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Casino Operation and Gaming

Gambling Establishments

Most of the big time illegal gambling establishments in the United States are controlled by gambling combines. In Nevada, although former illegal operators are responsible for opening most of the casinos on the Vegas Strip, many law-abiding businessmen have bought in. Few of the old-time professional gamblers who helped make Nevada the gambling Mecca of the world are in the state today. Most have passed away or retired. It is a tribute to Nevada's law-enforcement agencies that in spite of some underworld infiltration in the casinos and despite the fact that gambling draws thousands of undesirables to the state each year, there is little crime in Las Vegas and Reno, and no gangland violence has occurred in Nevada for several years. Even when you add the 18 million tourists who visit Nevada annually to the state's population, it still has one of the lowest percentage crime rates in the United States.
You can find among Nevada Casino employees a good many veteran dealers and croupiers who learned their trade in illegal joints and have police records to prove it, but this picture is changing. Dealer and croupier schools are turning out hundreds of formally trained dealers who are clean (without police records). It is probable that the next bookkeepers or salesmen. It is also probable that the great majority of the owners and operators will eventually be businessmen without police records like those in Monaco, France, Italy and other countries where legalized casinos have been in operation for half a century or more.

Continue Gaming

Most of the carpet joints on the Strip have no windows in their gaming rooms to remind a player whether it is day or night, and there are no clocks to indicate the hour. From the casino point of view, day or night means nothing-it is all gambling time. The wheels never stop, the cards are always being dealt and the dice continue to roll. Spectators have no place to sit, except at the Black Jack and Roulette tables, and anyone who sits there becomes a player because the chairs are reserved for that purpose.
The average Strip casinos has eight Bank Craps tables, twelve Blackjack tables, three Roulette tables and one side game such as the Big Six. Around the walls are hundreds of one-armed bandits ranging from nickel to dollar machines. Maximum betting limits at the tables run from $200 to $500, although the casino will raise this for high rollers.
A Strip rug joint has the following employees who, except for the dealers, croupiers and a few others, work a total of six hours of each eight-hour shift-each hour is divided into 40 minutes on and 20 minutes off. Casino manager: He is in charge of the operation and supervises the shift bosses on the three working shifts. Salary: $40,000 to $100,000 per year, plus bonus.

Casino Host and Manager

Casino host: He acts as a good-will ambassador to outstanding high rollers and their wives; he takes them to dinners, shows, makes their hotel and plane reservations and generally keeps them happy. He sends the women orchids and candy and even gives them money to play the slots when their husbands are high-rolling at the tables. Salary: $30,000 to $50,000 per year; he also usually owns a couple of points in the casino.
Credit manager: The next most important employee. He screens your credit cards and has the authority, if they prove satisfactory, to extend whatever credit you require-$500, $1,000, $5,000 or more. Salary: about $30,000 to $50,000 per year.
Old-time Online Casino operators have considerable patience with broke credit players. They will make a deal with a loser who has lost more than his checking account holds, allowing him to payoff on the installment plan. But they don't like welshers. If, after returning home, you put a stop on checks signed in Nevada because you remember that gambling debts are by law uncollectible in your state, you will first get a firm letter demanding payment, then a phone call, and finally a couple of tough-looking visitors. At this point or shortly thereafter, the would-be welsher pays up.