Dealing as a part-time job in retirement?

[Bats]

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)?

[bav]

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."

[dbldwnblue]

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.

[Bats]

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.

[dbldwnblue]

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.

[p4594spa]

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

[Paulie Walnuts]

[ 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 ]

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.

[Dennisa]

[ 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.

[bav]

[ 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.

[/ QUOTE ]
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.

[mo42nyy]

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