"They're all searching for that lucky streak that'll win back what they lost," said a woman who quit working as a croupier after three years to return to college. Like many other past and present casino workers, she spoke only on the condition of anonymity. "I may want my job back some day," she explains.

She said she left the casinos because job pressures were getting to her.

"My mother was a pit boss and it was her whole life," she said. "I couldn't take the constantly changing hours and constantly being caught between management and the customers. Everyone's watching your every move, including the surveillance cameras in the ceiling, and one mistake really puts the heat on you.

"If your table is losing unusual amounts of money, the pit bosses start sweating and watch you even more closely to see if you're trying to 'help out' a customer."

Moreover, she said, there were the "guard dogs" or "blue coats" -- dealer parlance for the Casino Control Commission agents stationed on every casino floor to enforce state regulations -- who, she said, could "nit-pick on every rule in the book."

She was also bothered, she said, by the antipathy of some gamblers for women dealers, especially at the craps tables, where superstition rules just about every decision of some players. "They think women are unlucky and they don't want you to touch the dice," she said. Like a Number or a Dog

Her worst moment: A high roller on a hot streak refused to leave the craps table to go to a rest room after hours of play, and he relieved himself under the table, sending her and other croupiers scattering. "He went on playing as though nothing had happened," she said. "On my break the pit boss complimented me on not making too big a fuss."

Kelly Hass, who left her job as a casino coin-change supervisor to tend bar at the Chelsea Pub, said casino bosses could be friendly with the workers as individuals but ultimately had little regard for their welfare. Boredom Can Be Hardest