Some Tips on Etiquette

Playing at a video poker machine a few weeks ago, I had noticed that the machine beside me had two-something bucks on it and I thought about cashing out the ticket if it was still there after fifteen minutes and adding it to my machine. I noticed that the person had been playing (based on what was on the screen, I didn’t see the person there) five-play Ultimate X for dimes which has a $5.00 Max Bet. The person had not left behind any multipliers, and after a quick scan of the other games I didn’t see any, so I left the machine otherwise alone in case they came back for the ticket.

In a situation like that, when you have a person who leaves credits behind that total less than one max bet, generally that is a somewhat deliberate act rather than negligence. I suppose one example I can think of that might be different is a time I happened upon $30-something on a High Limit machine upon which whoever was playing had been betting $50 a spin. There wasn’t really anything in the high limit room I could play, (minimum bets of $1 and nothing at an advantage...ugh!) and I didn’t want to literally just sit there and stare at a machine or watch TV and do nothing...so I just kind of popped in every ten minutes for a half hour.

I guess I could have watched TV, thirty bucks is thirty bucks, but just sit in a high limit room and do nothing long enough and I can all but guarantee someone will eventually come to see what you’re up to. It usually won’t take long.

I ran the risk, of course, of someone else less scrupulous coming along and just cashing the ticket immediately. Alternatively, maybe it had already been there for twenty minutes and someone else, “Giving it a half hour,” only had ten minutes to go and they would get it before me. It didn’t really matter. Thirty bucks is pretty good, but it’s not like I won it through any kind of skill. It’s not like $30 is really going to change my life, or even my day. It’s just $30 that, to me, it makes more sense for me to take than for it to go into the coffers of the casino and/or the state.

It’s a question of utility, really, the money has more utility for me than it does for either of those entities.

Back to the Ultimate X situation, so another player came along, sat down, popped in $100 and started playing. Eventually, whoever the machine belonged to (and the credits) came back inquiring about the $2.35 (they knew the exact amount!) stating that they had gone to the bathroom and had tilted the chair against the machine to save it. I knew that the tilting of the chair was bullshit, because I saw the person get up and leave, but maybe they thought they did it. No matter, the $2.35 definitely belonged to the person.

The lady started, “I was only gone for five minutes, I had the chair tilted to save the machine.”

Even though it wasn’t my place, I chimed in here, “Ma’am, with all due respect, you’ve been gone for a little bit over ten minutes. I just kind of figured you left, because you also failed to tilt the chair.”

“No, I didn’t,” she responded shrilly and asked, “What business is it of yours anyway!?

“Certain events happened in physical reality,” I mused, “ And I am merely speaking to that witnessed by my eyes, fallible though they may be.”

“The hell does that mean?”

“It means I’m pretty sure I saw what I saw.”

“I want that machine back!”

“Let’s say for a second that you had leaned the chair against the machine, how long do you think that entitles you to the machine? I think, even if you had, which you didn’t, that’s maybe a five minute courtesy at most. An optional one at that.”

She snorted, “It means I’m holding it until I get back.”

I inquired, “What if you’re not coming back until next Thursday?”

“Next Thursday!? You’re a smartass, aren’t you? No, not next Thursday.”

“Okay,” I replied, “My suggestion is maybe five minutes, an optional courtesy, what do you think is fair?”

“An hour.”

“By the way, you should start carrying a slip of paper around.” I continued, “You should put what time you leave the machine, carry some paper and tape. I saw you leave because I was over there (pointing) right before I came to this machine. What if someone didn’t see you leave? Then, they don’t know how long you’ve been gone.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she protested, “I like this machine. I want my machine back.”

It was a reiteration, but worth a try, “It’s not your machine. It’s the casino’s machine. In the direct sense, it is the machine of whoever is playing it, which happens to be this gentleman.”

The guy looked over at me, “Yup.”

“But,” I said, “That is her $2.35. I mean, she came over and claimed it within a reasonable timeframe, did she not? She knew the amount. I would say you definitely owe her the $2.35”

The gentleman muttered, “Not $2.35, just thirty-five cents.”

Exasperated, I sighed, “J---- C-----, do you need the two bucks that badly? Do you want that I should give you the two bucks? There was absolutely, positively, unequivocally, undoubtedly, irrevocably two dollars and thirty-five cents on that machine. Come on, man!”

