Dummy Up And Deal: Inside The Culture Of Casino Dealing (Gambling Studies Series)

The glitter and excitement that tourists associate with casinos is only a facade. To the gaming industry's front-line employees, its dealers, the casino is a far less glamorous environment, a workplace full of emotional tension, physical and mental demands, humor and pathos. Author H. Lee Barnes, who spent many years as a dealer in some of Las Vegas's best-known casinos, shows us this world from the point of view of the table-games dealer. Told in the voices of dozens of dealers, male and female, young and old, DUMMY UP AND DEAL takes us to the dealer's side of the table. We observe the "breaking in" that constitutes a dealer's training, where the hands learn the balletic motions of the game while the mind undergoes the requisite hardening to endure long hours of concentration and the demands of often unreasonable and sometimes abusive players.