Concerning croupiers splitting tips reminds me of an incident from my younger days. I happened to be at a casino in Bad Kissingen (beautiful place, by the way), and was chatting with a person who claimed to be a manager of the casino. Somehow we got on the tips for table croupiers, and he mentioned that they were split across all the tables. When I inquired as to why, he said that some thought an expert croupier could affect the play of the game (roulette wheel) by when and how he released the ball, and the requirement to split tips was intended to reduce the likelihood that he would favor a high-tipping player by "throwing" him more luck (since he would get only a small amount of any added tips).

At the time I accepted this uncritically, probably because I figured the underlying premise was true (i.e., that a croupier could affect the game if he was good enough), but later I began wondering. If the croupier was *that* good, the greater evil would be that he would "deal" with a player for cash under the table - e.g., afterwards - than for "tips".

Still, as they say, "ben trovato".