The gentleman seemed to give up his case, but insisted on keeping the money, “That’s a waste of my time.”

“What’s a waste of your time? Not stealing?” I answered my own question, “I mean, this is claimed money we are talking about at this point, the amount doesn’t matter. Even if you had an argument, which you don’t, I’m also saying it is this lady who left the money on the machine. You’re pretty much blatantly stealing two dollars right now. Do you want to be the person who steals two dollars?”

The guy groaned, “All I have is hundreds.”

“Okay,” I answered, “So, go get something that is not hundreds.”

“Do you really want me to bother about this over two dollars? Do you really expect me to do that?”

“I suppose that’s not my call,” casting a sideways glance at our lady friend, “Ask her.”

“Yes,” she responded, “I want my two dollars...AND my thirty-five cents.”

The guy who was willing to directly steal two dollars from the lady, and pointedly tell her that he was doing it, apparently had no interest in being potentially stolen from himself. In an over-abundance of caution, he cashed his ticket and started to make his way to the cage to get the $2.35. Apparently, there was no way to get the change he needed from the cash out machine, and he wasn’t going to hand the lady one penny more than what she was owed.

She looked at me, shook her head, sat down and put in a one hundred dollar bill.

Remembering a book, we read in high school I exclaimed, “Oh, brave new world that has such people in it!”

The lady cast a sarcastic look over at me and said, “Oh, save it. I had that chair tilted.”

Invoking my inner ten year old, I simply responded, “Didn’t.”

“Either way,” she concluded, “I got my machine back.”

Really looking at her for the first time, she wasn’t exactly wearing runway model clothes, but her attire wasn’t cheap. I inquired, “You don’t really care about the $2.35, do you?”

“Well, I just stuck another hundred in here, didn’t I? Although, thanks for saying something about the money, I wouldn’t have gotten my machine back if he didn’t have to go up there!”

“Just calling it like I saw it.” Unable to resist, “...and that chair was NOT tilted.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she stated flatly.

I guess it doesn’t, I thought.

The guy came back with two dollars and thirty-five cents in hand and was obviously flabbergasted to see her playing the machine. He looked around at the other machines and saw they were all occupied, “HEY!!!”

“Hey, what?” The lady asked.

“Hey, what?” I asked.

Incensed the gentleman slammed down the $2.35, almost knocking an ashtray down in the process, “That’s MY machine.”

I looked at him, shrugged, and said, “You moved, definitely didn’t tilt the chair.”

___________________

There are some fine points of etiquette that, if you make more than just a handful of casino visits in your life, you will eventually run into. Naturally, these only apply in Brick & Mortar casinos, given that people don’t tend to care what you do in your house. I suppose that might be different if we end up having live video feeds while we are playing originating from our own places…

In the meantime, these are some rules to cover Brick & Mortar casinos. You might disagree with some of these, and I certainly welcome some disagreement, so if you’re not with me on any of these, please let me know in the comments!

Whose Machine Is It, Anyway?

There are a few different things people can do to signal that they intend to return to a given machine, and this is also true for Table Games. (which we will get to later) The key is that a person wants to take some sort of action that universally communicates someone to those surrounding them, even if the person doesn’t actually see you do it.

Perhaps the most common method of, “Saving,” a machine is to tilt one’s chair up against the machine such that the screen is partially obscured. This may or may not be done in conjunction with leaving some amount of credits on the machine. It also may or may not be done in conjunction with leaving some piece of property, perhaps a pack of smokes and beverage, on the machine.

Basically, in order to play the machine, the person wanting it essentially has to clean up after you. Whether or not a person is willing to do that at all, and the extent to which the person is willing to go, is going to vary pretty greatly from one person to another. I would suggest that most people are going to be unwilling to clean up an entire mess, including moving someone’s cigarette pack that still contains cigarettes and/or a lighter.

Does this sort of tilt, “Mark one’s territory?”

The answer to this is, “Yes and no.”

The fact of the matter is that the message being sent is pretty clear, at least when someone actually remembers to tilt the chair, “I’ll be back.” In that sense, the territory has been marked pretty obviously. Whether or not that marking should be adhered to is a different story.

