Life of a casino croupier

THEIR working day often starts at dusk or while the rest of us are tucked up in bed, but being on the job at night has not darkened these workers’ outlook on life, with many saying they wouldn’t swap having their days free for a regular 9-5 career. 

Cynthia Newman, 40, dealer/floor manager, Brisbane Treasury Casino & Hotel, Shift: 8pm-4am

I grew up in Victoria, with my parents, older brother and sister. When I came to Brisbane (at 19) I was looking for work, anything to earn some money. I found it quite difficult to get into any field because, being that young, obviously I hadn’t had much experience.

The casino was advertising for people to train as croupiers. My brother lived up here, he got into it and said, “why don’t you come and try this?”. So I did. I’ve been here almost 20 years. There’s a whole group of us that were trained the year before we opened. We call ourselves “The Originals”.

My partner Sean works here as a pit manager. He has two teenage children. I enjoy working the night shift. I have been doing it four nights on, three nights off, for six years. It’s exciting and that’s the busiest time for us.

I am Brisbane Treasury Casino 2014 Female Dealer of the Year and competed in the 2014 Australasian Dealer of the Year competition. This is the second time I’ve been chosen. We get judged on the technical side of it, but also customer service and how you interact with players.

I really enjoy the social aspect of the job. Apart from the guests in the casino, there’s also the team members, that’s a big part of it. We have many regular people who come in, but I enjoy the people who don’t come in that often and it’s a night out for them. They’re there to have a good time and it’s an experience for them. They’re having fun and that enables me to enjoy the time with them and help them have fun.

Obviously, it helps if they’re winning. That can be one of the hard parts of the job, if they’re not having a good run and they keep losing, you can get blamed a bit –“You just keep taking all my money!” You think, “nooooo, I’m just doing my job”.

That’s another thing people ask, don’t you get bored doing the same thing every day? I kind of am (doing the same thing), but you meet such a diversity of people, it’s something different every day and I like that. When you get those tables that aren’t having such a good time, there’s always the next hour where there’s that possibility of meeting someone who brightens your day.

It’s only been a couple of times, but the biggest bet that we’re allowed to have is $400,000. The biggest win would be a couple of million. Those are people with more money than I can imagine. It’s funny because quite often they’ll win and then give it straight back again. They’ve got so much money, it’s not about them winning or losing the money, it’s just about playing the game.

Because you sleep during the day, there are days when I wake up in the afternoon, it’s an absolutely glorious day and I think: “Oh, I’ve just missed out on basically the whole day”. That can make you feel a bit down at times.

Catching up with family and friends can be difficult, because you’re on a complete opposite schedule to most other people. That’s the good thing with my partner, though, because we both work the same hours, at least we’re on the same clock. We go to the movies quite a bit.