[hanp]

The Danish idea that tipping is tax evasion makes perfect sense to me.

[jdonn]

Zman you are a hell of a slot player. Anyway I don't know why everyone is so against the idea of tipping. The cocktail waitress in a casino seems like a perfect situation for me, in the sense that you may be served repeatedly in one outing by the same person so any tipping situation impacts service in the near future. Why shouldn't people get better service if they are willing to pay for it? And why shouldn't a server who offers better service get paid for that?

Of course there are situations that are dumb too. I hate when they don't tell you at a restaurant that the tip has been included, I tend to leave extra on top if they tell me. There are also some buffets where when you pay at the beginning there is a line on the bill where you can leave a tip, but I feel there is some pressure to leave some on the table for people who refill your drinks and take your plates away as well. And let's not even talk about dealers at the Wynn...

[jdonn]

Chas_P, on May 17 2009, 12:49 PM, said:

The nicest tip I ever heard of occurred in 1993.  Every year during The Masters in Augusta, GA a number of homeowners will vacate their homes and rent them to players in the tournament.  The couple who rented their home to Bernhard Langer in 1993 did a little extra.  They came by several times during the week to make sure everything was satisfactory, brought fresh flowers, etc.  When they returned home after the tournament's conclusion they found their tip....the set of clubs with which Langer had just won The Masters.  I think that was a class act.

Ever heard of Kerry Packer?

Quote

"He regularly tipped Bellagio dealers $1 million. All 700 dealers would get a cut," recalled Bobby Baldwin, on the telephone from his office as Mirage Resorts president and chief executive officer.

And Packer's monster tip to an MGM Grand cocktail server?

Also true, Baldwin said.

"He liked the service the girl was providing. He asked her if she had a mortgage. She said yes, and he said, 'Bring it in tomorrow and I'll pay it off for you.' It was for $150,000."

[Chas_P]

Quote

Ever heard of Kerry Packer?

I didn't say it was the biggest....just that it was nice and classy. I guess paying off a cocktail server's mortgage is pretty classy too.

[jonottawa]

I guess Anna Nicole Smith's hubby was 'classy' too. I find mega-tips creepy/goofy. You want to be classy, make a charitable donation or whatever.

'Nicest I heard of' deserves 'Ever heard of ... nicer' Touchy, touchy.

[crazy4hoop]

Not too sure but I believe the "standard" (if there is one) for a handpaid jackpot for slot winnings or video poker winnings is 0.5%. I usually am happy to tip this even though I wonder if the motivation of the slot attendant is to get a tip considering that he or she almost always gives me my last $100 in smaller denominations.

I hate W2Gs but the money sure is nice. I need to learn some more games besides 9/6 Jacks or Better

[Gerben42]

Sounds like a great strategy to play negative EV slot games and when you rarely win, you tip someone to reduce your winnings.

[gwnn]

Some people do it for some other purpose than just maximising their expected winnings.. They want to maximise their "Fun factor" EV, and tipping people (for some people) is fun.

[Gerben42]

Sure... but I've never seen the fun in slots except for the casino owner I guess I could enjoy some casino games when playing them with friends, even with negative EV. But single-player action? No way.

[helene_t]

hanp, on May 18 2009, 07:23 AM, said:

The Danish idea that tipping is tax evasion makes perfect sense to me.

It is taxable in Denmark.

Interestingly, if Danish employees agree among themselves to share the tips equally (yeah, this is Scandinavia!) then each employee is nevertheless taxable of what s/he received from the customers. So the best strategy is to be rude to the customers so you don't get tips. You will pay less taxes and your income will be roughly the same.

Alternatively, they could agree to let the employer collect the tips (technically of course, not that the customers will notice), and then let the employer pay it to the employees as a bonus. Disadvantage of this is that the employer will then have to VAT and other taxes in addition to the income tax the employees pay.

In practice of course it is tax evasion, but then again, restaurants and bars only pay a fraction of the tax they are supposed to pay anyway. My cousin tried to run a bar in Copenhagen strictly according to the rules (reporting everything to the revenues, no illegal immigrants employed, no sales of smuggled-in or homemade spirits etc.) He didn't stay long in business.

Since a Danish waiter earns appr ten times as much as his Arizonan (according to zman102) colleague, which is more than I do, I wouldn't tip in Denmark unless I got exceptional service. Historically, it used to be the custom that you were supposed to pay 15% or such extra as tips, then at some point it became the law that the "mandatory" tips were included in the listed prices, and restaurants specified that on the bill, thereby telling the customers that "you already tipped so you don't have to tip extras".

