A miserly move at the Eastside Cannery

Recently while playing blackjack at the Eastside Cannery I mistakenly used a matchplay for the regular Cannery. I had unknowingly torn out the wrong coupon from the American Casino Guide.

When I placed my bet in the circle, the dealer held up the slip to look at it and put it back underneath my chips. I won the hand and was promptly paid 2X my bet. But as the dealer was putting the coupon in the drop box the pit boss came over to the table. He looked at the slip and pointed out that it was for the wrong Cannery. I apologized and explained what had happened. He demanded that I hand over the casino's match, which I had removed from the circle and placed in my stack. Incredulous, I flung the chips across the felt and walked out.

On the way to the car, I realized that I should have refused, having already been paid. Being banned wasn't a concern because I decided then and there I wouldn't return. Would I have been within my rights to refuse?

It it was a match coupon from the American Casino Guide, I am guessing it was for about $10.

The truth is, the casino pit boss has every legal right to ask for their match pay back. You could have refused, and would probably have been asked to leave the casino. It seems silly though for $10 to be thrown out of a casino, especially when the casino was right and it was your (honest) mistake.

Still, if I would like to think that the casino pit boss could have handled it better and say, "Okay, no problem... You are going to play at this table for the next couple of hours right?" That would give everyone a nice laugh, you would feel happy, and the casino would have made more money off of you in a few hours then the $10 they lost.

You're right, it was for $10. And the irony was that I had just settled in to play for about an hour.

It's true that I made a mistake, but so did the dealer. He accepted the coupon and paid the bet off. Had he caught it, I would've went to the car and returned with the correct one. Instead they quibbled over $10 and lost my business forever.

Pit bosses are by and large dicks who like to throw their weight around. This is a general rule; apologies to all the friendly pit bosses out there (there are a few). This kind of thing has happened to me more times than I would like to recount.

Pit bosses do correct dealer mistakes. That is part of their job. I've done things like you did, and often regretted it. I remember a high profile case at the El Cortez where a dealer had accidentally turned over both her cards. The player used this information in his play. The casino asked for the money back. The fight progressed and he was thrown out of the casino.

In general I think the pit boss should ask for mispaid bets back, but procedural errors like yours and the novice dealer the casino should suck it up.

Yeah, part of a pit boss' job is to correct dealer mistakes. Another part is customer service.

A minor mistake, like paying a loser, or taking a winner, is a simple thing to fix. Both of the cases above are not minor and should fall more on the side of customer service rather than dealer mistakes when the pit boss deals with them.



In the case of the coupon, the dealer didn't make a minor mistake of overlooking the coupon. The dealer picked it up and examined it, and then allowed the coupon to play. That's a major mistake, and the player should have been allowed to keep the chips - or at the very least allowed to produce the correct coupon and then keep the chips.



In Paco's case, if a dealer exposes both cards, a decision has to be made immediately. I've been in that situation, and hte decision was that play would continue, but losers will push. In the situation where Paco describes, it is unclear what decision was made other than to allow play to continue. If the player subsequently won the hand, how can the casino complain about it's own decision?

I agree with DJTeddyBear. While the Pit Boss has a legal right to demand the chips back, good customer service should have let the $10 win slide.

Somehow, I suspect that "I flung the chips across the table" didn't help the OP's position any.

And that this probably isn't the whole story.

Well, at that point the battle was lost, so I wasn't worried about my position being harmed.

And I did not mean to give the impression that I threw the chips at the guy. It was more like how I would toss the chips to call a big bet in poker.

To me, casinos ought to give gamblers the benefit of the doubt so they feel like they're getting a fair shake. This is how I see it: If you accept the coupon and deal the hand, you have essentially accepted a bet. Taking that away after the fact is, if not wrong, then just bad customer relations.

Edit: Another point is that the coupon was for a sister casino, so why not just swallow the dealer's mistake and honor it.?

I agree that they could have honored it. Maybe even should have honored it. But that would really be as a favor to you. I would not "expect" them to honor it, and I wouldn't hold it against them. Not for a lousy $10.

I have had two interesting pit boss encounters, one from each end of the spectrum and both in the year 2000. I was playing at the $5 table Showboat in Atlantic city, where the dealer mistakenly misdealt the player's 2nd card by skipping a player. One of the preceding players had been dealt both cards correctly and had blackjack, but the pit boss said that the hand was void and no one would be paid. After a very brief discussion, the blackjack holder was told if he didn't like the policy, he could gamble elsewhere. All six players at the table left immediately and I never gambled there again.

