Imagine working at a casino. If you were new to the job, would you trust your math and confidentially calculate payouts when the players win, or would you defer to your supervisor for assitance?

In this story, one person was in this situation, and he assumed his supervisor would know better. He ended up being wrong, and the more he thought about it, the more he was convinced he overpaid.

Keep reading to find out what happens when he talks to the pit boss.

Just do as my supervisor says? No problem!

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. 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.

The pit boss made the rules very clear.

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.

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.

He asked the supervisor for help.

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 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).

He decided to do as he was told.

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.

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 agreed that he probably overpaid.

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 ‘dang 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’.

But the pit boss did eventually take a look at the game.

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.

He really did overpay.

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).

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.

He explained everything.

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

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.

But he didn’t need to worry.

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!

Wow. I guess he can trust his calculations going forward. He certainly knew better than the supervisor.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This is a good point.

This person has a theory.

Another person rants about casinos.

This person also got bad advice from a manager.

Just because someone has more experience doesn’t necessarily mean they’re right.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.