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THE
SUNSHINE STATE |
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and casino
dealing
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Dicedealer.com
interviews craps dealers about their career on the gambling boats of the
Florida 'Day
Cruise'
www.suncruzcasino.com www.seaescape.com www.casinoprincesa.com
Florida does not have legalized
casino gambling. It does, however, have a thriving day-cruise industry which
offers gamblers the opportunity to board ships that cruise offshore where casino
gambling is legal. From the east coast the boats sail three miles out into the
Atlantic Ocean and from the west coast the boats travel nine miles out into the
Gulf of Mexico. Generally,
from what I read you will find that the larger ships have more of a
variety of things to do besides the gambling. Since late 1994 many smaller ships have
begun operations. All ships
offer: slots, video poker, blackjack, craps, roulette and Caribbean stud. Some casinos also offer: baccarat,
mini-bac and sports books. I like that, I could see myself out on one of these
boats with a beer in hand making a little wager or two on some football (as a
customer of coUrse) You'll also see some poker, pai gow, let it ride and bingo. Apparently,
each boat sets its own minimum gambling age: on
some boats it's 21 and on others it's 18. Oh great, just imagine dealing dice to
a bunch of 18 year olds. The minimum drinking age on all boats
is 21.
So for those of us
that don't know about the gig down there I've arranged for a couple of dice
dealers (good 'ol boys I'm sure) to talk about some of that there 'sunshine
dealing'. Sounds to me like they're having a blast and the Dicedealer.com
inquiring minds want to know. I should also mention that South Carolina also has two
gambling cruise ships which sail three miles out into international waters where
casino gambling is permitted. www.emeraldprincesscasino.com
Scott: Thanks
for doing this Shawn your too cool my man. Let me ask you, first tell us about how this works.
Apparently
you go out into international waters for
a few hours the return to port? Or do we go out all day?
Shawn:
My
personal experiences in daily cruises involved the ship going out three times a
day. That's three miles out into international waters before any gaming can take
place usually about a 40 minute ride (depending on whether the boat is a piece of
shit or not). Its actually kind of fun: as we ride out everyone buys in while we
are waiting. By the time you hit the three mile mark you have at least sixteen
blood-thirsty gambling degenerates waiting to go at it. When the slot machines
flicker on all hell breaks loose! Three or four hours later (depending on the
cruise), the slot lights go off indicating the end of that gambling session. Its
tough coconuts if you were in the middle of a roll. Lights are out and that's
it. Any remaining money on the layout is returned to anybody left standing and
its a nice cruise back in.
Scott:
What are we talking about, 8 hours a day five days a week?
Shawn: Well,
eight to ten cruises a week depending on how busy that time of
the year is and whether you have any hiring shortages. That works out to 4
days where you cruise twice and then a couple of days where you only have one
cruise. Then of course you can always "jump ship" if you really don't
want to work that day. What would a casino job be without an early out list!
Scott:
I realize it's called day cruise's but do any of these ships go out at night?
Shawn: Ummmm
yea. The last cruise of the day leaves around 7 pm and comes back around midnight
After you de-greet the customers its a race for the bar
near the ship for last call.
Scott:
How many ships (Casino companies) are there?
Shawn:
Well, there are at least two that I
know of. Sterling Casino is a new company (two years anyways) and they have at
least one ship out of Cape Canaveral. The company that I worked for was SunCruz Casino and they have ships all over the state both on the east coast and the
west coast. As far I know, SunCruz is the largest company in Florida
Scott:
Which ships did you deal on?
 Shawn:
I worked out of Cape Canaveral which is probably one of the best ports
to work out of. Sterling casino cruise also works out of the same port and it makes for a very exciting port
to be in, lots of activity. The cost of living here is good, lot's of things to
do and see. The laid back Florida lifestyle is second to none.
Scott:
How did you get the training to deal craps? Are there dealing schools in
Florida?
Shawn:
I learned to deal dice in New York and I'm unaware of any schools in
Florida at this time. All of the people that I had the pleasure (or displeasure)
of working with were from all over the world. Its a great mix of people and an
unending source of casino stories.
Scott:
Sounds fun, how much can one expect to make dealing Dice? Don't give me a
figure, just give us a hint.
Shawn:
Well, no matter what you deal you
get the same cut of tokes depending on what you make each day. For the sake of
my friends down here I'll only say that you make a good living (once
again, this depends on what ship your on). How much we make was never discussed
except among the people that work there.
Scott:
Good enough, let me ask you this, If your working in international waters do you still have to pay U.S. taxes?
