Casinos have no universal tipping standards such as those recognized for valets or bellmen. Most dealer tips are based on how much you’re betting or how much you’re winning. Unfortunately, most gamblers tip far more than they realize — and win far less than they think.
For example, suppose you bet $10 every hand at a full blackjack table (typically six players). You decide to tip only when you get a blackjack (an ace and a face card, or 10). Because a blackjack pays you an extra $5 (at 3-to-2 odds), you share that bounty with the dealer by placing a $5 bet for her on the next hand. That action translates into approximately $15 worth of tips for the dealer every hour (or one tip every 20 minutes).
Your expected loss during that same time period is $6.70 (assuming that you master the condensed basic strategy for blackjack in Chapter 7). So your modest tipping actually gives the dealer more than twice as much money as you lose to the casino. If everyone at your table follows this same tipping practice, the dealer averages close to $100 an hour in tips!
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