to prepare 5 dollar bills and I believe that this is still a fair tip if you compare that to all the people eating the buffets, ordering 3 or 4 drinks , messing up the table and then leaving nothing but 1 single dollar per person at the table.
p.s. 2: 6-to-5 black jack, highway robbery resort fee, paid parking and constantly higher prices in the restaurants , or continued higher prices at the Starbucks counter every 6 months are something that we tourists have noticed. We also noticed that a warm welcome gets only warmer by higher tipping, not by spending more.
My ex-wife and I used to drive over to Las Vegas at least once every month or two from San Diego. I was never afraid to leave a little behind. And that included tipping employees. If nothing else, it made me feel good about myself. Those were good times.
I have alwys made a point to give the lady who is working iin the estroom a
I have always made a point to give the lady working in the restroom a $5.00 tip .Most are so grateful. You wouid think I had given them a $100.00!
45.00 tip
I wonder how slot attendants felt about the VP machines that would pay $1199.00 for a quarter royal flush…never a hand pay. I haven’t seen any of those machines in a while..they actually were advertised as
“no tax form” machines. Probably the IRS didn’t like that kind of marketing, so they took them out.