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What's the point of stealing $1.5 million in casino chips from the Bellagio?

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Re: What's the point of stealing $1.5 million in casino chips from the Bellagio?

#2
I seem to recall reading that at least in Atlantic City, casinos are required to have an entirely separate set (or maybe even 2 other sets) of high-value checks, that can be swapped in case of suspected counterfeiting. I would assume that the Bellagio has something similar in place, and that the casino is quietly getting all the high rollers to replace any checks that they had stored.

Re: What's the point of stealing $1.5 million in casino chips from the Bellagio?

#3
I would think it would be easy to figure out if a chip has RFID embedded, just run a scan. And why all the noise about a thief being stupid for stealing $1.5 million in chips with many of them unlikely to be cashable? This is Vegas where thieves will take the chance at robbing people / stores where they may get away with less than $100. I'm sure the guy would be happy to get away with even a few hundred. With that many chips he could probably make a few hundred by selling the 25K chips as souvenirs. ;)

Re: What's the point of stealing $1.5 million in casino chips from the Bellagio?

#5

I've always been impressed that Circus-Circus in Reno would cash $25 chips six years after I had originally won them. I wonder if the US Govt Tracks the money supply that is tied up in Poker Chips from casinos...

Imagine how much money is made by a Casino in interest on money that they are retaining for more then a few days at a time.

Re: What's the point of stealing $1.5 million in casino chips from the Bellagio?

#6
post #5

I've always been impressed that Circus-Circus in Reno would cash $25 chips six years after I had originally won them. I wonder if the US Govt Tracks the money supply that is tied up in Poker Chips from casinos...

Imagine how much money is made by a Casino in interest on money that they are retaining for more then a few days at a time.

[deleted]

Re: What's the point of stealing $1.5 million in casino chips from the Bellagio?

#9
post #3

I would think it would be easy to figure out if a chip has RFID embedded, just run a scan. And why all the noise about a thief being stupid for stealing $1.5 million in chips with many of them unlikely to be cashable? This is Vegas where thieves will take the chance at robbing people / stores where they may get away with less than $100. I'm sure the guy would be happy to get away with even a few hundred. With that ma…

I think they're overstating how many casinos use RFID. The last time I looked into it, only the Wynn did - and then only to track denomination, not as a unique identifier. (Perhaps someone can correct me if things have changed) The goal is to help security detect cheating by tracking bets at the table games electronically, not prevent counterfeiting or theft.

Re: What's the point of stealing $1.5 million in casino chips from the Bellagio?

#10
The guy didn't plan to steal $25000 chips, he just walked away with what was there. I'll bet there are ways to fence the lower-denomination chips for somewhat less than face value. You could probably sell the $100 chips for $50 each to random suckers on the strip with a good story.
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