Steve Wynn is changing the Vegas Rules again, and dealers at Wynn Las Vegas are steaming.

They're so mad, in fact, that they're ringing reporters' phones and jamming gaming blogs with their complaints after being told they'll now have to share their tips with floor supervisors. Depending on your source, the shake-up will cost them from 10 to 20 percent at the bottom line.

That's enough to make anyone howl, but the dealers I've spoken with acknowledge that even with the reduction in pay, they'll still have one of the best jobs on the Strip. I was tempted to tell them to call their dealers union representative but decided that wouldn't go over too well because there is no such union. Fact is, while tips have increased over the years at some casinos, most dealers haven't had a substantial hourly wage increase in 20 years.

If this latest change in the Vegas Rules follows suit with previous changes, I expect the dealers' complaints to diminish to a whisper in less than a week. They might be justified in wondering aloud whether management is greedily squeezing the weakest members of the casino's "team," but that's the nature of the business and their important but almost powerless role in it.

In other words, don't expect any mass walkouts at Wynn Las Vegas.

"What are the Vegas Rules?" you ask. They're the unwritten laws of the casino racket. They're the way things have always, or almost always, been done on the casino floor.

But the rules are no longer etched in the green-felt tradition. They are easily revised by Gaming Inc., which searches endlessly for ways to improve its performance, increase its profits, improve its efficiency and decrease its overhead. And it isn't the first time Wynn has departed from accepted practice.

I remember the furor over the changes Wynn made in the showroom rules following the amazing success of illusionists Siegfried & Roy at The Mirage. He eliminated the old Vegas Rule about slipping the maitre d' and captain a few extra bucks to improve your seating. Working stiffs complained for a while, but their criticism was drowned out by record profits and unprecedented expansion on the Strip.

Word has circulated for weeks that Wynn was angered after learning that a particularly successful high roller had showered the dealers with $500,000 that formerly belonged to the house. The incident, as the green-felt rumor has it, led to the departure of a casino vice president and this week's rules change.

No one is commenting on any of that. The casino industry is a great place to go if you're seeking no comment.

What is truly worrisome is the fact the change might lead to similar actions at smaller casinos where dealers make a fraction of the tokes found at the Strip's megaresorts.

"Wynn Las Vegas is a great job (for a dealer), but it's not whether it's a great job or not," one 40-year veteran dealer and floor supervisor said Tuesday. "When the money goes down, and it does on occasion, no one is going to step up and make it up to the dealers. And there's very few dealing jobs in Las Vegas that are worth over $40,000 a year. I'm old, but these young kids coming in with families, they're not going to be able to make a living in this town."

Another casino veteran countered, "It's obviously a big move by him to save money at the dealers' expense. But he created the job. He created the atmosphere for the dealers to make more money by demanding customer service."

Floor supervisors have kept their jobs in part because the pay was steady. But at the Strip megaresorts, where it's common for dealers to make $500 a night in tips, the floor personnel look like poor relations. One veteran floor supervisor I spoke with on Tuesday has returned to shuffling up and standing behind the tables.

"I make more money," he said. "There are no perks, no incentives to being a floor supervisor. But as a dealer, you also have risks. If my job tomorrow goes down to $60 a day, they're not going to compensate me."

The Wynn Las Vegas dealers will survive this week's haircut.

If Wynn's latest change in the Vegas Rules is successful, watch for it to become an industry standard.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295.