What Does A Casino Host Do
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Many casinos, especially the larger ones, employ a team of casino hosts whose sole job is to make players happy and assist them in getting the most out of their experience with the casino, within reason, and sometimes even beyond reason depending on the value of the player.
Casino hosts work for the marketing department of a casino, and marketing is what they do. The idea here is to develop relationships with higher value players so that they not only stay at your casino longer, they come back more often, and they hopefully play less or preferably not at all at competing casinos.
So as marketing agents, their role is to provide extra value, reasons to play with them, and these reasons go beyond the normal features of the casino or even the players club. Pretty much all casinos have a players club which reward players based upon their play, and casino hosts pick up where that leaves off and provide additional value, incentives, and special to very special treatment.
What Does A Casino Host Do For You
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As a rule, casino hosts server higher value players, not necessarily the huge ones, the whales, but certainly players that the casino finds to be very desirable. How desirable does vary by casino, and it is probably easier to get assigned a casino host at a smaller casino or one that doesn’t tend to attract a lot of high rollers than at one of the higher end casinos on the Las Vegas strip, where your more modest play will get rewarded but won’t be enough to get the personal treatment a dedicated casino host can offer.
The higher your value as a player, meaning the more you bet in total, the better treatment you will get, and while this is true for all players really, where you can earn yourself things like discounts off meals or tickets at the casino resort, or even free meals or tickets if your play warrants it, or even be able to stay there for free, we’re talking bigger than that really, when having your meals and room comped doesn’t do quite enough for you and you deserve more.
So we’re talking fairly high rollers here generally, those who would typically use $100 black chips and up, and have a pretty good stack of them, and preferably a nice line of credit to buy more.
How You Get Assigned A Casino Host
Higher rollers at casinos often don’t bring money actually, they are given credit lines and are expected to pay back losses within a set period, depending on the arrangement.
Not surprisingly, this is a more effective way to part big players with their money as this tends to have them risking more than they perhaps would if they just brought a bankroll to play with.
Based upon how much of a credit line you get approved for, if it’s a worthy sized one, you may get assigned a casino host right off the bat, especially if we’re talking a real large sum here. The bigger players, the whales, who are good for a million or more a trip, don’t have to ask, casino hosts will aggressively pursue you if you are in this category, and the competition for these players is pretty fierce as you might imagine.
Other than that, as a rule if you are playing at a casino and wondering whether or not you merit being assigned a host, typically they will find you, not the other way around, and casinos are well on top of your play if you are in the players club, and you can bet that big enough play for this will not go unnoticed.
However, one is free to ask to be assigned a host if they feel like they may warrant one, and at some places more modest players may get treated to this extra service.
What Casino Hosts Do
A casino host may be called upon to do a lot of things, with the lengths they are prepared to go for you, for the most part anyway, limited only by one’s imagination and one’s value to the casino.
They are there to assist you, that’s their only job actually, although keep in mind that they do report to the casino so they have to justify both their time and their spending the casino’s money to their bosses, so you have to be worthy of this special treatment.
To the extent that you are though, casino hosts can do anything from helping you book your dinner and show reservations, to just about anything. Some of the requests can be quite strange, like the player who had a fetish for urinating on walls, and so his host provided that opportunity to him as requested.
Sometimes casinos have special events where you have to be a VIP to even be invited, and the bigger VIPs get even better special treatment, such as things like ringside seats, or invitations to private parties.
If you’re worth it, you may be treated to one of those very expensive villas that you might see at a casino’s site, although it might be very difficult to impossible to book them, because they are often kept for these huge players to stay at for free as a token of the casino’s appreciation for their play.
Some of these accommodations run five figures a night, so you can get an idea of how big this stuff goes from that.
Given that casino hosts often actively recruit players, in addition to providing all they can at the casino, the hosts themselves may propose deals, such as an expensive trip to an exotic location, where the casino host himself or herself may accompany the player on and continue to take care of the player’s needs while they vacation together.
Of course any problem a player may have is sent to the casino host, who sometimes go a long way to resolving them. It doesn’t even matter if the request is reasonable or not, for instance one casino got in trouble with gaming authorities when it was discovered that they were permitting late bets from a player, the player felt that he deserved to make these late bets and he was important enough that even this sacred rule was broken for him.
There’s also a lot of babysitting that goes on with this job, especially given that some big players act in ways not considered appropriate, like throwing temper tantrums, and your job is to help keep them out of trouble and smooth things over as much as possible, because after all, these are valuable players.
Having a casino host though is definitely a very nice perk that will almost certainly make your stay at a casino better, and you get to decide what better means for the most part.
Casino Tipping by Location
To make this guide as useful as possible, we’ve broken the casino host tipping best practice advice into a number of categories. First, we will describe the different overarching rules based on geography, so you can see easily if your location expects you to be tipping casino hosts or not.
Then, we’ll divide it down into the various types of casino games and the tipping expectations for each type of game. As you can imagine, this section will only be relevant to users in the ‘Do Tip’ locations, but it’s certainly interesting to read through the rules either way.
