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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?

#31

Post by jrockway »

acgourley wrote: post #15
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.

That sounds like it will work:

   Person A: Great work.  This week, you're being paid in casino chips.
   Person B: What the fuck?  OK, fine, $25,000 is $25,000, I guess.
   Person A:
Later that day:

   Casino Employee:  OH HAI.  What can I do you for?
   Person B: I won this $25,000 chip and would like to cash it in.
   Employee: OK, no problem.  Let me just scan it with my scanomonizer over here.
   
   B: Curses, Person A!
Later that day in the police interrogation room:

   Detective: Where'd you get that casino chip, B-boy?
   Person B: From Person A.
Even later that day:

   
   Person A: I love looking at my stolen casino chips.  Good thing there is nobody around to see me!
   Detective: SURPRISE!  You're under arrest!
   Person A: Curses, Person B!
In conclusion, this is a bad idea.

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

#32

Post by vegasbrianc »

As engineer for the Casino Industry 99% of the casino RFID solutions on the market track all chips all denominations. The Casino RFID system is used in multiple ways

- Tracking players bets - Ensure the dealer is paying out or taking in the correct chips - Accurate accounting - Fraud Prevention

So next time you go to the casino remember they are tracking you even when you cannot see it.

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

#33

Post by hugh3 »

billswift wrote: post #28
stretchwithme wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You'd only need one at a time (maybe a few), and you'd get your starting capital back in the end.

Also, an armed grab-and-run at a casino has an incredibly high chance of failure; it's a dumb first step to a supervillainous plan.

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

#34

Post by hugh3 »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #18

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 ju…

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.

Well, this is probably the only part of the story that's actually actionable (gawd, did I just use that word?) from the viewer's point of view.

If somebody tries to sell you a $25,000 Bellagio chip for $20,000 then it's worthless and likely to get you into trouble.

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

#35

Post by hugh3 »

jrockway wrote: post #31
acgourley wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That sounds like it will work: Person A: Great work. This week, you're being paid in casino chips. Person B: What the fuck? OK, fine, $25,000 is $25,000, I guess. Person A: Later that day: Casino Employee: OH HAI. What can I do you for? Person B: I won this $25,000 chip and would like to cash it in. Employee: OK, no problem. Let me just scan it with my scanomonizer over here. B: Curses, Person A! Later that day in th…

This one-act play is significantly more entertaining than either of the Ocean's Eleven sequels.

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

#37

Post by hugh3 »

powera wrote: post #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.

Is it really worth their while for a relatively small amount of money? A known quantity of missing chips is very different to a counterfeiting operation, and I assume if they switch to the new set then they have to go to the trouble of printing up a new new set.

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

#38

Post by biot »

roadnottaken wrote: post #36

The article doesn't answer the question posed in the title. What is the point?

As the article concludes that such an exercise is mostly pointless, the question serves as a rhetorical device and does not need a direct answer.

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

#39

Post by joezydeco »

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…

If all the chips have an RFID serial number in them, wouldn't they know which chips were used in the poker rooms as opposed to the craps table?

You could argue that a poker player could launder the 25K chips back through the bellagio craps table, but I bet any high-demomination chip presented at the table is checked out somehow during play.

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

#40

Post by hugh3 »

kiiski wrote: post #30
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?

They may or may not. The point is that they have an incentive to accept them back under some circumstances.

If they do get one of these back in, perhaps the best thing for them to do is to interview the holder heavily about where he got it and then decide whether to honour it or not.

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