Casino Poker Tipping Etiquette

Every stroll through the casino floor presents video poker players with a
seemingly endless stream of service.

From the cocktail waitresses who dutifully keep your drinks coming, to the
coin runners who take care of your financial transactions, and if you’re lucky,
the attendants who deliver those precious hand pays.

Live Poker Tip #5: How to Play Poker in a Casino Poker Room Etiquette. There are live poker players out there who couldn’t care less about etiquette. They just do their thing and act however they want to with no regard for the opinion or feelings of others, be it casino staff or fellow players. Those players are known as ‘‘a.holes.”. Casino Tipping Etiquette. One of the very first things that players preoccupy about is the tipping. When it comes to casino tipping etiquette, there is no rounded number that you necessarily must give to the dealer. Usually, it depends on several factors. Like for example, the limits on the table on which you are sitting.

Gratuities are the lifeblood of the gambling industry, and essentially every
employee who doesn’t reside on the executive tier depends on the generosity of
players to earn their living. For this reason, games like blackjack, baccarat,
craps, and roulette come equipped with fairly standardized rules and rituals for
tipping.

These aren’t hard and fast rules mind you, and any American has the right to
play for hours on end without tipping a dime. But for the most part, casino
gamblers appreciate the expertise provided by dealers and floor staff, so
sending them a $1 chip after a win – or even a $5 “redbird” when you’re riding a
hot streak – is seldom an issue.

On the other hand, those of us who play their trade on machine-based games
like video poker and the slots don’t enjoy that same level of engagement. In
fact, you can probably walk into your local casino, head to the video poker
parlor and take a seat, and play for hours at a time without engaging with
anybody but a stray cocktail server.

There are exceptions of course, usually in the form of casino lounges and
bars outfitted with video poker machines. Even here though, the game is played
one-on-one between you and the machine, with no staff on hand to supervise the
game, handle payouts, or otherwise earn a tip.

This dichotomy has led to a distressing situation, with the video poker
community developing a reputation for being cheap relative to the rest of casino
customers. A small but growing group of players have convinced themselves that
the lack of employee involvement, which defines other games like blackjack and
craps, doesn’t obligate them to tip like they normally would.

We’re not here to tell you how to spend your money, but this page hopes to
steer you down a different path. For video poker players, three common
situations will present themselves during extended sessions – and at each
juncture you’ll have the chance to tip. After learning a few widely used
formulas pioneered by video poker experts over the years, you’ll be better
prepared to decide when and how much to tip. But more importantly, you’ll
understand why tossing a toke is the right thing to do given the circumstances.

The three employees below will become your best friends during your video
poker journey, so it’s best to treat them right. For each entry, we’ll run
through the standard operating procedure for tipping in that spot, along with
the perspective of a few well-known video poker pros and gambling industry
experts.

Cocktail Servers

Most experienced gamblers know the deal with cocktail servers in a casino, but
just in case you haven’t heard, service industry workers rely on gratuities to
survive.

According to the income data aggregator Salary.com, the average annual income
for a Las Vegas cocktail server is only $17,132 without tips. That’s just above
the federal poverty line for two-person households, and just over the line for
the three-person families.

In other words, choosing to stiff a hardworking cocktail server who just
hoofed your Seven & Seven a few hundred yards across the casino is akin to a
criminal act. Again, we can’t tell you how to spend your money, but if you ever
hope to see the same server twice, tipping should be considered mandatory.

And we didn’t even mention that drinks come free for players in almost all
Las Vegas casinos.

For the most part, players in any game – video poker or otherwise – toss the
cocktail server a $1 chip upon delivery. You can always modulate that upwards
depending on your budget and lifestyle, but never feel bad for tipping a dollar
because that’s what servers expect.

If somebody really hustles and makes their rounds quicker than most, or
completes a complicated drink order correctly on the first time out, rewarding
their hard work with a redbird will make you a king among the regulars.

And that may not seem like much at the moment, but in our estimation, every
little edge makes a difference in the perpetual video poker grind. Margins are
just so thin in this game, and playing from a place of comfort can be the
difference between perfect decision making and the occasional lapse.

