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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?

#21

Post by jonhendry »

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?

Well, if it turned out that you couldn't cash it in, you'd have spent $50 for a piece of plastic and the opportunity to tell a story for the rest of your life about how you got suckered.

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

#24

Post by sil3ntmac »

henry81 wrote: post #22

I remember hearing a story about something like this and they were able to launder the chips through strippers, who cashed in the chips they received "as tips"..

You might be thinking of the movie 21, the MIT blackjack team does exactly this.

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

#25

Post by spahl »

henry81 wrote: post #22

I remember hearing a story about something like this and they were able to launder the chips through strippers, who cashed in the chips they received "as tips"..

Thats in the movie "21" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_(2008_film))

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

#26

Post by jolan »

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?

Stolen $100 chips are uniquely identifiable via RFID. Why would anyone sell them for half value when they go to the casino and get 100% value themselves?

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

#27

Post by MichaelApproved »

jonhendry wrote: post #21
MichaelApproved wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Well, if it turned out that you couldn't cash it in, you'd have spent $50 for a piece of plastic and the opportunity to tell a story for the rest of your life about how you got suckered.

$100 chips aren't a problem to cash in. It's the larger chips that are tracked.

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

#28

Post by billswift »

stretchwithme wrote: post #20
bdr wrote: post #8

Maybe to reverse-engineer the RFID system for some future purpose?

you don't need to commit a crime to get one chip to experiment with

You would probably need a lot more than one to figure out their coding system though. Not that I think this is what he did, he probably just grabbed whatever was handy and left.

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

#29

Post by thret »

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.

OP fails to explain the situation as well as: http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/bellagio...

The casino flags all of the stolen chips, and switches to a new set of chips for all games. If you are going to rob a Vegas casino, take the cash.

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

#30

Post by kiiski »

btilly wrote: post #14

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 wo…

Maybe I misunderstood your point, but the second paragraph doesn't seem quite right:

> They can refuse to accept the chip back, ..., or they can ... not accept the chip.

So do they accept those chips or not?

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