We're pretty sure the phenomenon in general can be traced back to the "Bevertainers" at the Rio -- waitresses who incorporated singing and dancing into the delivering of drinks and one of whom was the current writer's hairdresser's assistant (meaning you can be sure we know what we're talking about!)
To quote the August, 2003 issue of Las Vegas Advisor, "Fresh on the heels of 'Bevertainers' at the Rio, the Imperial Palace has unleashed "Dealertainers." Dealertainers are dealers on live games who impersonate celebrities. So you might have an Elvis or a Madonna or a Marilyn dealing to you. The seven tables are set up in a special area on the casino floor—the 'Legends Pit'—that surrounds a big jukebox. The tables operate from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. Thursday-Sunday; minimum bets are $5."
Elsewhere in the same issue, Anthony Curtis elaborated thusly: "All of the dealers (except one) are absolute break-ins and extremely weak. All of the tables are using CSMs (continuous shuffling machines), because the dealers don't know how to shuffle. The first weekend, there were three, four, and sometimes five bosses watching the seven games, and all were frustrated by the continual mistakes. The Dealertainers have since improved somewhat, so it’s down to one or two bosses now. The dealers in this pit operate on their own, meaning they split their tips only among themselves [instead of pooling among all the other dealers]. Also, these dealers receive a higher hourly wage."
This then opened the way for "party pits" all over town, with bikini-clad dealers at Tuscany by December of that year (and bikini craps, too, by January '04!). Soon Hooters girls were being Hooters girls in the pit at their casino and a Country-themed Toby Keith party pit debuted at Harrah's. At the "Rockin' Party Pit" at Circus Circus (2010), the novelty dealers even paid 2-1 on naturals (worth about 2.3% more than the same game with a 3-2 payoff), while a "Playboy Party Pit" opened on the main casino floor at the Palms in 2011, just as things were starting to down-size at the Playboy Club upstairs. Then in 2012 came a another game changer, as the "Ooh La La" party pit at Paris stepped things up a notch with go-go dancers performing on a runway built between the table games.
It seemed that no casino was immune, from the Pussycat Doll's pit at Caesars Palace, to Planet Hollywood's "Pleasure Pit," the "Gilley Girls Party Pit" at Treasure Island, and Hard Rock's "Hell's Belles" pit, featuring pole dancers in lingerie-style outfits and female dealers sporting not much more. There was even talk of some tie-in with porn star Tera Patrick, although things never went that far.
Still, the phenomenon has not remotely been limited to the Strip. Back in 2010 Green Valley Ranch launched the 'Drop Pit' next to its Drop Bar, while Red Rock's Lucky Bar invited you to try and get lucky in more than one way at the adjacent Lucky Pit. There was "Wicked 21" at Sunset Station, with its "sultry dealers" and "Bareback Blackjack" at Texas Station designed, as the chief operating officer for the group put it, to cater to those customers seeking a more "invigorating blackjack experience."
Downtown the Four Queens, Binion's, the Plaza (where once upon a time a blackjack in the suit of the day in the Party Pit also scored you a 6-pack of beer or soda), and even the venerable Golden Gate all got in on the act. In its day, Las Vegas Club even had a "Fetish Party Pit," while off the Strip earlier this year Gold Coast took a different tack, more in keeping with the original Dealertainers of the IP, when it debuted its "Hippie Party Pit," which is still going strong in all its tie-dyed rainbow glory. (Unlike those pioneering Dealertainers, we might add, who survived for more than a decade, but succumbed in 2014 as the property transitioned to the Quad (now The LINQ).
While some of the earlier "dealertainer" and "party pit" incarnations we've alluded to actually offered better odds, or additional perks to those who played there, these days it feels more as if the scantily clad dealers and go go dancers are there more as compensatory eye candy and a distraction from the 6:5 blackjack payouts and tighter drink-comping policies that are rapidly becoming the norm (for more on this check out Anthony Curtis' comments in the recent feature in Maxim magazine by gaming columnist Michael Kaplan).
Still, all is not lost! Not only does Ellis Island still proudly boast a team of celebrity-character "dealertainers," just like in the old IP days, but in the course of the current property upgrades at the off-Strip casino, they're constructing a new center-pit stage to show off their talents to better effect.