If you treat the serving staff well by tipping as a standard practice, with a
handful of “bonuses” thrown in to curry favor, you’ll never want for a drink,
ashtray, or anything else they can provide. Conversely, a non-tipping strategy
will turn you into video poker parlor’s pariah in no time, leaving you looking
around in vain for a server while you should be focusing on the cards.

Bartenders

The atmosphere is a bit different at the casino lounge, which is usually
lined with talkative tourists clicking away at video poker machines built right
into the bar.

Here, you’ll be dealing with the actual bartender mixing your drinks, and
depending on your proclivities that will entail a certain level of labor.

For mixed drinks and cocktails that require a little know-how to make
properly, use your judgement and up the ante. These complimentary cocktails will
typically use off-brand liquor rather than the top-shelf stuff, so don’t go
crazy, but anything between a few bucks and a fiver is appropriate here.

Many of the major casinos in Las Vegas will also provide foodservice to their
video poker bars, or even machines in restaurants. If that’s the case where
you’re playing, and you feel like noshing on a snack in between hands, we
recommend using the usual 15 percent tip that any other restaurant waitress or
waiter would receive.

Hand Pay Attendants

The actual video poker parlor can be a solitary place for the most part.

No dealers, no pit bosses… nobody from the casino side assists your session
when playing video poker. It’s simply you and your wits versus the machine’s
random number generator, with no human intervention to speak of.

Until you happen to trigger a hand pay that is.

Hand pays are so named because when you land that elusive royal flush (on
Jacks or Better and related variants), or another high-value “jackpot” hand in
other games, the machine doesn’t dispense the payout per the usual procedures.
Instead of seeing your credit counter tick up, or a payout voucher issued,
jackpots which require a hand pay will lock the screen in place, while signaling
an attendant.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of earning a hand pay, with the red
light swirling overhead and sirens alerting the entire casino to your good
fortune. Personally, we find this experience to be as appealing as the game of
video poker itself, as that brief moment in the spotlight serves as validation
for the long hours of study and diligent grinding that made it happen.

After the attendant shows up, they’ll whip out a stack of crisp, clean $100
bills and get to work. Watching a big payout of $4,000 being counted out in
front of you is thrilling to say the least, and within minutes you’ll have your
winnings safely in hand.

But what comes next is a matter of great debate among video poker
enthusiasts.

The attendants responsible for running your money over are usually young
people pursuing their first jobs in the casino industry. These fresh-faced
employees are responsible for checking your identification, and informing you
about tax form procedures (on wins of $10,000 or more) – so don’t take it
personally if they ask a few questions. They’re just doing their job after all,
and making sure you have everything needed to claim to your big win.

The biggest problem for recreational players isn’t deciding whether or not to
tip, but finding the sweet spot in terms of amount. Winning a hand pay is a
thrill like we said, even for the most experienced players, so you’ll probably
be excited and in a generous mood.

But after you win $4,000 – the standard pay for a royal flush at 800 to 1
odds on $5, when max-betting on a $1 machine – deciding how much to tip can be
overwhelming.

The industry standard says to tip 1 percent of your total jackpot win, so
you’d be forking over $40 in this instance. That may seem like a bundle for a
short trip over from the cashier’s cage to your machine, but when you think
about it, sending a sizable chunk of change their way makes sense.

Scoring a royal flush in a standard game of Jacks or Better involves beating
1 in 649,740 odds. Those odds are obviously enormous, which is why you’ll
remember every royal you ever hit.

That rarity works in the casino’s favor, but not for the casino employee.
Sure, they’ll be around to see more hand pays than you will, that’s just a
factor of their job. But if an attendant works a full eight-hour shift and
delivers just two royal flush hand pays over that time, receiving $40 on each,
they’ve only added $10 per hour on top of their base wage.

At this point we should note that royal flushes only represent a small
fraction of the total hand pays issued by any given video poker parlor. You’ll
trigger a hand pay for landing four aces and a kicker, straight flushes, or any
variety of jackpot hands in variants like Deuces Wild and Joker Poker.

All of those winners offer significantly lower odds than the royal flush, so
naturally, attendants will be far more active than our example outlined.

