How to be a Great Croupier
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Tamas Adam from Swiss Casinos, the 2019 European Dealer Champion, chats with Damien Connelly
o be consistently good means you’re better than good. How’s this for consistency? Champion 2017, second 2018. Tamas Adam achieved that in Switzerland’s national Dealer Championships. That allowed him to enter the European Dealer Championship. Second 2018 and Champion 2019. There’s a lot to learn from Tamas Adam about how to be a great croupier. A great croupier positively impacts handle. Operators know this. Customers will have a whale of a time (pardon my deliberate pun) at a table with a great croupier. What makes a great croupier? Who better to ask than the 2019 European Dealer Champion, Tamas Adam, who works with Swiss Casinos at Casino Pfäffikon. Thank you for sharing your time with Casino Life, Tamas. What made you decide to be a croupier? I enjoy meeting and interacting with people. 14 years ago, I saw an advert in a newspaper offering training courses to become a casino croupier. We started with 32 people and finished with 12. After one month working in casinos, some of the 12 people couldn’t do the job for various reasons (nerves and counting problems were the common stumbling blocks). Out of the original 32 applicants and the 12 who completed the course, three people made successful careers as casino croupiers. Of those three, I am the only one still working in the casino business — one now works in the IT industry, and one works in the hotel industry. Both, curiously, also work in Switzerland. Another major reason for my becoming a croupier was the international opportunities it gives you as a career. I grew up in Hungary and wanted to work in foreign countries. I had this impression of the casino industry and what it would be like to work in a casino from seeing casinos in movies and discussed in the media.
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Tell us some detail about Tamas Adam. What makes you get out of bed in the morning (or maybe afternoon, given you work in the live tables department)? Every day is different. Customers can be totally new, they can be the same customers and they can be both. The group dynamics are different every day. That, for me, keeps this job refreshing. There’s also the excitement of being a croupier. This excitement comes from the games you work on, the colleagues you work with and our customers. Being a croupier, your job is to interact with and entertain people.