At some casino games, tipping, or “toking” the dealer is a pretty cut-and-dried routine. In blackjack, you place an extra bet at the front of your betting box or circle. It’s understood that’s for the dealer. If you split pairs or double down for yourself, it’s up to you whether you make a split bet or double for the dealer.
In craps, some players like bet on 11 – “$2 yo for the boys!” – or on one of the hard ways as a tip for the crew. I prefer to make an extra pass line bet alongside my own to give the crew a better shot to win than they have on yo-leven or a hard way.
Things get a little iffier in some of the poker-based games with ante-bet options, such as in Three Card Poker, Caribbean Stud and Mississippi Stud.
When researching an article on Caribbean Stud a number of years ago, I watched at one casino while a player made an extra ante as a toke for the dealer. After he saw his cards and made the additional bet, he also bet for the dealer, so both he and the dealer had ante-bet combinations working.
I moved to a different casino and had a nice run of winning hands. I made an extra ante for the dealer, but when I tried to add a bet, I was told I could only ante for the dealer, but could not bet. That was house policy.
A reader emailed me to say he’d run into that situation in Three Card Poker. He anted for the dealer, but was not permitted to add a bet. He wondered if that was in the rules of the game.
It’s not a rule that applies everywhere. It’s up to individual casino policy and the internal controls they file with the gaming commission. My preference would to add a bet for the dealer along with the ante when my hand calls for it, just as I usually split and double down for the dealer in blackjack. But house rules are house rules, and you just have to find out what they are as you play on a casino by casino basis.