I personally would give an arbitrary amount of time if I saw the person leave, and if I didn’t, there would still be some arbitrary amount of time. If I saw the person leave, I would probably give them fifteen minutes to come back, though I would ask how long they’d be gone if I really wanted the machine. If I didn’t see them leave, still fifteen minutes.

I would probably double that amount of time to a half hour if the person left some of their items behind, simply because I don’t want to touch their stuff. The ticket, perhaps ironically, matters the least...I can just cash that out and set it to the side under an ashtray, or something. However, you don’t want to get accused of taking someone’s stuff...that can get messy. After a half hour, though? You deserve to have your stuff moved. They probably spotted some other kind of twinkly pretty machine on the way back from the bathroom and forgot about marking their territory elsewhere…

With that, let’s talk about the, ‘No,’ part of the equation...because anyone will admit that the intent is pretty obvious.

The, ‘No,’ side of the equation is that there is one thing and one thing only that a person can do that absolutely holds the machine for them...hit the, ‘Service,’ button and ask a slot tech if he/she would be willing to watch it while you go to the restroom, or whatever the case. Absent getting someone who works for the casino involved, the person really has no absolute claim to the machine, and they’ll tell you the same thing.

Even if a person has a friend of theirs, or a stranger, watching the machine...that’s not going to matter because anyone else is free to sit down there. They can cash out the ticket of the person who left and set it off to the side. Granted, it would be a total breach of basic human etiquette for someone to actually do that...but in terms of rights...you only lose the absolute right to sit there if a representative of the property says that you cannot. Some other person might say, “Sorry, this is my friend’s seat,” but that has all of the consequential weight of a particularly light feather...unless it is someone who would bust such a violator of basic etiquette in the face. Fists weigh substantially more, and pack more pounds of pressure, than feathers.

Does That Make the Casino Staff Responsible for My Ticket?

Nope, so take your ticket with you. Much as people abiding by, ‘The tilted chair,’ or your friend telling would-be players that you’re coming back is a matter of courtesy, so is the slot tech watching your machine. If the slot tech believes that you are taking significantly (or even insignificantly) longer than you should, they may leave. If the slot tech sees that there is a handpay, or a nearby machine in need of service, then they may leave.

If you did have a slot tech watching your machine and your ticket ends up being taken, I’m not suggesting that there is no casino on Earth that would reimburse you (there’s probably one somewhere) I’m just saying they have no absolute responsibility to do so. At least, not in any jurisdiction I’m aware of. If there were, then the staff would probably not agree to watch machines.

So, yes, the proper way to save a machine is to have a slot tech watch it and the safest way to do that is to make sure to take your ticket out of it. If you really want to, you can tilt your chair and/or leave personal items on the machine, as well, that way if the slot tech takes off for something you can fall back on the notion of basic etiquette.

Smoking:

Is anyone in the mood for a can of worms, because I feel like I am about to bust one open!

The first thing that I will say about smoking is that if an establishment allows smoking and an individual is in an area of the establishment in which smoking is permitted, then the person is 100% not in the wrong to smoke there. The person could be smoking there and being impolite at the same time, perhaps displaying a lack of etiquette, but the person is not wrong.

The first people I will address are the smokers:

Look, I understand you guys. I used to be amongst your number. You have these holier-than-thou non-smokers trying to tell you what you can and can’t do because, apparently, they suddenly bought the casino and have the authority to tell you not to smoke. It kind of makes you want to hasten your inevitable death and smoke twice as much as a showing of defiance, doesn’t it?

How about the non-smokers that sit there and sigh and groan at you? How about the ones you make passive-aggressive statements or ask passive-aggressive questions, “Sure is smoky in here today, isn’t it?” Aren’t those ones the best? The best thing about them is that they could just directly ask you to try to keep the smoke away from them and you’ll go to a great effort to blow it the other way, or alternatively, maybe not smoke beside them at all.

You guys aren’t bad people, and most of you recognize that there are some who don’t like smoking. Hell, you acknowledge that there are some people who hate it! It’s funny that they should choose to go to a place where people are allowed to smoke considering, in most jurisdictions, casinos are the last bastion of public smoking. In some jurisdictions, you can’t even smoke in casinos.