UK Casino Tipping: Do
Gamblers in the UK should expect to spend between 10-15% of their gambling budget on tips for dealers, hosts and wait staff. This is a relatively recent change to the expectations on UK-based gamblers, as until 2005 it was illegal for any casino host tipping to take place.
An amendment published in the Gambling Act 2005 made casino tipping legal, as long as the cash is collected and distributed in a ‘tronc’ – a tipping pool for all employees.
Meanwhile, those playing in any UK live online casinos are not expected to tip the online dealers. In fact, some developers of live casino software namely Evolution Gaming – explicitly ban players from making tips.
However, if the opportunity to tip in a live online casino game is available and you have received exceptional service – or won a significant amount of money – a tip could be a nice way to show your appreciation.
United States: Tips Expected
As with much of the USA’s ridiculous service industry, casino hosts are severely underpaid and require tips from patrons in order to make a liveable wage. Gamblers should tip casino hosts 15 – 20% of their buy-in, and you should also budget to tip wait staff, hotel staff, valets, and those making change for players.
This rule is enforced across any American land-based casinos, regardless of the state in which you are playing. Of course, the legality of gambling in the country is also state based, so there could be more important laws to consider before tipping etiquette is considered.
Australia: Don’t Tip
As will all service industry professionals in Australia, casino hosts in the country’s grand gambling establishments are paid a high wage and do not expect or require tips from patrons to make a living wage. While it is not illegal to tip, it is not expected in any restaurants, bars or casinos.
In fact, tipping in a casino host in Australia is somewhat frowned upon, as it can be considered to be bribery. Some of Australia’s land-based casinos do not allow patrons to tip individual staff, requiring all gratuities to be shared in a pool or be handed directly to management, raising suspicion that large tips are actually payoffs.
Monaco Gratuity Etiquette: Do
In Monaco, patrons are expected to tip 10% to dealers at table games such as blackjack, roulette and craps. However, this is only true at some establishments. Some locations have eschewed tipping in favor for an entry fee charged at the door.
Mainland Europe: Don’t Tip
For mainland Europe, tipping casino hosts is not expected. In countries like Spain, tipping would raise eyebrows and get you a lot of weird looks, it’s just that uncommon. In Western Europe, small tips are possible, especially on hitting a big win. However, culturally, leaving a tip larger than 5% would likely see casino hosts considering you a showoff. Casino tipping etiquette changes as you travel east, and the extra cash is more welcomed.
Tipping Etiquette for Games
Interestingly, there are different rules for casino tipping etiquette based on the different games you can play. Table games like blackjack, baccarat and roulette which require a live dealer to personally host your experience are clearly deserving of a gratuity. Many gamblers consider tipping their dealers to be good luck, and tossing a dealer some cash after a big win at a poker table is common.
However, playing video poker or slots, where there is often less personal interaction, may also require some tipping. For example, if you send a casino attendant to make change for you, you should tip them. If you win a large jackpot or a hand pay sum, an attendant or two will be required to come and personally hand you the cash prizes. They will also bring you any tax forms that your location requires.
General Tipping Advice
Not all actions deserve to be tipped, and you shouldn’t just go handing out cash for everyone and everything. You know who to tip based on the advice above, but here is a handy list of when a tip would be expected in Las Vegas, the most extreme example we can give. Anything more than this would be considered unnecessary.
When to tip:
What Can A Casino Host Do
- When asking for a host to make change for you
- When you win a large sum
- If you need an attendant for any reason
- If a Pit Boss comps you a free meal, drink or room
- When a dealer finishes a shift at your table
- If a waitress brings you a drink (even if it is free)
- If a bellhop carries your bags
How to Tip Casino Hosts
Okay, maybe now you know how much money you should be expected to tip each time you gamble all over the world, but how do you hand over the money without it being awkward? There are various options for when to tip and how to indicate who the tip is for.
You can hand a dealer their total tip when you sit at a table, which has the benefit of getting it out of the way first thing. If you are in the UK, and aim to gamble £100, you can simply hand the £5 – £10 to the dealer immediately.
One problem with this method is that you can’t factor in whether or not that dealer will be working your table for the entire time you are there. To counter this, you may hand them a tip right as their shift changes.
If you’re more the type to consider tipping casino hosts throughout your experience, then you can tell the dealer how much cash to keep when exchanging cash for chips. You can also hand them back chips as a tip if they pay you winnings.
Some dealers prefer to receive their tips in the form of wagers. To tip a dealer with a bet in their name, simply place a second chip on top of your own wager, slightly offset, and tell the dealer it is for them. They will receive the winnings from the bet, but not the bet money itself.
If you’re still not sure, the best thing to do is ask the dealer directly. No professional dealer will ever make fun of a player for wanting to hand them money. Ask them what they prefer and how they prefer to receive it. Now that you know the correct expected values, you will know they are telling the truth.