The Complete Guide to Becoming A Gambling Dealer

Chapter 1: What Does a Gambling Dealer Actually Do?

Let's strip away the movies and the marketing. A gambling dealer — often called a table games dealer, or just a "dealer" on the floor — is the person standing inside the horseshoe of a blackjack, roulette, craps, or poker table, running the game for the casino and its customers. That's the one-sentence job description. But the real work is a combination of manual skill, mental math, customer service, and strict procedural discipline, all performed while standing on a concrete floor for eight or more hours at a stretch. Before you commit to this career, you need to understand exactly what those hours contain.

Your primary responsibility is to run the game. That means shuffling cards, dealing them, collecting losing bets, paying winning bets, and keeping the pace of play moving. In blackjack, the game most dealers are hired for first, you'll stand behind a semi-circular table, six to seven players sitting across from you. You'll shuffle multiple decks of cards — typically six or eight decks in a shoe — and deal two cards to each player, one at a time, alternating with your own two cards. You'll then direct the play, saying "cards?" or "hit or stand?" to each player, and you'll draw additional cards or pass according to their decisions. When the hand is over, you'll pay the winners and collect the losers. A single hand of blackjack takes about 30 to 45 seconds, which means you might