What’s the Standard Cost of Hiring a Poker Dealer or a Casino Night Dealer?

Dial a Dealer has gathered lots of insightful information about the average price that croupiers charge in the UK. (I will add to this article concerning other regions of the world when I get more information about poker and casino night freelance dealers from the USA, Canada, Ireland and Australia).

Most dealers who work the casino night party circuit in the UK charge between £15 and £30 per hour. This charge is just for dealing duties and it rarely includes any casino equipment hire, transport or equipment setup charges. The charge varies depending on the level of experience the dealer possesses and the amount of work available in the overall casino party industry. The charge for hiring poker dealers tends to be as high as £40 an hour as the Christmas Party season kicks in. Most good dealers know that they will be booked out 7 nights a week approaching the festive season, when there is a distinct shortage of talented poker dealers for hire. This is often reflected by a premium in charge rates when hiring poker dealers and croupiers during this period.

For a full service poker/casino event, that includes poker dealer hire, poker table hire and event set up charges, customers can expect to pay a minimum of £40 per hour. The cost can rise substantially; in some cases up to £75 per hour depending on the distance a dealer must travel to service the event. (None of the prices include tips that are often paid to poker dealers).

For large scale corporate poker or fun casino party events (and some private party casino nights), customers can expect to pay much more. Because most corporate casino evenings are multi-table events, customers and events managers often go to a casino events companies or fun casino hire companies that will quote an overall price for running the event. Typically customers can expect to pay £250-£350 per “table”. A table includes a dealer, a roulette/craps/poker table and full set up and removal of equipment. If a casino event requires over three gaming tables, a tournament manager will be required at an approximate charge of £200.

One final tip: To organise the most cost effective casino night, customers should look to rent poker dealers on a Monday/Tuesday night in the middle of summer, when demand is at its slackest. If on the other hand you fancy paying top dollar for your casino night party, you may as well wait for a Friday/Saturday night in the second week of December.

Note: In casinos and card rooms, dealers tend to earn much less. Part-time dealers in casinos normally only earn the minimum wage and often depend on tips or tokes to top up their income. A full-time poker dealer’s annual salary in UK casinos can start at £12k for trainees and go up to £22k for experienced dealers in prestigious London Casinos. Comparatively, freelance croupiers that work the casino night party and events scenes earn more per hour because they get fewer opportunities to work. Casino Nights and Poker Events normally take place on Thursday-Saturday nights with an average duration of 3.5 hours. You will often find that most freelance dealers will have previously trained in a casino, and they now work a day job in a totally unrelated industry while working 2/3 nights a week at corporate casino events.