Exactly the same thing happened at the Bellagio on early weekday morning at a $10 table with four players. The pit boss came over, looked around, smiled and said simply "Pay everyone," clapped a few times, said "We have some winners!" and walked away.

Quote: deedubbs

Exactly the same thing happened at the Bellagio on early weekday morning at a $10 table with four players. The pit boss came over, looked around, smiled and said simply "Pay everyone," clapped a few times, said "We have some winners!" and walked away.

This is how the situations really should be dealt with, all pit bosses should learn this story while in school/training.

Yes, this is definately how it should have been handled. However, the Bellagio can afford to keep their patrons happy and pay out an extra $40. It seems like the Eastside Cannery can't.

I had an interesting situation occur at Resorts Atlantic City. I don't know if the dealer was high or what, but when she dealt the cards, she dealt everyone only one card, including herself - an Ace. She then started to ask players if they wanted to take another card. We pointed out her mistake, and she looked dazed for about five seconds, then slowly dealt cards to everyone, like she didn't believe us. Then, as she dealt the second card to herself, she exposed her hole card, which gave her blackjack. She quickly turned it over, and proceeded to point to the first player for his decision. He asked if she was going to offer insurance, since she had an ace showing. She did, everyone took it, and she showed her blackjack. She told the floorperson what happened, and he told her to just push everyone's hand and move on.

Definitely the weirdest casino situation I've ever been party to, save for the dealer at a casino which shall remain nameless who didn't collect winning matchplay coupons. I played 6 hands in a row on the same coupon and won them all, before another dealer told him he needed to take the coupon.

Quote: deedubbs

I was playing at the $5 table Showboat in Atlantic city, where the dealer mistakenly misdealt the player's 2nd card by skipping a player. One of the preceding players had been dealt both cards correctly and had blackjack, but the pit boss said that the hand was void and no one would be paid.

THe way we deal with this situation where I work is: As soon as it was noticed that a player was missed, all further cards that had been dealt would be taken back one by one and placed face down near the shuffling machine/shoe. Then the hand would be dealt correctly to conclusion of the hand. It would be up to the players to decide to use or ignore the information of the value of cards shown. The correctly dealt blackjack would be payed out. All other players would have to play their hands and then be paid or have wagers taken as normal.

Quote: gambler

Yes, this is definately how it should have been handled. However, the Bellagio can afford to keep their patrons happy and pay out an extra $40. It seems like the Eastside Cannery can't.

Very shortsighted thinking.

The truth is, the Belagio did not give away $40. It was merely lent to the players. In return, the players remained at the table longer, and gave back the 'free money'.

On the flip side, the Eastside Cannery got it back immediately, at the expense of unhappy patrons.


And what was the real cost?


We're all talking about it. That's a lot of positive P.R. for Belagio, and negative P.R. for EC.

For 40 measly bucks....

One time my (then) gf and I were playing slots at MGM. This was WAY back when the sltos actually paid out coins :)
Anyway, my gf cashed out for some amount but the machine shorted her about $13 in quarters, yet it acted as if everything had been paid (no hopper refil error, etc). I grabbed a slot supervisor and explained the situation. He opened the machine and found a bunch of quarters caught up in the mechanism somewhere. We told him exactly how much we were owed but instead he grabbed a couple large handfuls of coins from the hopper and put them in our bucket, saying "Just make sure to gamble it here", which we did. :)

Now THAT'S how casino floor people should act.

The floorperson found reasonable evidence that you were telling you the truth, then gave you a bunch of extra quarters for your inconvenience.

Of course, the extra quarters never left the building. And I'm sure you left behind some of you own quarters.

And you've told all your friends about your great experience at MGM. And now you're telling us.

The MGM bought themselves a ton of great P.R. And at what cost? A handful of quarters.

You don't have to know anything about business to know that THAT was a GREAT Return On Investment!

I really wish more establishments (not just casinos) really understood how far a good gesture can go.

Quote: dlevinelaw

I really wish more establishments (not just casinos) really understood how far a good gesture can go.

True story.

Back in the 90s Microsoft ran a promotion in which if you bought Office 95, which was on its way to be replaced by Office 97 in a few months, they'd give you a free upgrade to Office 97. I called MS in Mex City to ask for details, and I followed their instructions to the letter. Upgrade tme comes and I call again, only to be told I'm not elegible because I dind not buy the specially amrked Office 95 package. I spent an afternoon being moved up the chain, but nothing came off it.

Next day I write an email to MS corporate explaining the situation. Two days later I get a call from MS in Mexico asking me whether I want a CD or a floppy version of the upgrade.

I can complain about MS's products (Office 07 is too hard to use), but their customer service is pretty good. I also like their mice.