Shawn:
Yes, your employed by a U.S.
company and you pay income taxes like anybody else. I just picked up my money at
the end of the week and let the people that deal with tax situation do their
job.
Scott:
Lets say I'm down here in Vegas and I want to try to get a job on one of these
boats, what do I do?
Shawn:
Move to Florida.
Scott:
Here we go again, each interview on this site someone has to be a smartass! Of
coUrse I one would want to move there, but you want to make sure you can get a
job first. Do I go down there
and set up an interview in person, do I send a résumé, can I e-mail an application?
How does this work?
Shawn: From
personal experience I can tell ya that you have to have some balls when trying
to get a job with these people. I quit my old job because my friend told me
"yea, come on down you can probably get a job". I thing I got lucky in
that they were short dice dealers at the time. Plan on taking a trip down there
just to audition and see if you got your sea legs or not. Barfing on your
audition is not a good idea but at least you will know where you stand.
Scott:
Did you ever get sea sick?
Shawn:
No but I've seen plenty of rooks (first time boat
dealers) feed the fish! Pretty funny. Always makes for a good laugh.
Scott:
Deal dice in storms?
Shawn: Oh hell yes.
There's a rhythm to it believe it or not. I love the ocean. Sometimes you
play cat and mouse with the storms. The captain would never put the passengers
and crew at risk however.
Scott:
Boat drills and all that?
Shawn: Casino dealing on any of these boats is somewhat similar to
luxury liners in respect to safety procedures and boat drills we are all trained
in. That Steve guy you interviewed in your cruise ship section explains and
emphasizes very well the seriousness when it comes to the safety of the passengers
and crew. No different here.
Scott:
Good experience for you down there? Any regrets?
Shawn: No regrets.
Dealing
dice on a boat is a great experience for anybody. You get the chance to work
with people from all over the world and learn from their experiences. You see
some good action from time to time. Lots of things to do. Perhaps watching the launching of the space
shuttle (which you can see perfectly), or if your really short on things to do
you can always make fun of the BJ dealer that turned away from his game in the
pit and yaked in the garbage container. Bottom line: I've had some good times working on these boats.
Scott:
Space shuttle launch. I can see it now.....Thanks
Shawn, I appreciate your time.
Shawn: . Cool site Scott. Good luck
Scott: You
too my brother.
Scott:
Hello Matt, thanks for taking the time to do this. I understand you're going to
talk with us about Sterling Day Cruise also out of
Canaveral.
How long with Sterling?
Matt: I was one of the people that opened the boat back in
August of '97. 
I broke in the casino business at Player's Island in St. Louis, Missouri
Scott: How did you find out
about the job when you we're in St. Louis and where did you stay when you
arrived?
Matt: A friend of mine that I worked with in St. Louis had to move back to Orlando because of family reason's. Anyway, he heard about
Sterling opening and called me and told me who to call. Then I had to fly down there for an audition and to fill out the paperwork. When we moved down there we stayed in a hotel until we could find a condo to rent.
Scott: So
you didn't know anybody personally? In other words are these dealing gigs
'juice' jobs?
Matt: Yea I guess you could say that was true. I don't know of anybody who just walked in and got a job. You don't have to know one of the boss's you just have to know somebody that can put in a good word for you.
Unfortunately that is how some of the management was picked and you end up with a couple of real winners if you know what
I mean.
Scott:
Do you disagree with anything Shawn had to say above?
Matt: Nothing major. You actually go into federal waters not international
waters, other than that overall it's pretty much the same as he described. We did some things differently at
Sterling, the big difference was that we went shift for shift with
tokes, therefore the money was real good if you had the right cruises. Obviously the weekends
are better than weekdays and the night cruises are generally the best. You must get your seniority to get the good
cruises or bribe the scheduler, that works too.
Scott:
When we talked on the phone you claim these dealing jobs on day cruises aren't
always as much fun for a dealer as perhaps Shawn described?
Matt: Again, I can only speak
about Sterling most of these boats are small operations so they sweat the money real bad.
They're always breathing down your back. If a BJ game is dumping they will switch the dealers out every ten minutes.
They will switch dice crews if a table is blowing up. I have even seen them switch a whole set of dice out in the middle of a roll.
All of these things pissed off player's which hurt our money. I seems each time
we made a huge score the bosses would 'over schedule' dealers to keep the toke
rate down plus boat drills at 7 am... things like that. But I'll tell you
Scott, when you first start out you don't mind so much because the money is so
good. After a while you start to get sick of all the bullshit when you lose. The
main reason a good portion of the dealers move down to the larger casinos
in Mississippi or Vegas is to get away from
all the sweat.
