Does tipping affect your bottom line

[MDawg]

Here is how I tip in Vegas, as far as non-dealer tips:
I tip the valets on the way in five dollars. This is partly because the valets on the way in usually help the bellman a little bit with unloading luggage from the car. We usually drive into Vegas because we stay so long on each trip and have a lot of luggage. Also by the time we got to the airport arrival and departure we would save maybe an hour given that we live about four hours from Vegas (driving somewhat fast). (The days of being able to arrive at the airport twenty minutes before a flight and have your checked luggage make in on board, are over.) Prefer to just make the trip in a brand new, safe sedan with all the latest auto braking, BLIS, adaptive cruise control, and a police radar detector too. How much luggage? Well, here is most of it stacked from a prior trip:


and that doesn't even include one or two hanging garment bags loaded with this much clothing (picture taken also from that same prior trip):



so it really isn't feasible to fly commercial, and even a small private plane, we would have a hard time loading all this on it.

Back to tips: When I pick up the car, planning return to the same resort for say a venture into town and back, I give them just one dollar, sometimes two dollars. When I return the car I give the valet nothing.

When checking in, if the bellman who loads all the luggage on the cart (at Palms their carts are small, they need two carts for our luggage) is not the one who goes up to the room with us, I give him $10. for loading the luggage. Then the bellman who delivers to the room gets either $15. or $20. depending on my mood.

If the same bellman picks up and brings everything to the room, which is rare actually, but when we checked into Palms the other day the same bellman rode all the way up with us, pushing both carts, I give him $20. or $25., more usually $25. if he does a good job.

On checkout the bellman picks everything up and rides with you to your car, so I just hand him the whole $25. When checking out I am in a good mood having won some money, so I usually tip everyone I encounter who took care of us on the trip five dollars, such as the VIP room attendants. I've left a full twenty in the VIP room at times if I have won a lot. I also give the cashiers something every time I cash my winning checks, usually $5., but if I am cashing out a lot or getting a winning casino check for over ten grand, I will tip $20.

At T.I. during our New Year's stay (the above walk in closet pic is from our suite at T.I.), the bellman who delivered all the luggage just shoved it inside the door and left it there, and it was a huge suite that took a tiny bit of effort for me to later carry it all into the closet, bathroom and bedroom, but I still gave him $15. After he saw the tip I think he felt bad that he hadn't helped more, but he seemed to be in a mood of, "These high rollers don't tip enough so I'm not going to give full service."

So, yes, it takes me about thirty bucks in tips to check in and out of each resort.

When I used to come to Vegas alone, before I got married, I would almost always fly. The limo driver got $20. at airport pickup and $20. at airport drop off. One of them told me that they always expected the tip at pick up, but not at drop off.

"You never know what's going on. People might have lost all their money." was what the driver told me.

A high roller, getting the limo treatment, who loses so much that he doesn't have twenty bucks cash left in his wallet? That seems incomprehensible to me.

As far as in Vegas limo tips: if I have errands to run, for example a business partner and I just closed escrow on a commercial building in Vegas we are now in the process of tenant improving to rent out, I will take my own car.

But if we are going to a social event in Vegas, I will tip the hotel limo driver $10. if it is a Strip to Strip run, and $20. if it is a run from the Strip to downtown (or back from downtown to the Strip). Nowadays compared with Uber, no you're not saving any money by taking hotel transportation, but that's not the point, you gotta take care of these drivers, they live off those tips.

As far as dealer tips, I tip as I am winning by putting dealer bets alongside my own bets. I already outlined this above - start with red $5. chips, and then up to $25. I do not tip dealers every hand by any means, just some hands. Yesterday I had a hand when I placed a black chip for the dealer next to $900. for me, which seems like a lot against a mere $900. bet but it was right after I had won a series of bets on a bank run so I was feeling magnanimous.

One thing I think the dealers like a lot about me is that I get just as excited (well, maybe not QUITE as much), but still, EXCITED, when I win a $300. hand as a $15,000. hand. In fact, maybe more excited with the smaller hands because there is no tension.