Knowing they’ve probably heard the hand pay siren sound a few times before
you got there, and they’ll hear it a few times after you leave, is a logical
justification for scaling your tip percentage down by half to 0.5 percent.
Handing over a $20 bill mere moments after getting your hands on $4,000 might
leave you feeling like a cheapskate, but all things considered, it’s a perfectly
acceptable baseline to work with.

Especially if you’re a frequent player, semi-professional, or outright pro.

Players like us put in hundreds of hours on the machines, grinding through
thousands upon thousands of hands in pursuit of that most elusive of prey for
casino game player: a positive expected return.

Video poker is our game of choice for a reason, as it’s combination of
skill-based gameplay and an extremely low house edge on most games – including a
negative house edge on a handful of variants – makes it the perfect way to eke
out a profit.

But when profit is the name of the game, and the margins can’t get any
slimmer, sending hard-earned money back into the casino economy almost seems
cruel.

The game’s greats know this too, which is why some of the most successful
video poker players to ever live are among the stingiest tippers around.

In a 2012 blog post written by Bob Dancer, video poker’s resident expert and
the recognized “Godfather” of the game explained exactly why he tips just $0.50
on $4,000 hand pays – oronly one-tenth of 1 percent.

According to Dancer, frequent players like himself have one major factor
working against them when it comes to tips.

Because grinders tend to play at much higher stakes ($5 or $10 max-bets) than
the average recreational video poker fan ($0.50 or $1 max-bets). This alone
makes the job of turning a profit that much harder, because the inevitable
swings that come with the territory cost significantly more money to withstand.

And as Dancer explains, the higher stakes result in adjusted odds that make
hand pays far more frequent.

In his estimation, based on decades of professional play, triggering a royal
flush at the $0.50 max-bet level is a “pretty rare, every 40,000 hands event.”
Conversely, for players at the $5 or $10 max-bet level, “you’re probably getting
hand pays every 400 hands.”

Dancer then dives into the mathematics of that disparity, but we’ll give you
a crash course.

Players at the higher stakes are receiving hand pays 100 times as often as
their low-stakes counterparts. Thus, they should be tipping 1/100th of the
amount to compensate – which equates to only $0.20 per hand pay as opposed to
$20.

Dancer is no fool, and he’s not advising anybody to toss the attendant two
dimes as compensation, but he uses this math to form a new baseline for pros and
high-frequency players. For him, that baseline is $1 for an $8,000 jackpot while
playing at the $10 max-betting machines.

We can’t argue with a man who takes home millions of dollars in W-2G tax
forms, but Dancer’s approach is simply too rigid for our tastes.

And that’s really what tipping in video poker is all about – personal
preference. So long as you’re giving the attendant a reasonable reward for their
time and energy, feel free to tip based on your budget, the stakes in question,
the service received, and any number of factors.

How Much to Tip: (CASINO TIPPING GUIDE)

Hi thanks for coming to this how much to tip tipping guide & etiquette page. Find out below how much to tip dealers, slot attendants, valet service, waiters, bell hops, maids, and many more. Just down a paragraph or two is a tipping calculator for individual and group billing and tipping calculations. Hope it helps and you like it!

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How Much to Tip: Tip Calculators

Here’s one handy for calculating tips right now.

Individual Tip Calculator

Get the Apple free tip calculator here: You will always know how much to tip! Add this to your phone, or just bookmark our page!

Shared tipping and billing calculators:

Are you sharing the bill? Get the Sharing Tip Calculator Here for multiple people. It calculates the tip per person and the total cost per person. Very Handy Calculator Get it Here

Here is a tip calculator for your own website to embed.

One more tip calculator that’s good here

That should keep you up to date for easy figuring on how much to tip everyone! Ollie hopes they can help! Read on for How Much to Tip Everyone Everywhere…..

Casino Tipping Guide

Most of us tip the dealers in the casinos right? Come on sure you do. We have all seen the cheap ones who hog everything for themselves though. Yup, some people do not even tip the waiter or the cab driver! Ah Yes, but what about Karma? Yup good karma and bad karma, leaving a tip is good karma, especially if you win.

