(Card) dealers are
reminded many times … that they are on the bottom of the food
chain, where they have to feel fortunate to gather up the crumbs
that fall off the table. On the other hand, where else can a person
without a high school diploma earn forty to a hundred thousand a
year just by turning over cards and remembering a high
roller’s name? The casino is a world of opposites in
operation — hope and despair, generosity and stinginess,
kindness and cruelty.
—
H. Lee Barnes, Dummy up and Deal
Here’s your chance to eavesdrop on a casino dealers’
break room. In Dummy up and Deal, H. Lee Barnes
collects the dishy anecdotes he heard during his 17 years as a
casino dealer and game supervisor in Las Vegas. This isn’t
straight reporting — Barnes says his stories are “true to
memory” — but the result is a vivid picture of casino
dealers’ daily lives. There’s plenty of meaty stuff
here. We learn why dealers have never successfully unionized (HCN,
4/24/00: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve
themselves), why sexual politics remain so powerful in the gambling
industry, and how the countless forms of cheating affect casinos,
dealers and players.
Barnes helpfully supplies a glossary
of casino slang, which turns out to be as fascinating as the
stories: “Georges” are big tippers, “sweaters” are bosses and
dealers who worry about losing the casino’s money, and a
“flat house” is a casino that cheats its players (as in, “When I
first went to work for the Sands, it was flatter than an aircraft
carrier deck.”). Most importantly, however, Dummy up and
Deal gives voice to people most often valued for their
quick hands — and closed mouths.
Dummy up
and Deal, H. Lee Barnes, University of Nevada Press,
2002. 160 pages. Hardcover: $22.95.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Dummy up and deal.
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