Scott: Here in Las Vegas, times
have changed so much in resent years with the shopping malls, kids and roller coasters
and all that, would it be fair to assume the industry down there caters strictly
to gamblers? 
Matt: Absolutely. On the ships there is nothing to do but gamble. They provide a cheap
buffet but that is it. They want you on there to gamble. They only have three and half hours to get your money and they don't want you doing anything else. Although I think cater is the wrong word. They don't do anything for the player's, unless you are a consistent loser. They might buy your lunch at a local restaurant so that you will come back on the night cruise but that's about it.
Scott: Matt, can you tell
us about minimum bets and limits on the dice tables?
Matt: The standard limits are 5 - 500 with 5 times odds across the board. They will raise the limits if someone asks and provides enough money upfront but that doesn't happen very often. A couple of times a year you will see 25 - 1000 but that is only for major holiday's.
Scott:
How many dealers work on
the boat? Are they all full time? Are they mostly men or a good mix of both men
and women?
Matt: On Sterling there are about 100 dealers. For the most part they are young -- under 35-- and there is a good mix of men and women. However, the thinking in the dice pit is very old school which of course means no women. I think there is one women who deals there regularly. But overall
I would say the mix is pretty much 50-50. As for the full-time, there are 14 cruises a week. You have to work at least 6 in order to keep your job.
Most people work between 7-10 cruises a week.
Scott:
Anything else you would like to add before we wrap this up?
Matt: If anybody is thinking about going down there to work I don't want them to think it's all bad.
Living down there is really nice. I had a condo that was about 300 feet from the
beach. I got to play golf every week all year, go scuba diving, and the theme parks are
allot of fun. Living in Florida is great, as a matter of fact I would go back if I could work for a different company. Sterling just isn't a good company to work for. It was hard to leave
Florida but there is only so much that you can put up with before you have to move on.
Scott:
Matt, we all appreciate you
answering our questions, I can't thank you enough my brother. We have a better
understanding about dealing on the Florida Day Cruise.
Matt: No problem Scott. If you need anything else just let
us know.
Your feedback is welcome
Dealers respond
I use to work
at sterling out of Canaveral. let me tell you. THEY SWEAT THE MONEY!!! no matter
what anyone else says, they sweat the money. Every manager puts heat on the pit,
they put heat on the floor, and the dealers hear it from BOTH the pit and the
floor. Sometimes if your really lucky, you'll be on a quarter game, dumping
about a grand (that's right only $1000) and you get tapped out, only its not
your break. they just wanted to let you know what they thought of you. And all
this heat comes from corporate. I have been on dice crews where the whole crew,
even the box was yanked...
I came down to Florida after working for three years at Turning Stone Casino in
August of 1997. I originally worked on a boat called Diamond Royal and Sun Cruz
bought them out in Oct of 1997.
Sterling Casino is much different than Sun Cruz. Our management does not
sweat the money and customers have noticed that and told us they enjoy coming
to our boat because of this. Sterling does not offer the amenities to guests
that we do, we have a hot buffet on board that differs each day, we also have
an ala cart menu and we have a restaurant that serves a buffet to the guests
that come by bus with tour groups. We have cash back payouts on our slots and
a players club card that offers gifts to regular players.
I think that Matt from Sterling may have turned some dealers off from coming
down here to work. I think you should talk to the dealers that have been down
here for a few years and who are still down here to get a real look at the
industry down here. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have . I
am # 7 on the seniority list on SunCruz so I have seen it all in this Port.
My name
is Phillip and I spent two years working in and around Florida's
Gulf Coast. I worked on three different ships as an all games dealer.
I
loved the life even though it took me moving to Northern Michigan and
working for a Native Casino to realize just how fantastic it was. The
"boat" life is not for everyone. You have to be a somewhat
strong
personality to get by. I would not recommend this for anyone that is new
to
the industry. As you know we dealers can be a little brutal when new blood
shows up and the "boats" are no exception. Your audition is the
key factor
in your success in getting a job, more so than land based gaming. If the
crew doesn't like the way you carry yourself, forget about it! There were
times when the dealers made the call about hiring someone. Dealer crews on
the Florida ships can be a very tight bunch and not only are you trying to
impress the Managers and supervisors you're also trying to get in good with
dealers. Thankfully I had success in each audition and I feel it was in
part due to my very outgoing and highly professional personality. 14 years
experience didn't hurt either. Anyone thinking of going down needs to
consider some factors:
Seasickness.
