Video Poker Etiquette on Video Poker tipping.

I was reading a Jean Scott article where she said 'like it or not, we always tip -- usually $10 for a $1,000 royal and $30-$50 if it's for $8,000.'
I'm curious who to tip? As far as I understand they don't hand pay till after $1200 so who gets a tip and for what reason on a 1k royal? Is it proper etiquette to tip the change attendant? I don't drink but even when the waitress brings me the usual 2 sip cherry coke I tip a single because she did me a service. The way I see it giving me my money is nothing out of the ordinary and not an occasion that requires a tip. Valets,servers,dealers of course but I didn't ask for a hand pay and view it as an inconvenience. Where do you draw the line? Am I 'that guy'?

 

I got a handpay for about 1800 once and I didn't tip at all. I don't get the idea of tipping the person who hands you the w2-g like they're doing you a service or something. if anything they should tip me for taking out the state tax and letting uncle sam know what I've "won".

 

In the past year I have gotten VP hand pays for $2000 and $3000 and I think I may have tipped $20 on the $2000 because it was not in the HL room. The $3000 one was in MGM HL room and they were running around paying off about 4 people - so I felt the vibe and didn't tip at all. In HL hand pays are just the way you play there. On the normal floor I might tip a little.

JZB

 

But I gotta say, once at Bally's I was hitting about 4 or 5 quads - and some premium quads - in about 30 minutes. Magic time. No hand pays but I was so pumped that I tipped the cocktail lady $15 or $20 because I was having such a great time and she was helping me celebrate.

Tipping is what makes you comfortable is what I tell myself.

JZB

 

No... he's "that guy"!

 

I gave a big tip and a big hug to the guy cleaning out ashtrays at IP when I won a royal!

I was about to play a VP machine in the middle of the bank and he said "try the one on the end - it's been hitting 4 of a kind Aces all week". Sure enough, 4 Aces in the first few hands and 3 hands later.... my first EVER royal.

Possibly the machine hadn't been doing anything of the kind all week and he just wanted to clean around the middle machines, but he chatted a bit which was nice because it was 4am and kind-of quiet. He was (almost) as chuffed as I was when it hit.

The hand-pay person was grumpy. It was my first hand-pay and I wasn't sure what was expected. I sort-of felt pressured into giving them a tip, too. That grated.

 

She is referring to tipping the slot attendant who comes to do the hand pay.

The tax form comes at $1200.

Some video poker machines will lock up and require a hand pay on any royal flush, irregardless of whether or not is is over $1200. I've seen hand pays required when somebody was betting just 1 credit on a 25c machine and happened to hit a royal flush.

Some people do, some people don't.

For me it entirely depends on how fast they are.

You should only tip the people and for amounts that you feel comfortable with.

If you are in Vegas I wouldn't care what other people think or if they are going to label you as "that guy" - it is unlikely you are going to run in to those people again in your life or if you do that they'll remember you.

 

I never really know what the heck I'm doing regarding jackpot tips.
It never even occurred to me that the person that came out and made you sign the forms and then paid me MY money would deserve a tip, but I'd read it here and didn't want to be the rude guy that didn't tip, so on the couple times I got 2K-4K jackpots I think I gave the attendant like $40.

At Cosmo when I won $20K they sent out TWO attendants. I was tipping everyone within arms' reach so they got $40 each and the drink girl who brought drinks for me and my friends also got a $40 tip.

All of my jackpots have been in HL rooms.

 

I fall on the cheap side as far as tipping goes, but I have been known to tip $20 on $1k VP jackpots, more on higher ones (most I recall was $50). But I only tip when the person involved in the hand pay is someone I recognize who provides good service to me on a regular basis. I would never tip an unknown person who comes out from the back office to get my signature on a W2-G.

 

If they’re friendly and quick, I give them roughly 1% - a bit less if I’m losing, a bit more if I’m winning. If they’re slow and/or act as if they are doing me a favor, they get a half-assed “thanks”.

