Well, this here may be an understatement, but there's certainly some truth behind: I say that your tipping system is a failure. It seems to me that every good American gets this habit like a vaccine shot when he's young that he has to tip everybody who does you a favor. If you're undertipping (stiffing) then you're a bad guy. Europeans, and I know that, have a different mentality and they tip less because the companies pay the wages, not the customers. America has a different attitude in this regards. So, once this is said, let's go a little deeper into the subject: Let' say you're a poker dealer and you mostly depend on the tips that you get from dealing in cash games. On a good night, you perhaps make 250 (280, 350, I have no idea), but in a good casino and in a good game, you may make something around that. On a bad day, or when you call in, then you get zero tips. You're suffering because you make less money than you are supposed to. The house may pay you a few bucks / hour, but that can't make you rich and is not enough to pay your bills. Please correct me if I am wrong. And what if you have gambling blood inside of you? Your shift is over, you had a good day , you made these 350 in that night. You were dealing in a soft and loose game and the chips are flying across the table. You are not tired and it's allowed to gamble at your casino while you're not at work. You grab your jacket to make you look not so much like a casino worker and maybe some people don't recognize you rightaway). You have a bad run and you go through your tipping money. Or you get tilt and get crushed in the craps pit afterwards. Your whole day's work was for the birds.
Same applies to cocktail waitresses that I sometimes see sitting on a slot machine after their shift is over. Do you think they're winning all the time? Or do you think they're just playing 25 dollars before heading home?
These were just 2 examples of a group of people that may be in trouble the older they get. But there are many many more of these groups. I believe in self-discipline. And I just don't believe that all of the people that I see on the streets of Vegas are people that had simply bad luck. I know some people that live in Vegas, gamble little, don't have much, but have a job. There are jobs in Vegas, but you have to have a plan for your life.
And, you don't have to be capitalist to make money in Europe. But if you're not a capitalist, it's not a free ride into retirement. IT's not that Europe is good and America is bad. I am just saying that if you work in the world where tipping is part of it, you have to understand that every time you tip (or better, overtip), then you are doing somebody a favor, which is to your disadvantage. Whether you like this, or not. It's the cold truth. And this doesn't make us Europeans bad people if we tip on the lower end of the scale.
