Casino Gaming Schools

[bnlphan]

Do these schools offer job placement assistance? Just curious..doesnt hurt to dream. If I were to get a whim and do something like move out there sometime just wondering what the job oppourtunities looked like.

How about the Eddie Torrez porn slapper training school? hehe

[HoyaHeel]

I'm not sure if Mikey posted this here when he was writing about his gaming school experience (back in March 2005) but he did say there were job listings on a board at school, and many of the teachers were "real" dealers so knew of openings & auditions at their casinos, things like that. You might want to pull up some of Mikey's old posts and see what he did say....

[SheikYerbouti]

I'm not sure if Mikey posted this here when he was writing about his gaming school experience (back in March 2005) but he did say there were job listings on a board at school, and many of the teachers were "real" dealers so knew of openings & auditions at their casinos, things like that. You might want to pull up some of Mikey's old posts and see what he did say....

It's called the Casino Gaming School, the website is www.learn2deal.com. My fiancee and I are learning blackjack there right now partly on Mikey's recommendation. I've only been doing it a few days and don't know if I'll end up a dealer or not but I'd heartily recommend it to anyone. The instructors are all current dealers apart from the owner and they have a ton of valuable knowledge to share. They're all great and they really want you to learn.

As far as the job openings go, they aren't posted in the school. They want you to pass the school's audition first. Their audition is considerably harder than the average break in dealer casino audition from the sound of it. So if you can pass theirs you should have no trouble in the real world. After you pass it, they will send you to auditions at casinos that have openings, they have a very good reputation apparently and it isn't hard to see why after going there.

[HurricaneMikey]

Sheik is exactly right...

When I first got there, the only openings posted were a few faxes recieved about the new poker rooms opening up at Tropicana and Ballys and such. But once you're good enough to pass the schools auditions, you'll be fine in any break-in house.

When I did it, I never auditioned for blackjack, I just went down and got a job dealing dice at the Golden Gate. Once I got there, they never put me on a blackjack game--I dealt dice exclusively. I still went to school a couple times a week to work on my game and such, and one day when the head instructor saw me practicing she just told me "You're good enough now to get a job anywhere in town"... A few days after that I managed to get an audition at Sunset Station, auditioned for both dice and blackjack, managed to do well on both, passed the interview, and got hired on the spot.

As far as the school goes, they told me about the Golden Gate and who to talk to down there, but places like the Gate, El Cortez, LV Club, Plaza, Western, Gold Spike, Nevada Palace, Jokers Wild, etc are *always* hiring. They are known as 'break-in joints' and they don't have many dealers there for more than a few months. But that's where the schools will send you to audition. They would've never sent me to the Sunset Station, and Sunset doesn't hire break-ins, but I got lucky with the timing (Wynn had just opened up, creating a mini-vaccuum of dealers all over town, so there were openings that normally wouldn't have been there...). I had a few weeks of experience under my belt, but showed the enthusiasm and enough competent technique to get an interview. I'll also add that once I got hired, there was a small bit of resentment I detected from a few dealers when they found out how little experience I'd had--for a long time, a year's experience was needed to work somewhere like Sunset Station. So after hearing a few comments, I just lied whenever somebody asked me how long I'd been dealing. Now that I've been there about five months, and I'm not the lowest man on the totem pole, it has ceased to be an issue.

So I'm a firm believer that you make your own breaks. After I'd been working at Sunset Station for a month, a buddy was in town and we were downtown one night and took a walk thru the Western. I saw two guys I went to school with dealing down there, which I thought was kind of surprising, as the Western is *easily* the worst casino in all of Vegas to work at--they make maybe $30 a day down there. So it pays to set your sites a little higher. The dealer school will help you get a job, but to get a good job you have to put forth a little more effort.

The biggest motivation was my first "full-time" paycheck that I got from the Golden Gate. I'd worked two full 40-hour weeks, busting my ass dealing to the homeless, degenerates, and drunks downtown, and opened the envelope and saw the take-home of about $650... I decided right then that I would be at the Golden Gate only as long as I had to be.

My first paycheck from Sunset Station was for one Friday night at the tail-end of the pay period and it was $210. Hmmm...work one night and make two hundy or work 8 days for $650... As you can imagine, it wasn't long before I said goodbye to the Golden Gate for the last time.

Mikey

[mebedaman]

Ok, Mikey, I searched the forum, read your blog, and I can't find any mention of your poker dealing. I thought you enrolled about a couple months ago and thought you would be dealing by now. Are you?

I apologize if this has been asked before, but I can't find anything on it. I just moved to town a couple weeks ago and am contemplating going to dealer's school for poker. After seeing just how many tokes the dealers got at IP the last couple nights, it seems like a lucrative job. How many positions are available is another matter though....but new rooms are opening all the time....any advice?

Thanks!

[HurricaneMikey]

Well, I enrolled in poker dealing school, went to class for a couple weeks, but it was summer time and all the jobs people were getting were at crummy places like Poker Palace or out in Primm. I was getting ready to go out on auditions, even the instructor told me I was already better than all the dealers out at the Gold Coast, but because the places that were hiring at the time weren't exactly on my radar, I slowed down on the classes--going in maybe once a week or so, but I haven't been back in a month.