Whenever I took a taxi on work duty in Copenhagen, the driver would suggest that he billed me for twice the proper amount and repaid me half the proper amount so we screwed my employer. To my surprise, once I took a taxi together with my boss, my boss accepted the driver's generous offer. Not sure if a similar kind of tipping is frequent in restaurants.

[Phil]

jonottawa, on May 18 2009, 04:11 PM, said:

I guess Anna Nicole Smith's hubby was 'classy' too. I find mega-tips creepy/goofy. You want to be classy, make a charitable donation or whatever.

'Nicest I heard of' deserves 'Ever heard of ... nicer' Touchy, touchy.

Some drunk tipped my son $300 for putting his golf clubs in his car yesterday (split between 3, but still..)

Agree with JonO. Lavish tipping is strange. There's probably some pathological basis for it.

[kenberg]

This drunk then got behind the wheel? Yikes!

Some twenty-five years ago I agreed to have this guy in Granada shine my shoes w/o first asking the price. At the end he asked for dos mil. Two bucks seemed a bit high (25 years ago) but I was about to give it to him, and I hadn't even been drinking. Then I came to my senses and realized dos mil was twenty bucks. I explained that los zapatos cuesta quatro mil (or words to that extent), and I gave him 200 pesetas. He seemed to be more than happy with it, even forgiving my mangling of his language.

[Phil]

kenberg, on May 19 2009, 11:42 AM, said:

This drunk then got behind the wheel? Yikes!

It was an outside tournament and some high-end auto dealership sponsored it.

Lets just say he can afford the DUI and the boost to his insurance. I just hope he didn't plow into anyone. OTOH I would be unconcerned if he ran into something large and unmoveable.

[mycroft]

The reason I find Herr Langer's "tip" classy isn't the cash. The clubs cost, what, $2000? Maybe as much as $10 000? And he'd just won over $1m.

But these people now have a story for the rest of their lives. And they can just point in the corner. Nobody - that's NOBODY - else has one of those in their living room. Heh - not even Herr Langer (well, he may have one from the other time he won).

[cherdanno]

mycroft, on May 19 2009, 06:12 PM, said:

The reason I find Herr Langer's "tip" classy isn't the cash. The clubs cost, what, $2000? Maybe as much as $10 000? And he'd just won over $1m.

But these people now have a story for the rest of their lives. And they can just point in the corner. Nobody - that's NOBODY - else has one of those in their living room. Heh - not even Herr Langer (well, he may have one from the other time he won).

Indeed (and probably the recipients cared about golf, and really liked the present). Comparing it with some creepy monster tip because a billionaire found some waitress sexy is bad taste, sorry Josh.

[y66]

Give the guy a break man. Maybe he's not a golfer.

[barmar]

Phil, on May 19 2009, 11:35 AM, said:

Agree with JonO. Lavish tipping is strange. There's probably some pathological basis for it.

It's another way that rich people can flaunt their wealth. It's a way of being ostentatious and showing off, like driving a fancy sports car or wearing extremely fancy jewelry.

[onoway]

I'm confused. Why is a monster tip from someone who can afford it creepy? I bet the cocktail waitress didn't think it was! Why should people only give generously to charities, many of which waste a good deal of it or skim off the top anyway? I don't understand the logic that says it's ok to give a bunch of millions to an organization but not over some undefined limit to an individual.
Seems a really wealthy person is caught in the middle..if he gives the usual he is a cheap s.o.b. but if he gives more he is creepy! So is $1099.99 ok but $2000 not? Where is the tipping point where generosity becomes creepiness? It isn't the amount anyway, it's the scale...paying off the mortgage to him, might be the equivilent of a $100 tip for some other people. And I'm fairly sure she likely wasn't the only sexy waitress who ever served him. (Besides, she likely would have to take out a new mortgage to pay the`taxes on the gift). If someone is moved to show appreciation of efforts made to make life happy for him and he can afford it, more power to him. I think both of these examples simply show a generosity of spirit.

[Gerben42]

Sounds to me like waiters urgently need a labor union. $3 an hour sounds like slavery to me...

[Aberlour10]

Isn't there in the USA the statutory minimum wage by +- $ 6,50 ?