Cocktail Waitress Tips

The dollar is as much about convenience as it is about being the "right amount". Heck, in 1997 it may have even been a bit much, but a coin would feel cheap and be annoying to carry. Going up in price is certainly reasonable, but if you tipped a waitress in a restaurant a buck that would be 20% on a $5 drink, so while it is the low end (most places would now charge more than that for a drink), it is not exactly wildly out of line. Fine to tip a couple bucks, but that does require getting and walking around with more change.

i will likely be transitioning to $2/drink, but that is aided in part by the fact that I get fewer of them than I used to, so I won't need a giant pocketful of change.

 

Beer is $1, mixed drinks or shots $2.

 

And - almost as important - have your tip money out.

I watch CW's sometimes have to stand there while somebody digs though pockets, wallets, purses, etc. Standing there will COST them money - especially when the person eventually says they have no cash (and probably knew that before they started the charade).

 

I usually dont think about it in advance or have a plan. I just tip what I feel like in that moment. My Vegas trends are usually $2 per drink if Im solo. If Im with my fiancé and the CW takes an order from both of us, we will do $5 first round and $2-$3 each round after.

 

Been to Vegas 30 times, never thought of ordering a straight shot before. Any casino ever deny your request?

 

How many people realize the cocktail waitress doesn't keep 100% of the tip? She usually has to pass some of it along to the bartender who's getting the drinks.

I get that the $1 is about convenience. I live in Portland, and we have more strip clubs per capita than anywhere in the country, probably the world. $1 has been the amount to tip at the rack (along the stage) since I moved here in 1992. A few years back, one club started getting rid of $1 bills and started stocking $2 bills to increase the stage tip for inflation.

 

HA! I didn't know that about the Portland strip club scene

You're 100% on target about both splitting the tip and inflation, problem is... around here most remember when you could get two-(2) candy-bars for a nickel and walked to school 4 miles, uphill, both ways in the snow!!!
And another thing.. TURN DOWN THAT MUSIC!

 

LOL, uh, I swear that the last time a server came to take my drink order within 5 minutes of sitting down was, well, actually in the last century!

The one benchmark I had on this, years ago, decades ago, actually, was back at the old Stardust (RIP) when a floor supervisor said that they staffed to cover "the entire slot floor at least once every half hour" and therefore at that time, maybe 15 minutes, more or less, according to the phase of the moon, could be expected, maybe.

Now on this recent trip, I would say that the average lag between me sitting down at a machine and being offered a drink was maybe 30 minutes or so, if at all. That would lead me to believe that they are probably staffing now for one drink every hour or so.

 

Wow, 30 minutes? On my last trip I played a lot at D and Fremont, and I was getting drink service all the time. I was never dry and wanting more that I can remember.

 

Yeah, we have around 55 strip clubs. Most are neighborhood bars with a stage, there's not really any place that I would say was a club, club like one sees on TV or movies. When bars were closed during quarantine a bunch of them got together and started Boober Eats, a food delivery service. We also had a couple of drive through strip clubs.

 

The more I think about it, I think I'm going to up my standard tip to $2. I've been tipping $1 since the 90s, so that means I tipped the current cocktail waitress's mothers better than I'm tipping them for the same job, and that doesn't feel right. But maybe I'll stay at $1 and keep throwing a bonus at the end of the night to make up for it.

 

I sat at the Fortune Cup horse race machine for a couple hours at The D and could not drink fast enough to keep to up with the service. Also got great service at Downtown Grand

 

I always stay downtown and if I'm playing machines on the floor I will go to one of the outside bars and buy a 32oz cocktail (they always give you a great pour). This allows me to bounce from machine to machine, kick back and relax and not worry about cocktail service.

 

Never had anyone refuse me a shot of bourbon, the problem is convincing some bartenders that a beer and a shot is ‘one’ drink for the purposes of comping. When I get both together I then tip two dollars, sometimes three if the bartender is bending the rules to do it.

 

Maybe I'm wrong, but is a mixed drink not a shot + a soda or something else to mix it with?
I don't understand why they would deny the request for a shot?

 

I tip $1/$2 arbitrarily, not depending on anything. I don't think about it, I just give them one or two (usually two). If I'm at a bar and ordering high end drinks (I had 4 Knob Creek manhattans at Borgata yesterday...another drunken adventure) I tip $5 per drink. I think that's a bargain for a $25 drink...and for some reason the glasses get bigger and the singles turn into triples and I stop having to ask for another...they just appear.

 

Huh, what are you suggesting? You said "let's not make this about shaming people for low tipping", but now you are asking this question? That sounds to me you think the people who answered your question don't tip enough. My apologies if I'm getting it all wrong!

Everywhere you read about gambling in Vegas, it says drinking is free and you only have to tip $1. It's sort of advertised. $1 totally is the norm and from what I've been reading here in this thread, people are very generous and clearly realise very well what a hard job CW is.

I personally tip $2-1 for the first drink. Intention of $2, but if I don't see a CW for 10-15 minutes, then just tip $1. For the following drinks I tip $1-5, depending on the service, how much I win and how drunk I am.

 

I'll accept your apology for getting it wrong. I'm not sure how me stating something like that is shaming, especially if you've read this thread and have seen that essentially I'd be shaming myself.

 

Theoretically, it would be way easier for you to get way more booze way quicker, and it would also make it harder to get away with corporate ordered short pours.

 

I think most people get that. If the waitresses kept all of it, that would be a killing at busy places even at just a buck each even now.