You’re not in the wrong, and while we’re on the subject, don’t worry about the, “Cough, Cough,” from the person beside you. Those are probably sarcastic coughs. Just in case, though, would it really hurt you to ask if your smoke is bothering them? I mean, is it absolutely going to kill you to switch machines or maybe, just maybe, go ten minutes of your life without sucking down tar, nicotine, formaldehyde and whatever the hell else goes into a cigarette?

I get it, cigarettes are relaxing and, ideally, so is gambling. Either that, or maybe you’re stressed. No matter how you look at it, the fact is that the cigarette is improving your overall experience in one way or another. Besides, one vice tends to fit nicely in with the other, anyway. Ever notice that you smoke more when you gamble? I sure did. You’ve probably gone through a pack just since you’ve been here, haven’t you? It’s okay if you have. Happens to the best of us. Let’s just go get another…

HIGHWAY ROBBERY!!!! OMFG SMOKES ARE EXPENSIVE HERE!!!!

Anyway, look, if you’re not in a non-smoking area in a casino that is mostly smoking (and,when allowed, smoking usually is the biggest area) then no, you are not wrong to smoke there. Would it be too hard, though, just to go ahead and pretend that those holier-than-thou non-smokers are fellow human beings, and just ask if the smoke is bothering them if you hear a cough. Maybe ask if smoke bothers them before you light up.

I mean, yes, I understand that they should go to a different machine if it bothers them...but you could.

My Message to the Non-Smokers:

My sweet God in Heaven it stinks in here, doesn’t it? I’m really thinking about taking up the habit again just so the smell of smoke will stop bothering me! Trust me, some of you might not know this, but you really can’t detect the smell of smoke when you reek of it.

Anyway, here’s the deal, we’re not exactly outnumbered, but we’re outgunned. The fact of the matter is that most casinos that allow smoking have a bigger smoking area than non-smoking area. Some high-limit rooms are entirely smoking. It seems like, no matter what you do, you can’t get away from it. Oh, there might be some slots, video poker and video keno set of in some alcove circa 2002 for us to play...but all the good games are over there! Somewhere. In that dense fog that permeates the rest of the establishment.

Whatever shall we do?

The first piece of advice I have in that department is pretty simple: Quit bitching.

The fact of the matter is unless you have some kind of health condition (in which case you shouldn’t be here in the first place) the smoking is nothing more than a mild inconvenience for you. The fact is that it is part of the overall casino experience at this particular casino, you know, the place that you are choosing to be right now.

It’s not like a throng of smokers rolled up into your house, broke in, and all started chain smoking throughout every room. Hardly. This is their world now, junior, and these are their rules.

Look, you’ve won everything else already, let them have the casinos where they can. You have the restaurants, at least in every state that I am aware of. You have the bars in some states, in some states, you have anywhere in public including within twenty feet of a building’s front door.

You have taken the world back from the smokers, most of it, except for these occasional tucked away corners of this fine planet that are really kind of meant to be dens of debauchery and vice. It’s almost unusual to be in a casino in which smoking isn’t allowed, pleasant perhaps, but unusual. Anyway, everything is yours, leave the smokers the casinos.

Or, don’t.

You don’t necessarily have to concede the casinos, but don’t bother the actual smokers about it. Write a letter to the County Health Department, write a letter to your Congressman, write a letter to the casino itself. Make your voices heard and say in unison, “We are here and we do not want to be smoked out!!!” And, remember, all of these efforts will generally accomplish absolutely nothing as far as casinos are concerned, but you guys do get your occasional victory.

Just leave the smokers themselves alone as long as they are allowed to smoke. Don’t cough unless you’re really actually coughing. Shove your snide comments that you say just loud enough for the smoker to hear while pretending they are not loud enough for the smoker to hear directly up your ass. In fact, just save all the noises. The groans and the deep sighs when the smoker lights up...save those too.

The only thing that I would suggest you not save is this, repeat after me, “I’m sorry to bother you, (sir or ma’am, as appropriate) but if it doesn’t inconvenience you too much, I would really appreciate it if you didn’t smoke beside me, please.”

There you go, if the smoker still smokes beside you after that, then that smoker is an asshole. There’s really nothing you can do about those, but there are still much worse fates that could be befalling you considering you are at a place that you are choosing to be!!!

