The Role Of The Pit Boss Explained
Understanding who’s in charge at a casino guarantees you the peace of mind that someone has your back while you’re playing.
In this case, the pit boss oversees all staff and players in the pit. The pit is the area in a casino dedicated to the casino tables of blackjack, baccarat, craps and roulette which are each assigned a dedicated dealer and floorman. Each floorman in turn oversees six dealers.
Having all eyes on your during casino play has its advantages.
Fair Play For All
When it comes to the pit boss, he ensures the dealer treats you fairly and is sticking to game rules and following protocol; that you’re protected from pickpockets looking out to steal your wallet and your chips – despite the security cameras on the floor. He also ensures that you have recourse to an arbitrator in the event your floorman cannot adequately resolve a discrepancy between you and your dealer.
He safeguards your personal space in the event you’re suddenly surrounded by players who are too rowdy when they win or lose.
At the heart of it, the pit boss’s role is mainly to observe, to watch the goings-on within the confines of his area at a casino, and to make sure the rules of each game are adhered to, to ensure fair play at all times so that neither Casino or player are mistakenly or deliberately cheated out of their winnings.
A Number 1 rule in the pit is that no player counts cards, ever. A card-counter spots an empty seat at a table, and tracks the cards, and if there’s a card sequence they’ll signal to their friends to come to a table. This also happens when players come to the casino in teams, and you’ll have a row of players standing behind the first at a table, tracking the action.
Card counting is not illegal, but the casino needs to take precautions to safeguard its assets, and so takes steps to limit the accessibility of tables to card counters. They’ll do this by telling card counters that their minimum bet is their maximum bet, which means they can’t bet more than the table minimum.
However, you might be surprised to know that this is not where the pit manager’s responsibilities end. The pit boss keeps inventory of each table’s wins and losses, as well as player credits. This happens each time a dealer clocks off from his shift. He also oversees staff rosters, ensuring they are available to work particular shifts, and oversees sick leave and vacation time.
Pit Boss Attributes
The pit boss is physically commandeering, has a no-nonsense approach to injustice, has years of experience in dealing and knows the rules of each game inside out being adept at keeping track of high-speed mathematical calculations.
It’s this attention to detail that makes the candidate for a pit boss a very rare find: possessing the qualities of diplomacy and authority, he is both welcoming and hospitable, and yet he commands respect when dealing with conflict resolution.
