CRAPS DEALER CHRONICLES: Part 2. Hustling Tips From the LAKER GIRLS

A few of the Los Angeles Laker Girls . . .

Dealers have to HUSTLE if they are going to make tips. Otherwise why come to work when you only get minimum wage? Blackjack dealers hustle tips on a less aggressive platform because there are so many ways to split them and any exorbitant money will be diluted by the number of ways the tips must be split. Overt hustling is discouraged and a firing offense, so any hustling must be done undercover. You can't let the suits catch you hustling.

Jerry Buss, the then owner of the Lakers, brought the Lakers front office executives and Laker Girls to the Sands Hotel where I worked at the time. "Teach them how to play craps, Jack" he shouts as he hurries over to the baccarat pit, which he favored over all the other games. I'll call myself "Jack" for all intents and purposes. Jack was a name given to many and also used as a semi derogatory name short for "Jack-A-Lope", a cross between a Jack Rabbit and an Antelope, a beast unique to the Las Vegas Strip, hunted nightly.

There were twelve of them. They were all BEAUTIFUL. They were also dazzled by the atmosphere and in a sort of "zone" about learning to play. Jerry gave each of the girls two thousand dollars apiece by way of Casino Marker. There were 6 girls on either side of the stickman. The stickman is in charge of the pace of the game and directing payment of proposition bets. He calls the numbers. The Boxman is in charge of the bank. The 2 Base dealers are in charge of paying the players when they win and taking the money when the lose.

"Ladies, place ALL of your chips directly in front of you on the PASS LINE and make two even stacks," I said. I was on the left base. The moment I said that, the dealer on the right base collapsed to his knees and the floor woman in charge of watching the game panicked and ran out of the pit. The boxman turned white as a sheet. He looks at me and begins to shake his head "no, no, don't do it!" Shut up"! I said to him in the least intimidating way that I could.

"Ladies, please separate the stacks by sliding your hand between them. . . .thaaats it . . . ." nicely and gently. Once they were all done, the stickman handed off the dice to the brunette 3 places from me. She picked up two dice and looked at me: "What do I do now?" I shouted: "Throw them, quick!" She threw the dice and they hung in the air for what seemed like an eternity. This was her first time throwing the dice and I have to admit, I was shaking a little.

"WINNER SEVEN!!!! WINNER!!!", the stickman shouts. The girls just stood there, frozen and expressionless. "What just happened?", the shooter asks. "Just hold on a minute ladies and let's get this all sorted out", I said. The girls had Black Chips which are one hundred dollar chips. We paid all of the bets and then we proceeded to gather up 24 thousand dollars worth of the chips, leaving the girls with their original 2 thousand apiece. We dropped that 24 thousand in the tip box to be divided 4 ways. I then told the ladies to hand me 1 black chip apiece which I converted to red chips ($5.00 chips) and I THEN began teaching them the fine points of playing craps AND betting for the dealers. I told them that they had tipped us tremendously and they were all fine with us taking the 24K as our fee for teaching them. 

  

Now there are some that would say we stole those tips. In my next post, I'll break down why hustling is what everyone winds up doing in the end. Stay tuned for the third installment. Thanks for all of your attention! 

For those of you who are just joining my story, here is the link to part 1:

https://steemit.com/story/@knowledge-trust/craps-dealer-chronicles-part-1-anatomy-of-a-las-vegas-dice-dealer