That’s it. That’s all of it. That’s the whole argument. You choose to be at the casino. The casino also happens to allow smoking at the location within the casino in which you presently find yourself. Quit whining. That’s enough. It’s a casino. You know where you are.

AAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Smokers, courtesy. “Does it bother you if I smoke?” It’s really not that hard. Try it a few times in the mirror if that will help.

Non-Smokers, you have absolutely zero standing to tell the smokers that they can’t or to complain about them doing it. You may ask them not to very politely. It doesn’t happen often, but that’s your best chance of success.

Tickets Left Behind:

This one is probably, somehow, less controversial than the smoking.

When it comes to tickets left behind, with exception to the State of Pennsylvania, (taking them is illegal, ALWAYS cash them out and put them on the top of the machine) I think everyone is going to have a different take on the proper way to handle those. There are some people who will take them anytime, (even spend some time scanning around the casino at all the machines deliberately looking for them) and there are those who will not take them at all. Most of us, I dare to suggest, are somewhere in the middle...there is some arbitrary amount of time after which we will take them.

There are also a few people who directly turn the tickets into the casino. Ugh. Do you really believe that all of the casinos are going to go to some great effort to locate the rightful owner of that ticket? Is it really your supposition that the casinos are the benevolent ones suddenly? I mean, I’m not one of those casino hater Advantage Player types...and I really think that many of them actually are not and just don’t want to admit it...but I just imagine some of them are happy to take the ticket and gladly lock it away in their coffers after holding it for however many days are required by law.

The slot tech himself might also take it. Hell, if I owned a casino and someone turned a ticket into the slot tech, I might even turn a blind eye to him pocketing it. I’d be watching him pretty closely for other stuff, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know that I’d have a problem with him taking the ticket.

Most people would be willing to take the ticket either immediately or after some amount of time, I’m in the latter group. I also think the amount of the ticket might matter, less than a buck, then I just stick my money in and add it to the credits right on top of whatever change is in there. As has been established by the Hard Rock case in Florida, any jackpot win belongs to whoever hits the button, so nobody can be like, “But...you won that off of MY fourteen cents!!!”

If you have the ticket for some amount that someone might consider substantial...or at least an amount that one would like to think was unintentionally disregarded, then I would give it more time. Depending on the situation, I might play a machine next to it a bit, slow-playing (it would need to be at least $30) and wait for the person to come back. In some situations, I might walk around the casino, or go play other things and then come back later. I might check it from time to time if I am not doing anything else.

No matter what, my personal amount of time to give it is probably about a half hour.

Again, my reasoning is that it gives the person plenty of time to realize they forgot their ticket, (or to get back to the machine if they did leave the ticket deliberately) and I certainly want to at least do that much before taking money that once belonged to someone else. I’m not really the type to flat out steal money from anyone, and while most people leave any sense of personal morality at the door of the casino, I’m not one of them. Granted, I’m willing to do anything necessary to take money from the casino, just because it’s fun, but I don’t want to rip off other people.

At the same time, I don’t want the casino/state to steal money from anyone, either, and I highly doubt that the casinos universally (some might) go to any great lengths to find the original person to whom the ticket belonged. That being the case, if it is a question of the casino/state getting the money, or me, I think I’ll go with me.

Other people have different standards, of course, some might only be willing to wait for five or ten minutes. Obviously, I consider five minutes to be patently ridiculous as it may take that long just to use the restroom. Also, a person might run to the restroom, bar or beverage machine and run into someone they know on the way back and get distracted. The long and short of it is that five minutes, in my view, just really isn’t enough time.

There are those who will grab the tickets immediately, but those people tend to be quickly identified by the casinos and often asked to leave if they spend too much time, ‘Buffalo Hunting,” or, ‘Credit Hustling.’ I don’t like the term, ‘Credit Hustling,’ even though I have to admit many use it. I think it puts, ‘Hustle,’ in an unnecessarily negative connotation.

Whether you are an instant ticket taker, a five-minute waiter or someone who prefers to give a half hour...always keep track of what the ticket was for! In fact, I would recommend separately pocketing the ticket (unless it is for a very small amount) and then just cashing it before you leave rather than putting it in another machine. Again, this applies to jurisdictions in which taking the ticket as ‘Abandoned,’ is legal.