Over the course of all this, I've found that I really enjoy dealing blackjack and craps at Sunset Station, and the benefits at Stations Casinos are excellent, so I've decided to keep this job full-time and do something else part time. If I'm going to deal poker, I'd like to be somewhere cool like Luxor, Mirage, Monte Carlo, Bellagio, etc. I have no desire to deal poker at the Sahara, Ballys, downtown, or any of the small off-strip places. Of course, Green Valley Ranch is opening a room, but since they are a Station casino, I'd have to quit my job at Sunset, which I just don't want to do.

So this is what I'm doing currently. I'm keeping the job dealing dice and blackjack at Sunset on the swing shift. In the meantime I'm going to get a part-time job somewhere else. Currently I'm interviewing at MGM Grand for a job as a sports book writer. (Waiting for a call from the department--already passed all the screening interviews and did the paperwork shuffle with HR this week). After six months there, I can transfer to any other MGM/Mirage property--Bellagio, Mirage, etc. So poker is on the back burner for now...

Mikey

[sin]

Mikey, I have a question about money generally-not specifics. My understanding is that after you all pool your tokes at the end of the night, the total is calculated and then divided by the number of dealers on shift. Then whatever that divided amount is isn't given out at the end of the night, but added to your check. Is this right? Also are you told what the divided amount is at the end of each shift? I guess what this boils down to is, do you get "average" checks so that you can predict with some certainty what you'll end up with? Are toke totals generally within a certain range per check? I'm just curious about budgeting if you're not sure how much your check will be.

[HurricaneMikey]

Sin--

It's different at every casino... At the Golden Gate, it was a 'two-week split', meaning that all the tokes were added up into one huge pile, and at the end of the pay period they were divided up by the number of total hours worked by all dealers, and that was what you got on your check, plus of course that big $5.15 per hour minimum wage that the casino paid you. It was easy to predict the tokes at Golden Gate--it was always around $45-$55 per day per 8-hour shift per dealer, so working 40 hours got a check of about $450+minimum wage every two weeks. It very much sucked.

By the way, all tips were pooled--blackjack, craps, roulette, etc--no crew for crew or individuals keeping all tips. (Poker is different, however, each dealer keeps their own tips).

Now, at Sunset Station, we're on a 24-hour split. There are three shifts in a 24 hour period--days, swing, and graveyard. At the end of each shift, a couple of dealers go around emptying all of the toke boxes from the tables, and at the end of the day (4 am) security takes all the tokes back to the countroom where a crew counts it all up, and it's divided by how many dealer-hours were worked that day. Every day when I go back to work, there is a "Toke Book" in the pit where I sign in showing how much I made the previous night. But like anything else, there is a pattern established. We almost always make at least $120 per shift in tokes on the slow days, and on weekends and Mondays it's usually between $150-$200. Now that football season is here, it's going up, which is nice. Of course, that's if you work eight hours--if you take Early Out, then your share goes down accordingly.

I was told that last years W2s for full time dealers were about $54K. Not bad money for a single guy with no alimony or child support to pay--especially for a property that is a $30 cab ride from the Strip. But again, I've set my income goals a bit higher so I'm taking on a second job (also because I know how many expensive diversions there are in this town if you have too much free time on your hands...)

Granted the dealers at Caesars, Hard Rock, MGM, Bellagio, Wynn, Venetian, Palms, and Mandalay Bay are making much more $$$ (full timers at MGM are making about $75K per year in the pit), but then again, Station casinos won an award for being on the Forbes list of America's 100 Best Companies To Work For in 2004. For instance, the benefits at Stations are phenominal! (sp?) Fully paid health insurance for me and any family/dependents, plus the usual matching 401k, stock options, all the other types of insurance (fully paid), etc etc etc... And the corporate culture is much more relaxed than a lot of other places--I'm not going to get fired for mispaying a huge hand or making an honest mistake. So even though the money is a little bit less than I could be making at some of the nicer strip properties, for the foreseeable future, I'm sticking to where I'm at. I make decent money, have cool bosses, and the people I work with are a lot of fun. Can't beat that.

But to answer your original question--yeah, I can predict within a hundred bucks or so what my check is gonna be every two weeks, so budgeting isn't a concern. And the only places that still pay an envelope every day are some of the older grind joints like El Cortez or the Western. I prefer getting a bi-weekly check like a normal person. Although, if I were dealing poker full-time, 95% of my income would be in cash, and tax compliance is less than $6 per hour at Stations, so I'd be living as close to a tax-free lifestyle as possible that's legal in the US...

Mikey

[Jack21]

Mikey, have you met Ninya yet? Do you get to substitute at the Green Valley Ranch or could you potentially be transferred there?

[HurricaneMikey]

I told you...I met Ninya in the parking lot at the Circle K by my house! It was 116 degrees out and she was dressed head to toe in black.

