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How Much Do Casino Pit Bosses Make?

A dealer works the Blackjack table in a casino in 2013 in Hialeah, Florida. 

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Answer by Trina McLain Moen, table games floor supervisor for five years:

First, you have to understand the actual positions in the table games department. It’s the only industry that I know of that has half-steps. From bottom to top: dealer, dual-rate dealer/supervisor, full floor supervisor, dual pit manager, pit manager, pit manager/the 3d (backup shift manager), assistant shift manager, shift manager.

In regard to the money, the main factor is going to be your location or casino that you work for. If you are a good dealer and have a great personality, it is easy to be promoted to a dual rate. This position is probably the worst position to be in and is quite a pain. However, to move up, you must do it. As a dual rate you are not really considered management yet. It entails you being a dealer some days and then a floor supervisor other days. It does break up the monotony of the daily grind. It helps make you a better dealer, and you are held to a higher standard as a dealer. However, the down side is that you might actually have to change clothes three times a day or last minute to suit what the department needs that day.

Full floor is the next promotion. This is a bigger achievement and comes with a salary pay structure, and you are now a part of management. As a full-floor supervisor you are watching four to six table games at a time and report to the pit manager.

A dual pit is a full floor who is being trained as a pit manager. Like a dual-rate dealer some days you’d be floor and some days the pit. It’s not but a couple dollars’ difference in pay when you’re pit.

A full pit manager is another large achievement. It is a drastic salary increase, plus you add bonuses. In a small casino a pit manager will make around $60,000-$65,000 a year plus bonuses of some sort. At a larger casino a pit manager can make $90,000-plus a year. (The salaries I mentioned are not pulled off the Internet but are an educated guess after being in the business and having friends in all positions.)

The shift managers usually make around $100,000-plus a year, plus bonuses on the department.

Obviously, like I said, a large part of what to expect in income is where you are and the size of the casino. It’s rare that a casino will hire at the pit-manager level off the street unless it is just opening. Otherwise, all promotions are within. It’s a large part of why people in this industry in those positions move from place to place together.

It’s also the only industry I have seen where at one casino a guy can be a shift manager one day and the next just a dealer. As quickly as you can move up, you can move back down again. At my first casino I had an assistant shift manager I worked for. I moved to another casino, and six months later he came as a dealer. So I was above him in position. It’s a funny business.

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