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This Career Is No Sure Bet

Casino Dealer Plans to Finish College

Oana Trifan

Some young students make lots of money, get free gifts and enjoy an exciting night life.
Most people would be satisfied to live like that, but for Adrian Lãmãºanu and many of his colleagues, it’s just another job. They’re still hoping to hit the big time.

Adrian Lamasanu with a chip

Lamasanu, 21, works as a croupier and a card dealer at MGM International Casino, one of the top gambling spots in town. He’s also in his second year of management studies at Dimitrie Cantemir University. He has been working in casinos for three years, and found it hard at first to balance school with his nighttime work schedule.

“I got used to it with time, and I’m really happy with the salary,” he said in an interview. “It’s pretty high compared to other ones. I earn twice, even three times more than a subway security guy or even more than a professor with a degree.” Lamasanu considers himself fortunate in getting an early start at age 18, when he began his two-month dealers’ school at Lido Casino. There’s some sexism in the business, and it isn’t as easy for men to begin a casino career now.

“Boys aren’t requested anymore,” Lamasanu said. “That’s because the casino management in Romania is mainly comprised of Turks, who prefer girls.” Lamasanu was in high school when a friend told him about dealers’ school. Soon he was earning the then-minimum wage of about 2.8 million old lei a month. After school the Lido hired him.

“I had seen casinos only in the movies, and I really liked the things I saw,” he said. “I wasn’t wrong. It’s really cool being a dealer.” When the Lido closed after eight months, Lãmãºanu moved on to Princess Casino. He stayed for 18 months, then went to MGM International on Calea Victoriei for better money and working conditions.

Lamasanu plans to finish college, partly because the career path of a casino dealer is usually a short one. Dealers who do good work can expect promotions every three months or so. But there’s a limit to how high one can rise. After four years, a dealer may become an inspector, watching several tables for cheating or dealers’ mistakes. By age 26, those who stay in the profession may be floor bosses, who supervise the inspectors and everything that happens at the tables. The top of the career ladder is usually managing the whole house.

“You can stay in a casino even until you’re 40,” Lamasanu said, “but definitely not as a dealer.” Most young dealers dream of getting a job on a cruise liner. That’s where the real money is. “A dealer … works here just to get enough experience to be able to get a contract,” he said. “The first contract on a cruise ship is about 1,500 dollars, and beginning with the second one, dealers can earn about 2,000 to 2,500 dollars,” he said. And the contracts don’t include tips.

Adrian Lamasanu and a colleague from the casino

For now, Lamasanu is landlocked in Bucharest, handling blackjack, roulette and other chores. Dealers who finish school now can make more money than he does because he’s not as familiar with some of the newer card games: punto blanco and “Texas poker,” or hold ‘em, for example. Hint to customers: blackjack offers the best odds.

Lamasanu meets all types, from low rollers to big-time gamblers. Sometimes celebrities walk in, usually more for the fun than for the money. “People like Gigi Becali or Piturca,” Lamasanu said, “and they play for lots of money. Some of them get mad, too, and don’t behave so well. But others are just out for a good time. “Once Lucian Viziru lost 10 million old lei, and he wasn’t mad at all. He was even laughing, joking with me,” Lamasanu recalled. Some high rollers drop tens of thousands of dollars a night.

“Some clients act really ugly, cursing and even spitting at you,” he said. Such behavior usually isn’t allowed, but sometimes there’s nothing to be done. “You definitely can’t ask someone to leave when he’s betting 60,000 dollars,” he said. “These are the people who actually keep the casino in business.
“Casinos don’t survive off the people who wager 1 million old lei a day,” he said. “It’s because of those who bring in lots of money every night.”

When clients get caught trying to cheat, they are blacklisted. Crooked dealers are fired immediately, and have little prospect of finding a casino job anywhere else. Some such cases end up in court. “People cheat less now people because they can get caught very fast,” Lamasanu said. “When the casino business started, people cheated a lot because there were no video cameras.

“At the roulette tables, for example, dealers would be talking with the players … after the ball hit a number, they would let the client bet on that number,” he said. “At cards, they were paying out bigger chips, and they were even stealing chips for themselves.”

Tips and presents from players usually balance out the bad experiences. “The pay in a casino is based on the base salary plus the tips,” Lamasanu explained. “Every casino has its own administrative system. Once I worked for a top salary of 3 million (old lei) and the rest was considered tips, up to 9 million.
“But I’ve also worked for a base salary of 10 million old lei, with 2 million as tips,” he said. Each night, tips are generally pooled among all dealers. “I sometimes get presents, colognes mostly,” Lamasanu said. “That’s because they think you’re the reason they won.”

Ultimul număr tipărit (mai 2007, format PDF):