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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?

#11

Post by X-Istence »

gamble wrote: post #9
gexla wrote: 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.

Most RFID tags have a unique identifier in them. You can duplicate said identifiers, but if they are indeed globally unique and can not be reprogrammed then the thief is still out all that money and the chips are worthless.

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

#12

Post by bryanh »

toolate wrote: post #7

Couldn't he gamble with them? Put one or two chips down at a time, keep the winnings as "clean" chips and gamble with the dirty ones until they're all gone?

Sure, I'd imagine so. However, just waltzing in and not visiting the counter for exchanging cash for chips might seem odd. Easily taken care of by bank rolling your trips with some real money and "peppering" in your stolen chips.

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

#13

Post by waterlesscloud »

Techno-thriller paranoid take on it- $25k chips can only plausibly be used in high stakes room , which is probably considerably less anonymous than the general floor. Assume everyone playing with high stakes chips are photographed and kept in a database, probably a relatively small db at that. Facial recognition software would be a given in such a case, and even if identities are not kept with faces, the face of someone using 25k chips could easily be checked against everyone who has ever bought or won 25k chips. Might not even need software for that, just manually check if the list is short enough.

Now you don't need rfid at all, just good records.

There's only one place to get 25k Bellagio chips, and only one place to cash them in. Those chips have to be considered worthless in all practical ways.

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

#14

Post by btilly »

I know for a fact that professional poker players are willing to play privately with chips from well-known casinos, including the Bellagio. And the Bellagio doesn't discourage them by being too particular about which poker player returns which chips. I'm sure other kinds of gamblers do the same. This gives them real street value.

And if a random professional poker player shows up with a random stolen chip that was won in a private poker game, the Bellagio has a choice. They can refuse to accept the chip back, knowing full well that word will get around and poker players won't want to trust Bellagio chips, or they can stand by the official rules and not accept the chip.

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

#15

Post by acgourley »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #13

Techno-thriller paranoid take on it- $25k chips can only plausibly be used in high stakes room , which is probably considerably less anonymous than the general floor. Assume everyone playing with high stakes chips are photographed and kept in a database, probably a relatively small db at that. Facial recognition software would be a given in such a case, and even if identities are not kept with faces, the face of some…

While we're being paranoid - why not use them to frame someone.

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

#16

Post by MichaelApproved »

modeless wrote: post #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.

How does buying a $100 chip for $50 make you a sucker?

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

#17

Post by [deleted] »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #16
modeless wrote: post #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.

How does buying a $100 chip for $50 make you a sucker?

[deleted]

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

#18

Post by MichaelApproved »

I've seen this story get covered by every major news source but they all have the same take on it "he'll never be able to cash the big chips". Big fucking deal. He probably never even planned on taking those. No one has actually broken down the denominations of chips he took.

How much of what he stole is in $1,000 chips or less? That's the real story to what was stolen. Lazy reporters don't bother asking. No, they just defecate what the AP feeding tube shoved up their nose.

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

#19

Post by Pfiffer »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #16
modeless wrote: post #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.

How does buying a $100 chip for $50 make you a sucker?

I don't know either. We must be suckers.
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