Roulette Table: DON'T LOOK, FEEL THE CHIPS
S'poreans will be eyeing jobs in our first casino, the Marina Bay Sands. What does it take to be a croupier? ESTHER AU YONG finds out
June 19, 2006
IF you think you have what it takes to roll the dice or deal the cards at a gaming table just because you watch TV shows like Las Vegas and The Unbeatables, think again.
Picking up casino skills is no walk in the park.
The job isn't as glamorous as the TV dramas make it out to be.
Indeed, it's hard work training to be a croupier who manages a game at a table and collects and pays out bets.
Just ask Mr Ramachandar Siva, the operations director of the International Club Games Training Centre (ICGTC) at Bukit Timah's Turf City.
Before you can be a certified croupier, or a card dealer at a casino table, you have to go through hours of training in just handling the cards alone, he told The New Paper on Sunday.
ICGTC was launched earlier this month to teach specialised casino skills such as baccarat dealing. It claims to be the first such hands-on institution in the region.
Built like a real casino, the school has three roulette tables and 19 tables for card games like baccarat, blackjack and poker.
NOT EASY
Mr Ramachandar, the former vice-president of casino training at Star Cruises, said: 'We simulate a real casino environment so that students will be better prepared for their jobs in the future.'
The centre's Certificate in Dealing Casino Games programme will start next month, and it is expecting about 300 students for the first cohort. As of Tuesday, 30 students have signed up for the $4,500 course.
Mr Ramachandar said: 'Many people think card-dealing easy, but it's not.
'Our course is a full-time six-month course. So you can imagine the time and amount of practice you need in order to become a skilled croupier.
'Even then, you start out as a junior croupier or an apprentice.
'The first skill any student must learn is to pick chips and stack them up neatly,' Mr Ramachandar said.
Sounds simple? Wait until you try your hand at it.
I did. Mr Ramachandar invited me to take part in a one-hour basic introduction to the course.
First, he messed up a few stacks of chips on the roulette table and said to me: 'Okay, you try.'
I had to make 11 stacks of 20 chips a minute. I failed miserably, managing only five stacks a minute.
Next, Mr Ramachandar asked me to cut a stack of 20 chips into a few smaller stacks of four or five chips.
Croupiers do this so that it is easier to count and distribute winnings to players.
Mr Ramachandar said: 'You must do it by feeling with your hands. When there are customers around, it's important to do it fast and accurately. You cannot keep on looking and counting the chips as if you're counting coins.'
I fared a little better in this task as it did not involve too many hand movements. Just cut the stack and use the previous stack as an estimate for the next cut.
But the chips sure are slippery.
'Everything in the casino is slippery,' Mr Ramachandar said with a laugh.
Like the cards at the baccarat table.
'Okay, before the game starts, the croupier would display the cards so that players can see that they are legitimate cards and are presented as a full set,' Mr Ramachandar explained, as he skilfully fans out the cards in an evenly-spaced row.
'Your turn,' he beckoned to me.
I was clumsy. The cards first bunched up in batches. Then, some flew off the table. But after several tries, I finally nailed it and the cards fanned out perfectly.
Still, I needed more practice, Mr Ramachandar said.
I also tried to present the cards on a spatula-like device at the high-stakes baccarat table as skilfully as I could manage.
Here, players usually play for a minimum of $10,000 per bet and a maximum of $250,000 per bet.
As I picked up a few chips, I gasped when I saw that each had a marking of '$100,000'. Noticing my expression, he laughed and said: 'Yes, this is no ordinary game.
'You've got to be someone who's worth a lot of money to play at this table.'
The player is likely to be the casino's 'whale'.
'Whale' is casino lingo for high-rollers who think nothing of splurging a few million dollars in one night.
So, while everything about the croupier's job sounds simple, in reality, I felt awkward and incompetent.
Even getting the little ball to turn properly on the roulette wheel took me some time.
A good croupier has to master all the tasks I attempted, and more, Mr Ramachandar said.
'He will also have to do everything with style, and customer satisfaction must be taken into consideration,' he added.
'Not easy, especially when you've got to stand and do all these for eight hours every day.
'Usually, croupiers get a 20-minute break for every 80 minutes of work.'
PAYS QUITE WELL
But the job pays fairly well. Croupiers in the Singapore integrated resorts (IRs) can look forward to earning up to $2,500 a month, Mr Ramachandar said.
He feels that casino jobs will be a new challenge for many Singaporeans.
Besides ICGTC, other educational institutions have also been introducing new courses in tourism and hospitality management, in anticipation of the estimated 30,000 or more new jobs to be generated from the IRs.
Mr Ramachandar said: 'If you are gunning for a job in the IR, it's best to start preparing yourself now.