The reason why is because the person might eventually come along wondering where his/her ticket went, and as a result, the person might report the issue to security. At that point, security basically has to call up to surveillance that way it can be determined whether or not the person who took the ticket is in the casino. If someone else played the machine after you left it, then the machine is no longer going to clearly display what was paid out on the screen, and rather than wait for a slot tech to crack it open to look at the log, maybe it’s just better that you have the ticket already at the ready.

If not the ticket, then at least the sum of money. I could understand not wanting to back pocket the ticket because then you forget about it, it goes through the washer...and now it’s not any good to anyone. That’s fine, (and why I use my wallet, instead) so maybe you want to cash the ticket out right away so nothing like that happens. In that event, my advice is to take the money from the ticket and segregate it in a separate pocket from all of your other money. That way, you can just pull it out and hand it to the person.

That course of action actually accomplishes quite a few things:

1.) It makes the process of giving the money back faster.

2.) It leaves no doubt as to the fact that you are giving back the right amount of money. This is important because you don’t know what kind of person you are dealing with, maybe they see an opportunity to try to take advantage of you.

3.) It shows that you always intended (which you at least should) to give the money back should the rightful owner make himself or herself known to you. This type of good faith could be the difference between you getting some measure of respect for honesty as compared to surveillance deciding to watch you. You definitely do not want to seem like a dodgy person when this process is unfolding.

The bottom line, though: Give the money back if the rightful owner presents himself or herself. Granted, you probably don’t have to (as in, it’s probably not an amount that the owner will sue you over) but be better than that. It’s also important to remember that a casino can kick you out for any reason it wants to and they may choose to do so if you put up a fuss about returning money that didn’t originally belong to you.

The same thing goes for found casino chips, by the way. I usually would cash those out right away (even though I’ve never found one that I recall) and put the money in a separate pocket. The reason why is that is definitely the sort of thing I’d forget if I absently stuck it in a back pocket.

Legs, Elbows, Feet; Sharing Can’t Be Beat!

Are you a sprawler?

I don’t like you if you are. If there’s nobody beside you, then that’s fine, but you should be prepared to change your definition of, ‘Personal space,’ without being asked in the event that someone sits at the machine next to yours. I can be a sprawler, too, my most common sprawl is resting my left arm on the chair next to the one I’m occupying. But, if I see anyone walk by, I move it….otherwise it looks like I’m, ‘Holding,’ the machine.

It seems like some sprawlers lose all concept of time, space, people and surroundings when they are playing games, though, and treat the slot machine and chair as a personal futon. I’ve seen people sitting at a machine with their feet up on the chair belonging to the machine next to them and I think, “What the hell do you call that?”

Listen, slick, this isn’t your desk back in Middle School and you’re not the cool guy with your chair leaned back until the back is almost touching the floor clicking your toes together with your feet on the desk. That’s nothing a well-placed kick won’t solve, anyway. And, this isn’t your casino. Your feet shouldn’t be anywhere except for the floor or any other surface that is not going to be potentially touched by human hands...or at least one that can be expected not to be.

Again, if there’s nobody beside you and you want to throw a foot up on the shelf between certain machines, that’s probably fine. If you see someone walk by, though, put that foot down. The area between two machines is technically neutral territory, so keep that in mind.

The fact of the matter is that people shouldn’t have to ask you to move, and worse yet, you shouldn’t act as though you’re the only one at a pair of machines if someone sits down beside you despite your asinine seating position.

Table Games Etiquette:

The biggest problem with table games is that the tables are essentially designed with the goal of accommodating as many players as possible without really accommodating them. Maybe that’s why some people prefer machines, whereas some machine players can be sprawlers, table games players have to be all scrunched up if the table is full.

I’ve seen it at just about any full table, people so close together that elbow-to-elbow would be an improvement. It would mean they had room for their elbows. I’ve seen Craps tables where, if a person’s arms were not straight down at his/her sides, it would mean that they are making body contact with someone.

Granted, not all tables are designed this way, but enough of them are that a guy of my height and shoulder spread is not going to sit down if there is only one seat at a table. It’s just plain uncomfortable and I certainly did not visit the casino to be uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, there’s really nothing anybody can do about any of these things at a full table, so I’m going to offer my etiquette tips for how to minimize the conflict as much as possible:

1.) Actually, ‘Place,’ your bets:

-For player-service bets, which are all bets at most tables and Line/Field bets at Craps, don’t go tossing your chips in there if the table is full, or dropping them, because you might disturb someone else’s stack of chips or get them mixed up. When that happens, there may well be an argument as to what belongs to whom. The worst case scenario, of course, is that your chip stack gets spilled directly into that of another player and then all that needs sorted out.

