What is the reason behind the practice of laying cash on the table instead of handing it to the dealer?
What is the reason behind the practice of laying cash on the table instead of handing it to the dealer?
This policy and practice date back to the 1950s and it’s still going on today. It was implemented to prevent a number of illegal moves that a dealer, in collusion with a player, could make.
For example, and dealer and player could shake hands and pass cash, chips, drugs, etc. faster than you can blink your eye. And that's not an exaggeration. Sleight-of-hand artists can do these things in such a way that you could be looking right at them and not see it.
Another scam: The dealer "palm rolls" the cash, then pretends to drop it into the drop box with the paddle, but actually slips it up a sleeve or in a pocket or somewhere convenient for spiriting it out of the casino when he leaves.
A crap player might hand off a pair of gaffed cubes (misspotted or weighted dice that won't roll a crap number or will roll 7 or 11).
These days, dealers at almost all the joints have to pool all the tips given to them individually with all the other dealers' tips. Thus, the handshake "pass-on" was a method of toking a dealer without anyone else being the wiser.
This method still goes on but in a different manner. The player takes a regular screw-apart pen and curls up a $10, $20, $50, or $100 bill and places it inside the pen. When he signs for a marker, he declines to use the casino's pen and removes one from his shirt pocket, signs the marker, and after the floorman or pit boss leaves with the signed marker, the player looks the pen over, winks, and tosses the pen to the dealer.
Since most casinos have procedures in place that forbid contraband on the table, the dealer shows the pen to the eye (camera), turns up both sides of his hands, and places the pen in his pocket. This move is also made, occasionally, using a book of matches, it "leaks" (it can be seen fairly easily) too much.
The cash hand-off (handshake) was a very popular move on crap tables, which is why the boxman uses the clear paddle (the clear plastic piece that sticks inside the drop box to make sure the money goes all the way into the box) to slide the cash over the drop box inlet and push it down with the use of the paddle.
To see this policy in action, try to get a dealer to shake your hand when you sit down, play, or leave his table. The dealer will decline, usually politely, and tell you that it's against the rules of every casino for a dealer to shake hands with a player. He might offer you the "fist bump," but that’s it.