Cancelled cruises (missed shifts) due to weather.
Low (way low) hourly wage.
Working double shifts on a consistent basis.
Instability of the company that employs you (one day you show up and the
ship is gone!).
Dramatic highs and lows in toke rates.
Conflicting dealing styles and ideas of Vegas and A.C. people.
Cliques in the dealer crew that set out to make your life miserable.
Other than that I found that it was the most unique and fun job I've ever
had. I met some wonderful people and made some great friends that I
wouldn't trade for anything. The Florida life is the life for me and I
can't wait to get back to it!!!
Dealers
shouldn't start flocking to Florida to make great money on the day
cruises. I work for Sterling and Matt was right on in all his observations
but he forgot to mention that during the tourist season the day cruises are
packed with geriatric nickel slot and low limit blackjack players. It's not
unusual to make less than forty dollars a cruise in the day time after
standing around for hours on a dead game. The ship gets so crowded most of
your break time is spent navigating your way around people.
If you are a really bad dealer you can almost assuredly get a job on the
Sterling as a floor supervisor. The pay is low but many dealers who can't
pass an audition are offered floor jobs and often supervise games they've
never dealt. It's a different world on the Florida Day Cruises.
I
worked out of ft Myers beach for Europa ( no longer in business in fla.)
Sea Kruz. We had to go out 9 miles the trip took about 1 hour. Most of the
passengers ate dinner , drank and listened to music on the way out a half
hour before the casino opened we had to set up, load the cards in the shoes
set up the chairs clean the tables. When we reached international waters we
opened up. I loved it.
I go out at least eight times a week. Some guys
even go out 10 times
a week. On the gulf side the ship had to go out 9 miles so there is more
travel time than on the east coast. A couple of times we had all night
cruises that were fun to work. Its cool on the way out I would sit in the sun
and watch the dolphins swimming in front of the boat. On the way in we are
allowed to drink
There are 2 ship in Ft Myers the Big M and Sun Kruz.
the Big M is not run
by gaming guys so they really sweat the money. in fact on one cruise the
craps table lost 70 thousand so they tossed it overboard into the gulf. No
more craps on the Big M. The Sun Cruise is a good company to work for .
The money is ok but you have to sail alot. Some
days I left home at 930 am
and got home at 1 am the next day. Long hours but you only deal about 3
hours per cruise.
It is not easy to get a job there. It always helps
to know someone. Also
it helps if you are a cute chick as you can never have enough of them. They
want hands so you better be a fast dealer. Also you must be a multi gamer .
Be prepared to deal everything as sometimes there is no craps game ( no players)
Hello Scott, I'm originally from Vegas and thought
I would give Florida a try. I really like the state, lots of things to do,
however, I still get sick on these boats. In rough waters I felt ill many times.
What's a girl to do? It took me many months to get used
to it. If you got sea sick and were unable to deal you got docked. When the
waters were rough some dealers jumped ship to avoid getting seasick. We always
tried to sail even in a hurricane. Once the coast guard forced us to come in.
Many passengers got sick sometimes they got sick the minute we pulled away
from the dock it was funny to see them laying all over the place. One cruise I
counted 26 passengers sick. Some common remedies are candied ginger,
sea
bands, bonine and motion sickness medicine.
We are forced to come in and drill sometimes on
your day off. The
drills are mandatory and inspected by the coast guard.
Scott, dealing down here is a great experience. I
do everything but sail the ship. we do many jobs besides dealing. Some of them
are: greeting passengers, making vip cards, emptying drop boxes, counting
currency, figuring the win / loss of all the games, sorting cards, taking meter
readings from the slots, pulling the validators from the slots , counting all
the money in the slots breaking up fights , subduing rowdy passengers. We do all
this stuff for shit money per hour. I fucking love it!
I've
worked these boats for years. It's not a bad gig for a single guy who likes the
beach and sunshine all year round. And the babes........
Florida 'Day
Cruise'
Dicedealer.com
You asked, we
answered
Home page
LINKS TO THE FLORIDA DAY CRUISE
SOME WITH ONLINE EMPLOYMENT INFORMATION
Great site with up to date
employment info
Multi-game dealers wanted:
Las Vegas style daily cruises
To pier 21 Galveston, Texas
Click here
for online application
Or fax résumé to 409-621 2750
Coming soon,
Dicedealer.com gets the information you asked about on dealing jobs from the Caribbean
Islands!
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