Imagine working at a casino, and one player wins big. Would you trust yourself to calculate the payout correctly?

In this story, one casino worker is told to ask his supervisor to double check the payout and to trust what his supervisor says. The problem is that he thinks his supervisor miscalculated.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Just do as my supervisor says? No problem!

This happened more than 10 years ago, so while it isn’t as detailed as it could have been, it’s very much burned into my memory.

2-3 months into my first job out of education, I am working as a croupier. Enjoying it (that didn’t last), fitting in nicely etc.

One day I am dealing a game, give a payout and carry on.

My supervisor questions to me whether I paid out correctly.

I say I think I did and went over my calculations which were correct.

He received the message loud and clear!

I am at the stage where people can see I am picking everything up quickly so I have been afforded just enough respect where the supervisor isn’t sure himself.

He got it checked on the cameras with the pit boss and even though my calculations were correct, the chips I got out were not – paid out slightly too much.

Not a big deal to be honest but I did get taken aside by the pit boss a while after and basically told that, if the supervisor says I am wrong in these situations, to just go along with it (the chain of command in casinos is very rigid, to the point where to question something a superior says or does can be treated with contempt in most circumstances).

It was a very informal chat, and I get along with both the supervisor and pit boss, but the message is clear – do as the supervisor says under any circumstance.

The next night, he has the supervisor double check.

This is no problem to me, it was my error and yeah, these guys are going to be right over me at this stage in my career far more than the other way around.

The very next night, I am dealing a far bigger game with the only big punter of note in the building. Realistically, I shouldn’t have been on this game with my experience level but what the hell, I’m being trusted enough to do it so let’s have a good time.

First big payout comes, I’m slightly hesitant but get my chips out and ask the supervisor to check the payout.

Different guy from the night previous, but someone else I really get along with.

He decided not to argue with the supervisor.

He has a brief look and exclaims “You’re short 10 pinks mate”.

A pink in the casino is a £100 chip, so I’m a grand short.

I have a look, there is no way I am that far out (at this point I’m not 100% sure I’m right, but I AM 100% sure he is wrong).

My personality is definitely the one where I would try to go through this with him to see if we can reach an agreement. However, the words of the previous night are ringing in my ears – do not go against the supervisor, just do what they say.

Rinse and repeat.

Ok no problem, I get a grand more, get the check, supervisor is happy and the money gets paid out.

This happens roughly 5 or 6 more times (ranging from £500 more to a whopping £2,500 more one spin).

Each time I do as I am told.

I get replaced a while later with the punter delighted to be leaving with a healthy profit and I go on break.

His mentor thought there was a problem.

While on my break, the guy who I considered my mentor at the time (RIP) is also there, and I go through the spins with him.

His immediate reaction is ‘heck son, every one of those have been overpaid, I would talk to the pit boss when you go back down’.

Head back down, the casino is basically completely empty, so before I go stand at a game with no punters, I ask the pit boss for a word. I explain what I believe has happened and ask just for a quick check on the cameras as, yeah I might be wrong, but I don’t think I am.

The reaction of the pit boss was essentially ‘Don’t worry about it mate, I was watching the whole game, everything looked above board to me, even though you lost money, good job on keeping the game moving’.

Yup. He was right.

I plead one last time to just have a look, nothing is going on right now.

He sends me on my way to a table directly facing him at the desk and he does have a look.

The next 10 minutes I can only describe as the soul of a man sloooowly draining out of his body. With each spin he watches, the corners of his lips drop little by little, the colour of his face lightening second by second and his posture haunching each view.

Of course I am standing there just watching him as he gets the manager over, followed by the deputy manager (who was also there and definitely keeping an eye on the game).

He tried to keep his cool.

Towards the end of the shift the pit boss informs me that, yes, I was right, and I have paid out roughly £7.5k more than I should have. This was a significant amount of money for the casino at the time (fairly quiet, but a big chain of casinos so nothing catastrophic).

Internally I am freaking out, but calm as a cucumber on the outside, I say to him exactly what he said to me the night before – I was just paying out what the supervisor told me to (for the record, the chances of the supervisor working with the punter was slim to none, he was just distracted by the totty on the other table trying to chat them up).

Here’s how the investigation went…

Investigation comes up with a neutral manager who wasn’t present at the time, and although most of the details have left my memory, the key part of the investigation boiled down to:

Manager: On the games in question, you got the payout right every single time (internally dancing at hearing this bit!) but every time, your supervisor tells you to add more and you do and pay out. Were you aware that you may be right and he may be wrong in these instances?

Me: I was aware I may be right, but I was by no means 100% and I trusted someone with 20+ years experience to be right over me.

Manager: If you thought you may have been right, why not question it at the time?

He explained what he was told the night before.

Me: Weeeeeeeeell, the night before I was explicitly told to do as my supervisor says under all circumstances, not to even think about arguing the toss, and nothing bad can happen. Not to mention that this would not have even been brought to anyone’s attention if I hadn’t said anything, considering the supervisor, pit boss, manager, or even the deputy general manager didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

Definitely a good half a minute of silence following this.

I’m in this weird mental state where I am scared as heck they are just going to sack me but also thinking wow, I’m actually the only competent person in this whole situation.

It worked out okay.

What follows was a verbal warning for myself (definitely shouldn’t have even got that, and should have appealed, but was happy to just take it and prove myself from thereon) with everyone else involved getting written warnings and more.

However I was essentially rewarded with being able to learn a new game (which helped push my wage up a decent amount) and got a fair bit of respect with the boys for, basically, showing everyone else up.

Oh, and I never saw that punter again!

Human error happens, so it seems in situations like this with big payouts it shouldn’t be that one person’s word is what you have to follow if you know that person is wrong.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Exactly!

This person was really upset about getting a verbal warning.

Here’s a similar situation.

Definitely progress!

That was a big mistake!

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.