[octop]

Ok Ill be the first to agree atleast in part with the OP
I think a big part of his point was why do we tip some people in certain professions and not others?
For example if i go to Mcdonalds I don't tip. However the other day I walked into my bneighborgood diner for breakfast and ordered and bagel and corn muffin TO GO yet still felt compelled to tip the waitress who put forth as much effort as the Mcdonalds worker, and as the OP stated I think its based more on tradition than anything else.

As far as dealers go:
In blackjack I tip nothing. The tips are pooled, 95% of dealers suck at best and at worst intentionally offer bad advice.

Poker dealers:
I used to only tip good dealers. In some casinos this was almost everyone.In many casinos it was almost noone ( my last trip to the Taj I saw one good dealer in about 15 hours of play.) However I noticed that some players did not like when I stiffed a crappy dealer so now Ill tip just to keep the fish happy.
On the Taj trip I had 2 extremes. One dealer was not only bad, but I started talkign to him when he first sat down and he started bitching to me about his lack of tips (he had gotten tips on the 2 pots he had dealt so far.)He went on to say that women get more tips and him being and old white guy gets screwed no matter how good he is (he happened to blow ass- in his one down he made 3 mistakes and was a slow dealer) He got nothing from me when I took d own an 800 dollar pot- I didnt care if this pissed the fish off this guy was a disgrace.
The only good dealer I had was the best Ive ever had. He got so many hands out, was on top of everything and kept the fish happy. I did not win a single pot when he was there (which was impressive as he literlerly got out almost twice as many hands in his down as anyone else.) He left before I could tip him, nut I went out of my way to find him, tip him and tell him what a good job he did.