Dealers stand little chance of keeping others’ mitts off tips

Wednesday, March 28, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.

CARSON CITY - How many casino dealers does it take to persuade Nevada lawmakers to protect their tips?

Not enough.

In a melee of a legislative committee hearing Tuesday, several Las Vegas dealers spoke in support of Assembly Bill 357, which would stop employers from exercising any control over tips.

But the legislation has virtually no chance. The Nevada Resort Association opposes it, arguing that it takes control away from business owners, who try to make less lucrative shifts more appealing to workers by sharing tips, said Samuel McMullen, a lobbyist for the association and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.

"They need to make sure people are treated fairly," McMullen said.

But dealers who addressed the Assembly Judiciary Committee said fairness is letting dealers who work for those tips keep them, or share them, as they see fit.

The pooling of tips is a traditional practice for casino dealers, but that pool is typically divided evenly among dealers of one shift.

At Wynn Las Vegas, the practice changed last fall when front-line supervisors were added to the dealers' pool for sharing tips.

The stakes are large. One Wynn Las Vegas dealer testified that the average earnings of a dealer at Wynn came to about $100,000 per year. But after the casinos widened the pool to include those floor supervisors, average earnings for dealers fell to $93,000.

Given the industry's opposition, few observers expect the bill to make it out of committee.