Dealer Economics

The first week or so the basic challenge was to work more than half a day while collecting the $7.55 an hour for the other half. This was because there were so many dealers relative to the available work. It was not uncommon to deal two tables (half hour each) then break for half an hour, two or three more, then break and return from break to discover that the tables in your row had been broken and players scattered to fill open seats at the remaining tournament tables. The situation has changed. Finding tables to deal is no longer a problem. Some days we have even dealt five hours straight before getting a twenty minute break.


We started the World Series of Poker with around 1100 dealers. Halfway through the tournament schedule, there remain 725 dealers on the roster covering all shifts. Some left or were let go because they simply did not have the skills to do the job. Others were trying to combine the WSOP job with another regular job. Two jobs is a lot of work and my understanding is that dealing at WSOP is much more work than the typical Las Vegas Poker dealer casino job. Also, the “down value” is lower this year than last. Each half hour a dealer spends at a table is called a “down”. The value of a down is derived from the amount of entry fees collected and the total number of downs dealt. They are averaged for each week.

This year the downs are about 10% less than last year. This is because we have more tournaments with smaller entry fees than last year. Last year there was only one “Stimulus Special” $1000 buy-in tournament, this year every weekend has a $1000 tournament with a two day Saturday – Sunday start and runs through four or five days if needed. Harrah’s management also decided that the WSOP needed more reasons for players to stay rather than go play other less expensive tournament s around town so they added a daily $200 Deep Stack tournament. The Deep Stack has been drawing anywhere from 350 to 700 players every day. This obviously waters down the value of the downs when combined with the regular WSOP events with entry fees of $5000 or $10,000.

Simple economics dictates that a lower wage will attract fewer workers. Fewer dealers means more time spent dealing and less time sitting in the Dealer Break Room reading a magazine, waiting for a chance to push into a table. For me, this is a good thing. Despite the fact that the downs are worth 10% less, I will be able to work 20% more downs per day and make more money each day I work. Additionally, because our dealer numbers are so far down, we now are scheduled to work six days a week, another twenty percent increase in downs per week. So if this week last year I dealt 50 downs, I should be able to deal 72 downs this year. If I made $1000 this week last year, I should make $1296 this year. It is a 44% increase in work and a 29.6% increase in money.

For me, this is a good thing. Working six days a week helps me to overcome my lodging and transportation expenses. I don’t really need two days off every week because this is just a temporary job for me. I would rather work. In a few weeks I will have the rest of the year off and, as long as I have to put in seven or eight hours a day, I would like as many of those hours to be at the $39 hourly rate rather than the $7.55.