Testimonials
In this section, we feature testimonials by individuals who share their stories of success about how they took the leap and became team leaders, staff managers and organizational directors within the gaming industry or are entrepreneurs that serve the field.
Table Games - The Forgotten Casino Manager
By Keith KefgenSource: Hospitality Career Net
30 June 1999
With the gaming industry so focused on slots, have table game managers been relegated to second class citizens? We hope not, but the attraction to slots is clear, high volume, predictable returns, low labor costs and difficult to cheat. The irony is that table games built this industry and they continue to attract the major casino players, or "whales". To keep table games from becoming obsolete, managers need to be more creative, aggressive and customer service oriented. So how do table game managers stack up against their slot counterparts when payday comes?
According to our HCE Hospitality Compensation Exchange survey, the average Top Table Games Executive trailed the Top Slot Executive by approximately $5,000 in base salary and $600 in bonus compensation in 1998. Nationally, table games execs realized an insignificant change in compensation from the previous year. The median base salary rose just over $1,000 to $70,200 in 1998, an increase of less than 2%. The median bonus increased just $420 over 1997 levels. A far cry from the 16% jump in pay slot executives experienced over the same time period.
Compensation for table game managers varied by casino type and location. Land-based casino paid approximately 10% more in base salary than their riverboat counterparts, according to our survey. Furthermore, the large mature markets of Las Vegas and Atlantic City paid significantly more than the smaller, newer jurisdictions. Bonus pay followed a similar pattern, with land-based casinos paying higher bonuses than riverboats. As a percentage of base salary, land-based casino paid more than riverboats.
I think its safe to say that the days of a dealer becoming president of a casino are over. For good or bad, the future leaders of the gaming industry will be professional managers not professional gamblers. We strongly recommend that table game managers remember one word, "cross-training".
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