How To Tip Slot Attendants – What You Need To Know

If you’re going to play slots at the casino, there are a few etiquette rules you need to follow.

This is especially important if you frequent casinos regularly because you want to maintain a good reputation, but being respectful to the staff is always important regardless.

One of the most important things you should know as a slot player is how to tip the slot attendants. 

If you’re a new player, here’s a complete guide to tipping slot attendants, including when and how to tip. 

Why Is Tipping Slot Attendants Important?

Just like restaurant employees and bartenders, slot attendants work in the service industry. Unfortunately, a major downside of working in the service industry is that employees are not paid very much and need to rely on tips to make a decent living. 

Slot attendants, like other casino employees, regularly work long shifts at late hours, so it’s definitely not an easy job to have. 

Additionally, slot attendants are often tipped less frequently than table attendants and dealers simply because there’s less opportunity to tip on the slots (see also “Slots Vs Tables: Which One Should You Choose?“).

It’s easy to tip a table dealer either by making a bet on their behalf or simply tipping at the end of the game, but the correct time to tip is less clear with the slot machines, so the attendants are often left empty-handed. 

All of these are good reasons to make tipping your slot attendant a priority. But how should you do it? Read on to find out. 

When Is The Best Time to Tip?

The first step to tipping your slot attendant is working out the best time to tip. After all, you don’t want to tip at an inconvenient time because your goal with tipping is to be courteous and helpful. 

Slot attendants are mostly paid to check and hand over the jackpot to winning players. Therefore, the appropriate time to tip is when you have won the hand pay jackpot. 

You can either tip your slot attendant(s) when they first come over to verify that you have won the jackpot, or when they come back over to actually give you the money and have you fill out the necessary paperwork. 

This all sounds simple enough, but confusion can arise given the fact that slot machines often have several attendants present for purposes of security. So, who do you tip?

The Best Way To Tip Your Slot Attendant

If multiple attendants are dealing with you at the slot machine, it’s polite to tip them all rather than just the person who actually hands over the money.

However, a lot of players aren’t sure whether they should tip all attendants individually or allow them to split the bill between themselves. 

Tipping each attendant individually can take a while and may feel awkward, so we recommend simply giving a large bill to one of the attendants and asking them to split it with the other attendants. 

Another question a lot of slot players have about tipping attendants is how much they’ll be expected to tip.

There’s no simple answer to this because there are no written rules, but a lot of people will only tip about 1% of their jackpot. That would mean £10 for a £1,000 jackpot. 

Now, this can get tricky because most of the time, the bills you get handed when you win the jackpot are at least £20.

If you feel generous, you might want to simply hand one of those bills back, but if you don’t want to tip this much, we recommend carrying a few smaller bills with you in case this situation arises. 

Is Tipping Obligatory At Slot Machines?

Tipping isn’t obligatory when you win the jackpot on a slot machine in the sense that there’s no law saying you have to tip. Therefore, ultimately, where or not you tip is a personal choice. 

With that being said, most people would consider it quite rude not to tip your slot machine attendant(s) given what we mentioned earlier about casino staff needing to rely on their tips to make a living for the most part. 

While we would recommend tipping whenever you win the jackpot, you can decide how much or how little to tip based on the quality of the service.

Obviously, if the service takes a very long time or there are a lot of mistakes involved, you might be inclined to tip less, but if you receive excellent service, it’s polite to tip more. 

Regardless of whether or not you ultimately decide to tip the attendants at the slot machine, though, please always tip the servers who bring your drinks.

Not all casinos will provide free drinks for their staff, and like the other workers in the casino, beverage servers have to rely on their tips to make ends meet a lot of the time. 

Additionally, waiters and waitresses sometimes have to pay tax on drinks they take onto the floor, so it’s especially important to tip your server when you’re at the casino and make sure not to leave before you get your drink because this could actually cost the server money, which isn’t fair. 

The bottom line is, there’s no legal obligation to tip anyone at the casino, but given how much the staff rely on their tips, it’s morally correct to do so, especially if you receive good service.

Final Thoughts 

Now you know exactly how to tip the slot attendant at your casino, you can play confidently knowing you have all the etiquette knowledge you need.

To make things easier, carry some £10 bills with you when you go to the casino and allow the attendants to split a larger bill between themselves if there are multiple attendants dealing with your jackpot.

Tipping is a personal decision, but when it comes to beverage servers, always tip generously and never leave without paying for a drink you ordered because this could end up costing the server money due to the tax they pay on the drinks they serve. 

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