For you / Casino dealers

By NorseHorse. Updated October 16, 2026. General information, not legal or tax advice.

How dealers get paid

A dealer's pay has two parts: an hourly wage and a share of the tokes, the tips players give the dealers. At many properties tokes go into a box, get counted, and are split among the dealers by hours or another house formula, then paid out by the shift, by the day or with your paycheck. Because the pool depends on the whole floor, your hourly take can swing a lot from week to week.

The hourly part depends on your state. Under federal law, a casino can pay a tipped employee (someone who customarily and regularly gets more than $30 a month in tips) as little as $2.13 an hour and count up to $5.12 an hour of tips toward the $7.25 minimum. That's the tip credit. The casino must tell you before taking one, and must make up any shortfall below the minimum in a workweek.

Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington don't allow a tip credit, so dealers there get the full state minimum wage before tokes. In Nevada that's $12.00 an hour. Look up your state on the tipped minimum wage page, or go straight to Nevada or New Jersey.

What federal law says about the toke pool

• The casino can't keep any part of your tips, for any purpose.
• Managers and supervisors can't receive tips from the pool. Whether a floor person or pit boss counts as one depends on their actual duties.
• If the casino takes a tip credit, a required pool can include only employees who customarily and regularly receive tips.
• Tips the casino collects have to be fully paid out no later than the regular payday.

State law can add more. If you think the pool is short, your own record of hours and payouts gives you something specific to point to.

Tip agreements with the IRS

Some casinos have a Gaming Industry Tip Compliance Agreement (GITCA) with the IRS. Under the revenue procedure that set up the program, the casino and the IRS agree on tip rates, and a participating dealer signs an agreement to report tips at or above them. Report below the rate and you're treated as not participating for the whole year. If you signed one when you were hired, ask HR for your game's rate.

2026 taxes on tokes

Tokes are income. All tips you receive are subject to federal income tax, and when you get $20 or more in a month at one job, you report them to the casino by the 10th of the next month. That includes tips from other employees, which is what a pool share is. Reported tips land in box 1 of your W-2 and are generally subject to withholding and Social Security and Medicare tax. Skipping the report can cost a penalty of 50 percent of the Social Security and Medicare tax you left out. See the tip reporting guide.

The federal tips deduction, usually called No Tax on Tips, covers dealers. It applies only to occupations on the Treasury list of jobs that customarily and regularly received tips on or before December 31, 2024. "Gambling dealers" are on it as code 201, with blackjack, craps, poker and roulette dealers and pit clerks as examples. Slot attendants (202), cage workers (203) and sports book writers and runners (204) have their own codes.

The rules for 2026:

• You can deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips a year, for 2025 through 2028. The deduction phases out once your modified adjusted gross income passes $150,000 ($300,000 on a joint return).
• Qualified tips are voluntary cash or charged tips, including shared tips, so your pool share counts. Service charges and other mandatory amounts don't, even if they're paid out to staff.
• For 2026, tips count only if they're on your W-2 in box 12 with code TP (the total cash tips you reported to the casino) or on Form 4137, the form for tips you didn't report. Box 14b carries your occupation code. If it shows only 000, the box 12 amount doesn't qualify.
• Pool money a manager or supervisor receives isn't a qualified tip. If you also work supervisor shifts, keep them apart in your records.
• It lowers federal income tax only. Social Security and Medicare still apply to your tokes.

Casinos have until February 1, 2027 to give you your 2026 W-2; check box 12 code TP against your log. See W-2 box 12 code TP and Form 4137, and estimate your deduction with the No Tax on Tips calculator.

What to track

• Hours dealt each shift and your hourly wage.
• Your toke share as it's paid, with the date and the shifts it covers.
• What you reported to the casino each month.
• The game or pit, and the property if you deal at more than one.
• Any toke rate sheet or pool statement the casino hands out.

The IRS tells tipped employees to keep a daily tip record. A shift log does that and gives you something to hold your W-2 against. Prefer paper? Use the tip log template.

How Cashout helps

Cashout is free on Android and iPhone, works offline, and doesn't need an account. Everything below works on both unless it says otherwise.

• Shifts. Log hours, hourly rate and your toke share in Cash Tips (or Card Tips, if it comes through payroll), plus the tips you reported. Make each casino its own job, and Insights compares them. See tip tracking.
• Sections. Tag each shift with the game or pit and see tips broken down by section.
• Effective Rate and Insights. Wages plus tips per hour, per shift and per job, best days, and one period compared with the last. See Insights.
• Taxes and Tax Savings. Estimates federal, Social Security, Medicare and state tax on your wages and tokes, and tracks what you set aside. It doesn't include No Tax on Tips yet; use the calculator for that. See tax estimates.
• Tip Reporting. Compares the tips you earned with the tips you reported, by month. On Android it uses the reported tips you enter on each shift; on iPhone it counts your card tips as the reported amount.
• Export Shifts. A CSV or PDF of your shifts for any range, plus a year-end tax summary PDF. See reports.

What it doesn't do: Cashout doesn't know your pool formula or pull toke data from anywhere, so you enter your share by hand. Its Tip Split tool divides by points only, so for an hours-based pool use the tip pool calculator.

Common questions

Do I owe tax on tokes that come through payroll?

Yes. Tokes are taxable however they're paid, and tips reported to the casino are generally subject to withholding and Social Security and Medicare tax. Cash you take home is income too, and you report your tips to the casino once they reach $20 in a month.

Does No Tax on Tips cover my share of the toke pool?

Generally, yes. Gambling dealers are code 201 and shared tips count. For 2026 your share has to be on your W-2 in box 12 code TP or on Form 4137.

Can a pit boss take a cut of the toke pool?

Not if they're a manager or supervisor. Federal rules bar managers, supervisors and the casino itself from receiving tips from a pool. A manager or supervisor can keep only tips a customer gives them directly for service they provided themselves.

Track it all with Cashout. Shifts, tips, unpaid breaks, taxes, and mileage, logged in seconds. iPhone · Android