What Is the Salary Range for a Casino Dealer?
Casino dealers operate card such card games as poker and table games like roulette and blackjack. They must be familiar with the rules of their game as well as the odds of winning or losing with certain combinations. The job has no minimum education requirements, and many dealers undergo formal training at gaming or vocational schools. Licenses are mandatory from the state or other regulatory agency.
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Pay
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Because many casinos are open all the time, casino dealers can work days, nights, weekends and holidays. These professionals must be able to stand for long periods and are often exposed to noise from gaming machines, and smoke from cigars and cigarettes. Full-time dealers earn $17,030 annually, with a range of $14,660 to $31,960. Part-timers make $8.19 per hour, with a range of $7.05 to $15.37. This is as of May 2009 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and do not include figures for tips received. As service workers, casino dealers rely on tips for significant portions of their incomes.
Comparisons
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Of all the casino gaming workers, dealers earn the least. A 2008 comparison of salaries shows gaming managers making the most at $68,290, followed by supervisors at $45,500, slot key persons at $25,460, sports book runners at $19,690 and dealers at $16,310. Dealers also form the largest group of workers in a casino. In 2008, they numbered 91,100 in the United States. Compare this to 24,400 slot key persons, 40,900 supervisors and 6,200 gaming managers.
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Employers
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The biggest employers of casino dealers are resorts, hotels and motels with gambling areas. These facilities contain almost 42 percent of the available 86,900 dealer jobs. However, their large number means slightly lower than median salaries at $8.13 to $16,920 as of May 2009. The highest-paying employers are spectator sports, with pay at $16.29 or $33,890. However, this industry only has about 2 percent of the jobs.
States
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The state with the best employment for casino dealers is Nevada, home to Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the country. It boasts a job concentration of 18.98 dealers per 1,000. But the large stock of workers reduces salaries to $7.65 or $15,920, which is less than average. The state with the highest-paid positions is Minnesota at $15.15 or $31,510. But the job concentration of 0.49 per 1,000 is less than 3 percent that of Nevada, making jobs relatively more difficult to obtain.
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References
- Photo Credit poker - a pair of aces with poker chips 5 image by Andrew Brown from Fotolia.com
