If you’ve ever assumed the dealer position during a home game of blackjack, you may have found yourself thinking “Hey, I’m pretty good at this, I could definitely do this for a living.”Â
Even if you haven’t and you just like the idea of working in a casino, you probably want to know how much blackjack dealers make. Let’s see what the average pay is, as well as which casino game dealers make the most money.
How Much do Blackjack Dealers Make in a Year?
A blackjack dealer’s salary depends on the casino they’re working at. On average, blackjack dealers make slightly above the US average at around $32-$34K per year. According to Glassdoor, the pay varies pretty drastically — some casinos can pay upwards of $45 per hour, while others reportedly pay as low as $3 per hour.
ZipRecruiter reports similar numbers, seeing annual salaries as high as $148,500 (which is rare), and as low as $11,000. They summarized that the average national hourly pay for blackjack dealers is roughly $15.70 per hour.Â
If you prove yourself to be a good dealer and a trustworthy worker, you could try to become a table game supervisor, which would give you a pretty nice pay raise for an average of $61K per year.
Want to be a blackjack dealer? Salary may vary.
What Casino Game Gives the Dealer the Best Tips?
There’s no rule stating that you have to tip your dealers, but if they’ve been friendly and welcoming (or if you’ve managed to hit a strong winning streak), it’s polite to leave a tip.
Tipping amount typically depends on the buy-in amount, how polite your dealer was, how popular the table was, how generous you’re feeling. If 15%-20% is the average tip for a restaurant server, somewhere around 10% is a fine amount to tip your dealer.
It seems the general consensus is that poker dealers get the best tips, as well as higher hourly pay. One Reddit user suggested that exclusively poker dealers are looking at a potential pay of around $30 per hour or more, and around $20-$25 per hour for dealers who deal all table games.
Another Reddit user commented that a poker dealer could generate “$20 in tips an hour easily” in addition to their hourly wage, but that number may lower if they have to pool their tips and share with table game dealers, who don’t typically make as much in tips. Poker dealers don’t usually pool tips and are able to keep all of their tips, though, so it would be fair to say that poker dealers get the best tips.
Want to make your blackjack skills the best they can be? Brush up on your blackjack strategy, or learn more about counting cards in blackjack.
