Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

I’m a 60-year-old college teacher thinking about what I want to do with myself when I retire in a couple of years. I really enjoy playing poker live, and like watching the people and how they play almost as much as I like playing myself. I think I’d like dealing, and I think I’d be good at it. So I was wondering if becoming a novice dealer at age 62 is a reasonable thing to work towards, or is it considered a young person’s job, (particularly by those likely to be doing the hiring)?

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

There are LOTS of dealers in exactly your situation. LOTS. It's a job you can do sitting down, it keeps you around people, and it gives you spending money. Look around most any Vegas poker room and you'll see dealers ranging from 21 to 75 (I was gonna say "81" but I don't recall any octogenarian dealers...not that there couldn't be). The standard story for those >60 is "I retired and my wife told me after 6mo I had to get out and do something."

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

You can also check around in your local area for companies that do casino parties. Its a lot more relaxed then in a real casino. If you live in LA, pm me and I can give you a name and number or two.

As for doing it professionally... go for it. Like Bav says there are plenty of dealers that are on the opposite side of retirement age that are still working and earning decent money doing it too.

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

Thanks bav and dbldwnblue! I live in WV and never gave this any thought until the state legalized table games at a couple of racetracks. From all the complaints in other threads about the novice dealers at Wheeling Downs and Mountaineer, I figure I couldn’t be any worse, and maybe better. Sometime in the next couple years I’ll find a way to take a course and give it a try.

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

I know that some of the indian casinos here in CA will train their dealers if they are employees already. I worked for a short time at an indian casino in east county San Diego and if I could have stuck around longer I wuld have taken their courses on BJ, Roulette, Craps and more.

Sadly that didnt work but I thankfully found the joys of that which this board is about. And dont plan to look back at the other games ever again.

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

It can be pretty decent pay as well. At Bay101, the dealers make minimum wage, get health benefits and a good dealer takes down about $300/day in tips, only part of which is declared to the IRS

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I’m a 60-year-old college teacher thinking about what I want to do with myself when I retire in a couple of years. I really enjoy playing poker live, and like watching the people and how they play almost as much as I like playing myself. I think I’d like dealing, and I think I’d be good at it. So I was wondering if becoming a novice dealer at age 62 is a reasonable thing to work towards, or is it considered a young person’s job, (particularly by those likely to be doing the hiring)?

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Do one thing before you venture to this part-time job. Take a deck of cards and shuffle (if electronic shufflers are absent) than deal them out for 3 or 4 hours straight. Take a 30 minute breather and come back for more. Don't know about you Sir but I myself wouldn't want to do it. You're retired, play poker.

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I’m a 60-year-old college teacher thinking about what I want to do with myself when I retire in a couple of years. I really enjoy playing poker live, and like watching the people and how they play almost as much as I like playing myself. I think I’d like dealing, and I think I’d be good at it. So I was wondering if becoming a novice dealer at age 62 is a reasonable thing to work towards, or is it considered a young person’s job, (particularly by those likely to be doing the hiring)?

[/ QUOTE ]

Try contacting your local Casino party/monte carlo company. Explain you are a poker player and you would like to deal parties/ tournaments for them. Try it for a few events, if you like the work, then try to get on with a casino/ go to dealers school.

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Do one thing before you venture to this part-time job. Take a deck of cards and shuffle (if electronic shufflers are absent) than deal them out for 3 or 4 hours straight. Take a 30 minute breather and come back for more. Don't know about you Sir but I myself wouldn't want to do it. You're retired, play poker.

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Yes, that's a completely different issue altogether. Some folks LOVE the job. It's mostly easy on the body if you can avoid carpal tunnel and back issues, and the pay generally doesn't suck, relatively speaking. But whether you want to put up with the a-hole drunks is a question. Whether you will find the repetitive nature of the job mind-numbing is a question.

But around Vegas there are PhD's dealing, ex-lawyers, ex-software monkeys, ex small business owners, etc. and they've been doing it for years and still like it.

I've played amateur dealer for hours at a time in home poker tourneys. I'm good at it for about 90 minutes, and then my concentration is gone and I start sucking. I can still mechanically heave the cards and do that part fine, but I no longer follow the action constantly and end up screwing up at a regular pace. Pretty sure I couldn't do the job fulltime for long stretches.

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

i once played with a dealer who claimed to be 91
he dealt like it

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

im gonna hijack this thread for a bit.... im graduating college in the spring and likely heading to vegas with a friend. my friend will be living there full time as he's getting a job with harrahs, so im tagging along for some "vacation" time, looking to spend 6mo-1yr out there and obviously need a job.... my question is: what experience would i need in order to get a job dealing cards (preferably holdem, but i could do table games) as a 22 year old, and will I hate this job (bc as of now i think it sounds like it would be fun). also could i actually support myself out there doing this if i dont burn my money? somebody help me out

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

dont see why you couldnt. From what I have heard it is hard to get into one of the places on the strip unless you have been working for a while. However you can work off strip a lot easier. I dont know if this is true. I dont work there (I work in LA).

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

why don't you just learn how to beat the game for a marginal profit playing NIT style and supplement yourself that way?

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

I work with several dealers who are 65+. I don't reccomend dealing for a retirement job. Also it is very difficult to find a part-time dealing job. The only part-time dealing jobs are tournament gigs which new dealers will be lucky to crack $50 in tokes. Good full time dealers can crack $300 a day in tokes.

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

In AC it's just the opposite, all dealers start out part time. It's also not uncommon to see a few older dealers.

I'm not retirement age but I moonlight as a PT dealer for now. The money is decent but typically a lot less than what some people say it is. I don't think it's a bad PT job all-in-all, especially if you don't have to depend on the income, it's not always steady.

I'll also point out that dealing is unlike playing in almost every sense. I don't find dealing particularly enjoyable (most dealers don't), but I still love playing. It's not the same at all.

If you're just looking to do it PT for supplemental income, it's fine if you have fairly thick skin. It's not how I'd want to spend any of my retirement... I mean you certainly won't get treated with the type of respect you're probably accustomed to teaching at college.

Re: Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?
 

dealing is work. playing is fun. However I do enjoy dealing and as they say if you do something you enjoy you arent really working at all...