2.) Always Count Your Money When You’re Sitting at the Table:

-Maybe not always count your chips, but always be aware of them. If you’re sitting at a full table, then my advice is to color up your chips whenever it is feasible simply because of the physical fact that fewer chips take up less space. It may seem annoying to color up chips only to possibly color up again or break them down a few short moments later, but it really does save a ton of space and actually gives all of the players somewhere to put their hands, beverages, ashtrays and chips.

3.) Follow the Rules!

-Here’s the thing, I would definitely make a post either here or Wizard of Vegas before playing Table Games at a land-based casino if you have never done it before seeking advice on how to (physically) play properly. While it is no secret that dealers have a certain procedure to which they are expected to adhere, many people don’t realize that players have a procedure, as well. These player procedures vary from game to game and become more or less official, depending on what they are. Here are a few examples:

Official: DO NOT look at your cards until the Green Light comes on!

You have to do this by the book, if you don’t see green, then don’t take a look. (That was lame!)

Seriously, though, most houses will muck the entire hand and the dealer will have to redeal everything if you look at your cards before the green light comes on. If you cannot see the light, for whatever reason, most dealers audibly announce that you can, “Take a look,” especially if they don’t see you doing it. Even if they see you doing it, some of them just automatically say that you can take a look anyway.

Official: Tucking cards to play in certain games.

If you want to stay in the hand in carnival games, then there is generally a procedure for tucking your cards under one of your bets to signal same. Different houses like it different ways, depending on the game, so just take a hand or two before you sit down and observe how the other players do it when they want to either stay in the hand or fold.

Unlike looking at your cards before the green light is on, you’re really not going to make the dealer or other players angry if you slip up on tucking your cards once or twice. Or perhaps you fold improperly, (you’re not supposed to flip over the cards yourself or throw them in on most games) but if you are doing it constantly the admonishments will become more severe. Fortunately, these sorts of erroneous actions will generally not result in hands being mucked, but the dealer will quickly become annoyed if he/she cannot deal the game properly because of the way you are playing it.

Unofficial: Buying in at Craps

Technically, you can buy in at any time that the shooter doesn’t have the dice. However, it is generally considered proper to wait for a point to resolve (either seven-out or the point gets made) before buying in. Players will tend to blame you if there is a seven-out after you have, ‘Interrupted the flow of the dice,’. While the so-called, ‘Flow of the dice,’ is the snake oil of the Craps player, you won’t be a very popular person if an ill-timed seven-out comes to pass.

If there is a shooter, but no point is established, then you can usually buy in after any roll. This is even true if the roll in question establishes a point. You usually just do not want to buy in while the shooter is actually in the middle of trying to hit a point.

Unofficial: Sitting at a Blackjack Table

There are reasons beyond back counting that some casinos have, “No Mid-Shoe Entry,” signs, and that is because people jumping in on the middle of a Blackjack game tends to irritate certain Blackjack players. As always, the actual probabilities in a round of Blackjack are based on the remaining cards in the deck, but there are those who believe that a new player changes up the “Order of the cards.”

Generally speaking, I would ask the other players at the table whether or not they mind you jumping in on the middle of the shoe. Unless you’re back counting, of course, then you don’t care. The thing is that, if the table starts losing, get ready for some harsh looks and possibly words to come your way if you, “Throw off the order.”

If the table has been running bad, those superstitious and illogical players will generally be welcoming of someone coming in figuring it may actually change the order of the cards. Either way, if you’re playing recreationally and you do not wish to draw the ire of other players, it’s always best to ask if they mind you jumping in. Generally, they’ll say no, it’s when you do it without asking that the other players will decide you have committed some sort of faux pas.

Conclusion:

Hopefully, these etiquette questions of varying frequency will ensure you and players around you a more enjoyable live casino experience. There are others still, and perhaps I’ll write another Editorial along these lines when more come to me. If you’d like one for live poker, just say so, because many other unspoken rules apply there.