dealers sitting vs standing

I guess I'm directing this question to people who work in casinos - dealers in particular.

In my local casino, 5 mini-bac tables (where the dealers were seated) were just replaced with 5 mini-bac tables where the dealers now stand up.

No floor space was gained so there's no direct benefit to the casino there. The games are the same so they didn't replace a low revenue game with a higher revenue game.

Can someone in the business please tell me what reasons there might be for a casino to do this? Many of the dealers are grumbling because standing 6.5 hours per day is a lot more tiring (I would think) than sitting. I would also think that in the long run, seated dealers might be less likely to complain of back or leg pains and miss shifts as opposed to those who stand.

Any ideas? Comments?

Hear about the trainee dealer who stood while dealing at the handicapped blackjack table?

Management whims are beyond comprehension. Dealers may have started grumbling about wanting to be rotated into the sit down positions so managment may have wanted stave off trouble. Who knows? Game Security is always better if a dealer stands. That may have been the deciding factor, I don't know.

Quote: TheNightfly

Can someone in the business please tell me what reasons there might be for a casino to do this? Many of the dealers are grumbling because standing 6.5 hours per day is a lot more tiring (I would think) than sitting. I would also think that in the long run, seated dealers might be less likely to complain of back or leg pains and miss shifts as opposed to those who stand.

Any ideas? Comments?

Not a dealer, but have talked to a bunch regarding sit-down vs stand up tables. Ironically, sitting down is much harder on the back, since you have to bend forward for much of the shift. I play at Horseshoe Southern Indiana, and Pai Gow Tiles is now on a sit down table. The dealer was complaining that not only is the table a bit smaller, but dealing that game sitting down is much harder on the back. Of course, when there's no action on the game (like most of the time) they can sit upright.

Disagree.
Standing is much hard on the knees and feet, which are bothering me.
And standing as a dealer was also harder on my back; I had a back/spinal lock-up from standing in the "Military Attention" position for eight hours while breaking in at the River palms in Laughlin years ago.

I Prefer sitting, and on Pai Gow or BJ or any game. (There was one actually a single dealer sit-down crap game at Casino Royal, a small mini-tub, now gone.)

Anyway, if bus drivers can operate a bus sitting down, and 747 pilots operate a jet sitting down, (not to mention executives in thier offices),
if you don't need to walk around as part of your job, then why stand as part of your job, except to punish the workers?
Two of our primary pit tables are sit down tables.
Better solution.
I am actually not old school.

Quote: FleaStiff

Game Security is always better if a dealer stands.

If that were true, then Surveillance crews would also be standing up erect while looking at their monitors.
And would airline flights be safer with pilots standing up in the cockpit?
Or executives make better decisions if chairs were removed from their offices?

Quote: Fleastiff

I don't know.

I do have a pulse on it...better to sit, and to avoid standing for no ostensible purpose, if you do not need to run around distances as part of your job.
A dealer's hands and brains do his work, his hurting knees should not be an additional annoyance.
Old school folly.

>If that were true, then Surveillance crews would also be standing up erect while looking at their monitors.
Nah, nobody much cares and they don't want to hire more dumb monitor starers anyway.

>Or executives make better decisions if chairs were removed from their offices?
HP years ago had business meetings without any chairs. Worked great for them.

A blackjack dealer is supposed to "walk his game" ... move slightly for surveillance purposes. I think its absurd.

Craps dealers can't sit down but they should exercise and probably should be offered an occasional rotation with a trainee from the spa. Put an attractive trainee and a massage chair in the casino one day a month and watch the spa appointments soar. Casinos that take care of their gamblers as well as their dealers do well.

Wasn't this a "Seinfeld" episode?

Seriously, I have wondered about this kind of thing for years. Part of it seems to be an "American" thing to have people stand instead of sit if they can. Go into an Aldi grocery store if they have them in your area and you will find a sitting cashier. This is not new to them. As a cashier in the 1980s (which I HATED doing) I never understood why we had to stand and couldn't have a "high" seat. I remember the union having an article on how they had chairs in Europe. This was when egronomics and carpal tunnel were just being understood. Some places like Wal-Mart put in registers facing both ways so you had to vary your motion, but still few seat the cashier. Sitting is way harder than walking, IMHO. I'd rather have a job where I walk 10 miles a day than one where I stood in place for 8 hours.

To game protection, I can sort of see where standing helps marginally. Standing gives the dealer a better reach and range of motion.

In the end my guess is that dealers stood in very early casinos so no casino ever changed it since casinos are about the most risk-adverse management as a gorup that you will find.

I am sure some of the shorter dealers would prefer to be sitting rather standing on a metal stool!

As a player i prefer the sitting dealers as that means a short table where i can sit with my feet on the floor.

Quote: kp

As a player i prefer the sitting dealers as that means a short table where i can sit with my feet on the floor.

Good point. I often get tired from having my feet dangle.

Really, tables are for sitting at. Therefore dealers should sit.

That new electronic mini-Bacc dealer just sits there and never stands. Its a set of robotic arms dealing real cards inside a glass enclosed cage. No carpal tunnel syndrome, no burnout, no vacations, no health benefits. Perhaps no players also, I don't know.

Quote: AZDuffman

Wasn't this a "Seinfeld" episode?

hehe thats exactly what i was thinking. where george gives the security guard a rocking chair to sit in. he talked about how he can detect the slightest bit of human suffering. then at the end of the episode the store is being robbed and the security guard is asleep in the chair.

i actually prefer standing to sitting. im 6'4" and its really hard for me to find a comfortable chair. so outside of the casino, im like the quickest person ever in giving up a chair to a lady or elderly person.

Quote: rudeboyoi

i actually prefer standing to sitting. im 6'4" and its really hard for me to find a comfortable chair. so outside of the casino, im like the quickest person ever in giving up a chair to a lady or elderly person.

I had a co-worker, my asst manager, who had a hard time sitting. I had and have a hard time standing. When we needed to discuss somehting we looked like Gotti and Gravano, leaving the building, walking the parking lot, and discussing whatever we had to deal with at the time.

If I ran a casino I would mix the games that allowed sitting or standing so dealers rotated in and out of both. I think that would be best from a customer-service and egronomic standpoint. I slightly prefer the "high" chairs in a stand-up game to the lower ones. BTW: might there be an ADA requirement for so many "low" tables as a % of all tables?