Yes, I could transfer to Green Valley, but I don't want to. I like it at Sunset. And it's closer to my house. And all of our worst players (the ones with big money but act like complete jerkoffs at the tables) all play over there now. Of course the dealers make better money, but again, I really like where I'm at.

However, about a month ago I went down to play craps at GVR, and some of those jerkoffs were at the same table acting like morons, so I spent the whole day calling 'em out with no repercussions, cuz I was a customer also...It was beautiful...

Mikey

[sin]

Thanks Mikey. I think for those that don't live paycheck to paycheck my question might have been rather odd, but as someone who has done that for many years now (with the short firm job interlude last year) it was something I would stress over if I were thinking of dealing.

Do you know about how much the poker dealers are making now? Perhaps we will one day take over your poker table at the B. About the time it takes you to get there should be close to the time it will take us to get good enough to go in there!

[Jack21]

My favorite kind of casino tip is the one that hangs in the balance..I like playing for the dealers, but mainly love screaming "two-way hard eight."

Mikey, musta missed the "Ninya" post. Damn search function malfunctioned :goofy:

[Adrian]

thanks for sharing Mikey. Makes me want to give it a go.

[bnlphan]

Mikey you can gamble at other station casinos? I thought most companies forbid that except for slot machines which we all know are a joke anyway.

[HoyaHeel]

This was actually just a Question of the Day on the Las Vegas Advisor website--Sept 10, 2005 (non-members can read questions on the same day, but only members can read from the archive) All companies have different rules about their employees gambling and many do allow it --table games, I mean--if the employee is off-work and not in uniform, for instance, or at another casino the company owns.....

[doctor_al]

but mainly love screaming "two-way hard eight."

A favorite movie quote perhaps?

[mebedaman]

Wow, thanks for the reply Mikey. So basically, poker dealers at Stations casinos only have to report their tips being $6/hr? That would be amazing. If it's even close to that elsewhere, I don't think I'd have a problem dealing at most any casino in Vegas, downtown or elsewhere. But maybe not at Nevada Palace or El Cortez. :)

[claymation]

Mikey, how did you hear about working at Sunset Station. Once you get to a "break in joint," how do you hear about jobs at other places.

[HurricaneMikey]

Sorry Clay...didn't see your post until today.

I got lucky, I'll readily admit, getting into Sunset Station. I timed my Vegas arrival to get here about six weeks before Wynn opened, knowing that 1) He overhires, and 2) that would create a 'dealer vacuum' that would ripple effect all the way down to the break-in joints.

So I figured I'd only be working in a dumpy place for a month or so before moving on. I heard about Sunset Station because of a girl I met at dealer school. She worked as a pit clerk at Sunset Station and told me that all the dealers got had recently got their W2s for 2004 and all of them made between 55 and 60K last year, so she decided to quit clerkin' for ten bucks an hour and learn to deal. Anyhow, she made Sunset sound like the coolest place on Earth to work, so I followed up. And I figured that was decent money for a single guy with no child-support or alimony to pay in a no-income-tax state.

I got the job at the Gate to start, and after a month of dealing dice I felt confident enough to try and get on at Sunset (after she told me that they still needed dealers). I did all the applications online and they called me the very next day for an interview. I went down to the casino for the very first time the day after that to do preliminary paperwork (And I was really impressed then--I was expecting Gold Coast/Orleans type of place, but it was much nicer, so then I really wanted to work there). The HR people said "Ok, we'll forward your application to the pit, somebody should call you within about three weeks..."

So I figured that my trip to Sunset was a waste of time. :grrr:

Three hours later the daytime Shift Boss called me up asking me to come in for an interview the next afternoon.

So I showed up in my black & whites, had the easiest craps audition ever (only two players on the table, nobody making prop bets), then went over to the double decker BJ game and dealt a few hands. Of course the Shift Boss told everyone 'take it easy on him, he's auditioning for a job'. It helped that I dealt everyone at the table a blackjack on my way thru the deck, so when it ended they were all saying "Best dealer ever! Hire this guy!" :thumbsup: (I was even more nervous on the blackjack table, because I'd never dealt a "live" game before--I dealt dice exclusively at Golden Gate)

We had a brief interview and I got hired on the spot. But I found out later that Sunset usually required a year's experience before you could audtion there. I snuck in by having a bit of juice and good timing, thanks to Steve Wynn.

Anyhow, I love working there. The money is decent, the work is usually steady (but when gas prices were the highest, we were the slowest for about three weeks), and the people I work with are the best. I enjoy going to work because it's usually a lot of fun, although eight hours on the dice table still kicks my ass and my brain (no snarky comments about at the same time, eh?)--I usually need to follow it up by having ten hours of sleep with cartoons playing in the background.

As far as "How do you hear about other jobs once you get into a break-in joint?" goes, Vegas is still a small town. Everyone knows everyone. I'm surprised by how many people I've met in this town after having lived here for only eight months. I was in Nashville for two years and only had a handful of contacts--here, it's like two degrees of separation, not the normal six. The neon telegraph is alive and well and word gets out.

Mikey

[claymation]

Thanks for the answer Mikey, think I'll make the big move around Feb. or March. I already have some contacts and you answer sounds encouraging.