'Since it's a new concept to many people here, those with some knowledge will be in a better position.'
June 19, 2006
IF you think you have what it takes to roll the dice or deal the cards at a gaming table just because you watch TV shows like Las Vegas and The Unbeatables, think again.
Picking up casino skills is no walk in the park.
The job isn't as glamorous as the TV dramas make it out to be.
Indeed, it's hard work training to be a croupier who manages a game at a table and collects and pays out bets.
Just ask Mr Ramachandar Siva, the operations director of the International Club Games Training Centre (ICGTC) at Bukit Timah's Turf City.
Before you can be a certified croupier, or a card dealer at a casino table, you have to go through hours of training in just handling the cards alone, he told The New Paper on Sunday.
ICGTC was launched earlier this month to teach specialised casino skills such as baccarat dealing. It claims to be the first such hands-on institution in the region.
Built like a real casino, the school has three roulette tables and 19 tables for card games like baccarat, blackjack and poker.
NOT EASY
Mr Ramachandar, the former vice-president of casino training at Star Cruises, said: 'We simulate a real casino environment so that students will be better prepared for their jobs in the future.'
The centre's Certificate in Dealing Casino Games programme will start next month, and it is expecting about 300 students for the first cohort. As of Tuesday, 30 students have signed up for the $4,500 course.
Mr Ramachandar said: 'Many people think card-dealing easy, but it's not.
'Our course is a full-time six-month course. So you can imagine the time and amount of practice you need in order to become a skilled croupier.
'Even then, you start out as a junior croupier or an apprentice.
'The first skill any student must learn is to pick chips and stack them up neatly,' Mr Ramachandar said.
Sounds simple? Wait until you try your hand at it.
I did. Mr Ramachandar invited me to take part in a one-hour basic introduction to the course.
First, he messed up a few stacks of chips on the roulette table and said to me: 'Okay, you try.'
I had to make 11 stacks of 20 chips a minute. I failed miserably, managing only five stacks a minute.
Next, Mr Ramachandar asked me to cut a stack of 20 chips into a few smaller stacks of four or five chips.
Croupiers do this so that it is easier to count and distribute winnings to players.
Mr Ramachandar said: 'You must do it by feeling with your hands. When there are customers around, it's important to do it fast and accurately. You cannot keep on looking and counting the chips as if you're counting coins.'
I fared a little better in this task as it did not involve too many hand movements. Just cut the stack and use the previous stack as an estimate for the next cut.
But the chips sure are slippery.
'Everything in the casino is slippery,' Mr Ramachandar said with a laugh.
Like the cards at the baccarat table.
'Okay, before the game starts, the croupier would display the cards so that players can see that they are legitimate cards and are presented as a full set,' Mr Ramachandar explained, as he skilfully fans out the cards in an evenly-spaced row.
'Your turn,' he beckoned to me.
I was clumsy. The cards first bunched up in batches. Then, some flew off the table. But after several tries, I finally nailed it and the cards fanned out perfectly.
Still, I needed more practice, Mr Ramachandar said.
I also tried to present the cards on a spatula-like device at the high-stakes baccarat table as skilfully as I could manage.
Here, players usually play for a minimum of $10,000 per bet and a maximum of $250,000 per bet.
As I picked up a few chips, I gasped when I saw that each had a marking of '$100,000'. Noticing my expression, he laughed and said: 'Yes, this is no ordinary game.
'You've got to be someone who's worth a lot of money to play at this table.'
The player is likely to be the casino's 'whale'.
'Whale' is casino lingo for high-rollers who think nothing of splurging a few million dollars in one night.
So, while everything about the croupier's job sounds simple, in reality, I felt awkward and incompetent.
Even getting the little ball to turn properly on the roulette wheel took me some time.
A good croupier has to master all the tasks I attempted, and more, Mr Ramachandar said.
'He will also have to do everything with style, and customer satisfaction must be taken into consideration,' he added.
'Not easy, especially when you've got to stand and do all these for eight hours every day.
'Usually, croupiers get a 20-minute break for every 80 minutes of work.'
PAYS QUITE WELL
But the job pays fairly well. Croupiers in the Singapore integrated resorts (IRs) can look forward to earning up to $2,500 a month, Mr Ramachandar said.
He feels that casino jobs will be a new challenge for many Singaporeans.
Besides ICGTC, other educational institutions have also been introducing new courses in tourism and hospitality management, in anticipation of the estimated 30,000 or more new jobs to be generated from the IRs.
Mr Ramachandar said: 'If you are gunning for a job in the IR, it's best to start preparing yourself now.
'Since it's a new concept to many people here, those with some knowledge will be in a better position.'