I also tip friendly bartenders who are genuinely happy for me a little extra if I hit on a bar top.

 

This is exactly my view as well. I don't want the handpay and W-2G, its a process that exists simply to comply with the tax code. I'm trying to think of any other time I would be expected to tip for a service I do not want, did not ask for, and is being forced on me. Where's the quid pro quo?

Since I started playing VP I received my first two handpays just a few weeks ago, both were only $1250 and I didn't tip anything. It didn't even seem like the attendant expected anything, they left right after putting the cash in my hand. Both were in high limit rooms so from Jersey_Bill's post it sounds like that may make a difference.

 

^ This exactly.

The "Industry Standard" for a handpay tip is 1%. Easy to remember, drunk or not!

 

MSS used to always send two people for a hand pay and I'd tip $10 each. Now they have one person doing it so maybe $10-$20.

Since all my VP is played at bars, if the bartender knows me, probably ~$60 tip for them. If they don't know me, then probably $10. Or zero if the bartender provided poor service.

EDIT: At MSS any Royal on quarters requires a hand pay. At Suncoast, as long as it is below $1,200, it is TITO. Both Boyd properties.

 

I tipped small on my recent 4500 Hand pay I tipped $15 bucks each, but only after I had to ask for a bill to be broken down, funny thing is I never tip when I win or cash out chips for lets say 2000 and I get back 1900 in 100's and a 100 broken down with 1s and 5s like they were helping me out in some way assuming I was already going to tip them, but to be honest I dislike 80percent of the people working in casino's its hard to find a decent attitude nowadays, its crazy how far a smile or a simple hello goes.

 

I can only imagine from their prospective though how many A-holes they deal with every shift, how tiring their job probably is, and how low their compensation might actually be for what they do/put up with. I'm sure after a while that wears on your attitude and, speaking from experience, it's not easy to fake a smile, certainly not for 8 hours.

But from my prospective, as the traveler, when I am greeted by someone with a bad attitude who can't smile to save their life, it definitley drains my energy and lessens my enjoyment.

So I agree that it sucks when they have a bad attitude and aren't happy or at least pretending to be and that there are way too many "angry" people working in casino's, but I also understand why that is.

 

My buddy hit a 2000 royal at Gustav's at the Paris, told him screw the guy giving you the W-2, (like he was doing him a favor for offering the form). We instead Tip the Bartender $60 and you never could imagine how quick the drink service was then, and he didnt care if were were playing all the time going forword even into the next day.

 

I've only hit one hand pay, $4,800 $1 progressive RSF at Aria during my first visit. I typically do well during my first visit to a casino though never that well.

I didn't know what the etiquette was and ended up tipping a bill (about 2%), but in the future (there MUST be at least one RSF in the future) I'll probably tip $20 on a quarter RSF and $40 on a dollar RSF. If a future win is at a bar, I'll tip the clerk and the bartender the same.

I guess there are arguments pro / con regarding hand pays, but I don't understand not tipping a cocktail waitress or periodically tipping dealers as long as they are providing decent / excellent service sans attitude.

 

I always tip the CWs, little more if they are fast and a little less if they take their sweet time between rounds. For dealers I usually tip, this depends more on their attitude then whether I won or lost. As far as attendants go, I have tipped attendants at my local for hand pays because we go there a lot and we know most of them. In Vegas I have had a couple hand pays and have never tipped. I have always felt like I was inconveniencing them by having them bring me my money, or atleast thats the vibe I got. If they were polite and friendly, I would have dropped $20-40 on them.

Like someone said, a smile and a hello goes a long way. Nobody forces anyone to work at the casino, if you hate your job find a new one. I go there for entertainment and a poor attitude from an employee who has interaction with customers can ruin a good time.

 

I'm a big believer in tipping the people who actually help you when things are going well. So if I just hit $800 aces and my cocktail waitress shows up with my next round, I'm cutting her in on the action. How much depends on how good she's been to me prior to that.