It will be a positive boost to your Karma credits and good luck adding to the rewards in your future when you play casinos, or online casino games, or at the very least help make you feel good as well. We also tip the maids, valet service, bell hop, taxi driver and many more. Lets take a look at much to tip now:

Tipping the Poker Dealers

How much to tip the Poker Dealer?

How often do you see chips being given to the black jack or roulette dealer thanking them for big payouts, and dealing good cards, and lucky hits on your numbers. Quite often.

Same goes for slots. Some People tip the waitress well when she comes by all the time, and especially after a big win. Why? She might be bringing you positive karma, good vibes, and you are winning! So keep tipping and keep him or her coming back!

Some also tip the people paying them out big wins! One hundred, two hundred….. 700, and 50 makes 750 for your win. Then you say thanks and here’s 10 for you! Great Thanks! Good luck! is your reply from the gleaming slot payout attendant.

Some pay 1 per cent of total win. 40 dollars for a 4 grand hit is fine. Especially if you win in a state where you have to pay taxes on winnings. I hate that. Oh you hit 1500 while in Vegas, gotta see your id, we have to take taxes off! Ugh. I hate that. Winnings in Canada, here you go, congratulations what you win is what you keep. Thanks very much Canada.

Of course there is no rule for how much to tip the dealer or the slot attendant. Its totally up to you. Most people do tip 10-40 dollars and up for wins over 1000 1200 whatever the amount may be that requires a hand pay. Those days are fading though with the ticket pay out systems vs good old fashioned coins that use to fall out. I love the coins and the hand pay! Its all part of the Vegas, and Reno style I am accustomed to over the years from back in the day. I hate the paper tickets now.

Now your machine cools off and you head to the bar. Again you think how much to tip the bartender. You go grab a bite to eat and tip the waiter or waitress. Later that night, when at home, those who you tipped after winning and using their services reflect on your generosity and they remember you! Think Positive about you!. Yup that Guy or Gal were awesome for tipping me today I can get those new shoes for Little Tommy that he needed now.

Hotel Service Tipping

How much to Tip Casino Hotel Maids?

The poor hotel maids. They are often overlooked by everyone because no one really sees or at least has to interact with them personally. They frequently get missed out on when cleaning a room for tips.

No your empty beer and wine bottles don’t count as a tip. lol…. Seriously, please tip these hard working ladies who have to make beds, and clean messy bathroom toilets and showers. Plus vacuum all the bits of food up that you spilled from room service, or the snacks you ate or the pizza you ordered.

The only thing is if your having an extended stay make sure to leave the tip but with a hand written note telling them its for their service. They will not gather up your change or small bills sitting there when your on an extended stay as they know how long you are there for because they are given guest lists with room numbers and lengths of stay. This way they know when its time to not just freshen the room but give it the full scrub down and reload of new towels, soap, shampoo etc.

When its check out day leave them a note thanking them and put whatever you feel is appropriate under the note in cash on the table. You can do this daily or do it at the end of your stay all at once.

Just know that if you tip every day, you will most often get better service. Fresh sheets, maybe, maybe not, but more towels, a fuller more stocked coffee tray, lots of extra soap, and such. They have to do a decent job tip or not to keep from getting fired. So tip them 2 to 5 bucks a day depending on how bad you are trashing the room.

When travelling with the whole family I know the hotel room gets a lot messier with lots of bits on the floor all over and so how much to tip the hotel maid? I tip 5 dollars. 1-2 dollars a day when by myself and the room is basically untouched. Tip the maid 5 dollars a day or more if your wealthy. But for us common folk 5 dollars is the maximum amount you need to tip the maids. Don’t be cheap!

Valet Service Tipping at Your Local Casino

How much to Tip Valet Service?

Casino Poker Tipping Etiquette Tips

5 bucks. That’s the average. That is what I tip. 5 each time. If I was rich, a movie star, had oodles of money and driving a Ferrari? Then maybe more like a hundred bucks. But for now my truck garners a 5 buck tip for you. Tip what you want but make sure you do.

How would you feel as a valet if someone cheapened out on you? Hopefully they don’t wipe snot on your steering wheel or something funky like that. But who knows now a days, it could be worse. Please don’t take my truck out and punch it to see what a Hemi can do! AH. I better tip 10.

