> 3a. Tip Question
> When you hit a 1000 dollar jackpot and are hand paid with 9
> Benjies and 5 twenties is that because the attendant is
> expecting you to tip them twenty dollars?
>
Clearly that's the expectation. That does not oblige you to tip at all, or to tip the expected amount - but I also wouldn't take offense (at least not directed at the attendant) at an apparent expectation of a larger tip than you might wish to give; I think that the casino usually has policy as to how the payout is provided, and it may not be the attendant that makes that decision.
In passing, I'll mention that most places only hand pay for amounts generating a W2G, but clearly, a few have policies that are different, and one must wonder why (could be so people around you see the payout, or could be so the attendant gets a tip, or who knows why else they would slow down your play and eat up employee time to do this).
Tipping has been discussed here before, and most people DO tip something for a hand payout, since it does seem to take the attendant some time (seems like at least 10-15 min) to do this -- although a few feel that getting paid for a win is the casino's responsibility alone, and that the attendant is not missing out on their regular earnings in any way to provide the payout. The amount of the tip is, like all tips, discretionary and up to the person giving the tip; some are quite generous and others extremely less so :)
If you are trying to be an "advantage" player, you must consider the effect on your bottom line. When I played blackjack as a card counter, in order to look more like the non-counting players, I would put a $5 bet out for the dealer after every blackjack I got (I played $25 a hand or more), but if one plays 300 hands an hour (which I could do heads-up), one can expect about 15 blackjacks an hour, and it's easy to see that the cost of those tips can be significant, perhaps equal to (or even more than) the amount you expect to make playing with a 1% edge against the house - but the dealers are dependent on tips for most of their income. Slot attendants are not heavily paid, but I don't think they are regarded as tip-dependent. Waitresses are like dealers in that they (usually) earn less than minimum wage because they are tip-dependent; almost everyone recognizes this, and people probably tip waitresses (and waiters) more consistently than any other
service employee.
Some people tip cashiers (that's one I've never done). I've tipped a waitress at the end of a winning poker session where I may have only ordered one beverage in several hours, but she's been around asking frequently, and has actually looked people in the eye, instead of just wandering through the room announcing "drinks?" to the ceiling. Her willingness to do her job well deserved a tip, in my opinion, even though I didn't feel like drinking much that night.
Everyone's tipping habits are their own business, but having had a job for a few months that was tip-dependent, I do see the recipient's side of it, and I consider the position's tip-dependency in deciding whether to tip; how much is personal but (in my opinion) should be somewhat dependent on the quality and friendliness of service provided, the time and effort it takes to provide the service.
Bad or rude service not only should not be tipped, but if consistent or extreme, should be reported to management so they can correct the situation; service employees can have bad days, but if they have them too often and it affects their ability to provide good service, management needs to deal with it, and they can't do that if they don't know. I always report such service with a caveat that it's my only experience and it's just one time (or otherwise, if that's the case) and that I know they want to improve their service and can't do it without feedback. Good service, on the other hand, is better rewarded with a tip than a report to management (doing both is certainly permissible), unless the good service actually came from a higher-level employee whose future promotions and raises may depend on such feedback to the boss.
Also, remember who's "to blame" -- for example, don't punish a waiter if the food's not that great and he did the best he could to get it right for you (but tell someone that there's a problem in the kitchen).
--BG
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