To be eligible for any gaming job in a Las Vegas casino, you need to be over 21 (with the exception of count-room employees, who may be 18) and able to pass a background check. There's a chicken-and-egg dimension to becoming a dealer, because before you can work, you must be registered with the state's Gaming Control Board. However, you can't get registered until you have a solid job offer. And you won't get hired until you know the casino games, so you have to invest time and money getting trained before you can be sure that you'll get a job. Still, it's not as complicated as it sounds -- many new dealers qualify on a daily basis. And with new casinos continuing to be built and old ones expanded, there's a constant demand for more floor staff.
Before you move out to Las Vegas or spend any money on training, you need to make sure that you can get through the legal and bureaucratic stages of the hiring process. Until recently, all casino employees had to possess a sheriff's card (or "work card," as they were known), which were obtained from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. But in 2003, the Nevada Legislature enacted new legislation, resulting in radical changes to the work-permitting policy. Today, you must be registered with the Gaming Control Board before you can work in a casino.
It's the responsibility of your prospective employer to register you with Gaming Control, but you pay the $75 registration. The same goes for any fees incurred for the required fingerprinting (which you can get done by a local law enforcement agency or an authorized private fingerprinting business). You’ll complete a lot of forms covering personal details and work history and be subjected to a background check. We checked with the Background Check Unit at Gaming Control and were advised that even having a felony on your record might not necessarily prevent you from getting hired, depending on the offense. They pay closest attention to the past 10 years, and any offense that is serious (theft, murder, etc.) or casino-related, is likely to result in a denial. Their advice was to be completely honest on the form, as any omissions that come to light in the course of the investigation will also count against you. For detailed information about the whole registration process, a list of approved private fingerprinting companies, and a bunch of FAQs, check out the Nevada Gaming Control Board's Gaming Employee Registration Handbook.
Once you make it through the background check and registration process, you’ll be tested for drugs, which your employer will repeat periodically and randomly after you're hired.
Few Las Vegas employers will bother to review your job application if you don't have local contact information. So, even if you're a qualified dealer, know you can pass the legal scrutiny, and are ready to apply for jobs, if you don’t live in Las Vegas, it’s imperative that you set up a local mailing address and phone number, as well as a system of forwarding messages to your home as soon as they're received.
If you don't have dealing credentials, once you arrive here you should enroll in a reputable dealer's school, of which there are several. An established and reputable one that we know of is Nick Kallos' Casino Gaming School. A good school will teach you the games, casino etiquette, game protection (how to spot cheats), and even what to do and say during your casino interview. Most beginners start with blackjack, because it's one of the easier games to learn (right now a complete blackjack course costs about $250).
However, here's some candid advice from an industry veteran: "If you're young, female, and pretty, blackjack is the game to learn and you're almost guaranteed a job. But if you're older, male, not so attractive, or don't speak fluent English, you'd be advised to be proficient at all the games, and it's still going to be tough."