Restaurant Tipping

How much to Tip the Waiter?

15% is the average and the norm how much to tip the waiter or waitress. Tips range from 0 to Hundreds of Dollars with the occasional stories of Thousands of dollar tips to lucky waitresses from rich movie stars and Business People.

The normal range low to high is 10% to 20% with 15 being the average. Common thought among the cheap no tippers is well since my service was crappy I’m not tipping. Problem is, the tips are often times split among the wait staff, hostess, cook, and bus boy/dishwasher.

If the plates and silverware were clean, and the food great and the hostess pleasant then why should they suffer because we did not get smiled at, or brought our coffee or beer or wine fast enough. We must think of everyone in the chain who gets paid a portion of these tips.

These people are not well off by any means and rely on tips to make ends meet. If I cannot afford to go out and spend 20 dollars on lunch without being able to tip a few dollars then I will stay home and so should the cheap o’s. Make a peanut butter sandwich and see if it smiles at you. lol…if it does, your having way too much fun.

Tipping Is Good Karma and Normal for Casinos

Yup, and it will go a long way, perhaps they can afford to treat their family with a night out for dinner now. Yes Going around and Coming Around good luck and money tipping mojo….

Yup, tipping is a norm in the Gambling Entertainment Business, no different than the Dining and Bar tending Business. Everyone tips the waiter, waitress and bartender, well most do it, and some do not. However if you believe in Good Vibes, Good Karma, Good Luck, and In What Goes Around Comes Around then tipping when Good Fortune Strikes is no Different.

Have you ever tipped the furniture movers? Yes! How about the bus or cab driver on your way home from the casino. Yes! How much to tip is up to you. Generally 5 to 10 bucks makes anyone smile, give less than 2 bucks or no tip, and they probably wont want to open the door for you the next time they see you.

Tip the Casino Hotel Bell Hop

How much to Tip the Bell Hop/Bell Boy?

Yup, Got another 5 dollar bill in my hand. Same thing as the valet. 5 bucks all around. I make sure I got plenty of US 5 dollar bills for tipping or 5 dollars CA but in Canada usually lots of loonies and toonies in my pocket make for easy tipping everyone from valet to the bartender to the waitress right down to the bathroom attendant if there is one where I am staying.

The Bell Hop is one of my most welcomed people I want to see and use to help me bring all my heavy luggage and beer to my room. I want to save my back for use in the future. Letting these guys haul all the heavy stuff around makes my start and finish at the hotel oh so much better.

Who all do we Tip? Common People Receiving Tips are:

• Dealer
• Slot Attendant
• Cashier
• Waiter Waitress
• Bar Tender
• Cab Driver Bus Driver
• Valet
• Housekeeper
• Hotel Maid
• Bathroom Attendant
• Street Vendors
• Street Performers
• Tour Guides
• Bell Hop
• Room Service
• Coffee Shop Employees after handing you your delicious Morning Coffee

Ollie loves to Provide you with Gambling Tips and Tricks and Free Spins No Deposit Casino Codes and Freebies and thanks you in Kind for your Tips back. He Hopes you enjoyed this Tipping Page and How much to Tip Guide for your next casino vacation trip hotel, or restaurant visit.

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How much to tip you Ollie?

Send anything over by PayPal to help me keep the lights on and the animals fed. $1 a page for every page that helps you when you read it sounds fair if your a true casino tipper on the look out for good karma from me to you and winning on games joined through the site. Or just round it off at 5 dollars and go read all my pages and collect all the great bonuses and free spins I have found for you here. There are tons of deposit and no deposit bonuses on offer.

If you win any amount at a poker tournament casino game or slot machine 1 per cent would be fabulous. Or tip nothing at all, just do me the honor of keeping the lights on at my site by using the links and ads provided to sign up to poker and casino exclusive real money offers here at PokerShopBiz Ollies Gamblin Blog. Why let the big corporations keep all the money? Make them pay you some with the bonuses and free spins and me some by using the links provided here. lol…Enjoy the site, have fun, link to us at your favorite pages and come back often. ♥

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