Ocean's 11 lied. People DO get away with robberies in Vegas.

[Ns1]

http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/26128563/detail.html

A gunman who robbed the Bellagio casino on Tuesday morning escaped with $1.5 million worth of casino chips, according to Las Vegas Metro police.

Detectives released photos of the robber shortly before noon. They show a man wearing a black jacket, black pants, black gloves and a full-faced motorcycle helmet pointing a gun in the casino.

Witnesses said the man parked his motorcycle near the north valet -- an entrance off Flamingo Road east of Interstate 15 -- before entering the casino and robbing a craps table.

1.5MM in a few seconds, nice.

 

[spidey07]

What a dumbass. Those chips are worthless now. I can guarantee you the entire casino's chips were replaced with a different set within 30 minutes, rendering his worthless.

They have practiced, documented countermeasures for exactly this kind of theft.

 

[zinfamous]

yeah, i don't see what he can do with those chips. rofl.

 

[crownjules]

$1.5M worth of casino chips.

Gonna be a long, slow process for him to redeem those. If he can at all.

 

[dabuddha]

He could sell the chips for half off to tourists who don't know the chips have been changed.

 

[Ns1]

I don't see how a casino is going to remove ALL their chips especially when they're in circulation.

what are they gonna do, close down the casino for an hour and make people change in all their chips, and if they don't change them then too bad?

Unless you're telling me the craps table has it's own dedicated and marked set of chips.

 

[spidey07]

I don't see how a casino is going to remove ALL their chips especially when they're in circulation.

what are they gonna do, close down the casino for an hour and make people change in all their chips, and if they don't change them then too bad?

Unless you're telling me the craps table has it's own dedicated and marked set of chips.

That's exactly what they do. They shut it down, replace all the chips, any chips you have are exchanged at the table. There's a big discussion about this on another gambling forum I visit with a lot of casino workers. Those chips are worthless now.

 

[Printer Bandit]

he could give the chips to a few whales to exchange them.

 

[AUMM]

That's exactly what they do. They shut it down, replace all the chips, any chips you have are exchanged at the table. There's a big discussion about this on another gambling forum I visit with a lot of casino workers. Those chips are worthless now.

what about other people that have chips that arnt at the casino at that time? also, other casino's accept various casino's chips....

 

[spidey07]

what about other people that have chips that arnt at the casino at that time? also, other casino's accept various casino's chips....

Somebody cashing or using a few grand in the bad chips aren't going to cause much concern but they will pay more attention to them. Somebody cashing/playing 10, 20, 50 large of bad chips is going to get investigated no matter what casino they are playing at.

 

[darkxshade]

That's exactly what they do. They shut it down, replace all the chips, any chips you have are exchanged at the table. There's a big discussion about this on another gambling forum I visit with a lot of casino workers. Those chips are worthless now.

What happens to chips that are not on the premise? I'm sure there's a large float of chips outside the casino that people expect to have value. Isn't that potentially costly for the casino once people lawyer up? Assuming of course the voided the chips somehow

 

[DrunkenSano]

People who went to take a nap in their hotel room after gambling for a bit could be screwed then if they didn't cash out their chips.

 

[SKORPI0]

Casinos now have unique markings on them to distinguish one batch from another and also one Casino from another. . It's required to have another batch available if/when something like theft happens. This is done to prevent fraud and counterfeiting. RFID technology is also used to keep track how many chips and what denomination are on the floor. Chips are also given serial# to track them, where it is, etc. The stolen chips no longer have any exchange value. If somebody attempts to exchange them for $$$ it is immediately flagged.

Casino chips to carry RFID tags - January 2004 article.

 

[Ns1]

That's exactly what they do. They shut it down, replace all the chips, any chips you have are exchanged at the table. There's a big discussion about this on another gambling forum I visit with a lot of casino workers. Those chips are worthless now.

interesting. Please update if you see a new article.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

They will find him and you won't hear about it. You cannot pull off jobs like this without permission from bosses. He is good as dead.

 

[Meghan54]

] RFID technology is also used to keep track how many chips and what denomination are on the floor.

Only a few casinos in Las Vegas use RFID, like the Wynn Casino does (was among the first to introduce RFID on casino chips in Vegas). Most don't, though, because of the cost which is expensive.

But it is true every casino is required by Nevada, like other states that have "real" gambling, to have a complete replacement set of chips ready to go.

 

[darkxshade]

How much does it cost to replace a set of chips for a casino? LOL if it's > 1.5mil

 

[halik]

They will find him and you won't hear about it. You cannot pull off jobs like this without permission from bosses. He is good as dead.

Just got done watching a bunch of heist movies, huh?

 

[spidey07]

How much does it cost to replace a set of chips for a casino? LOL if it's > 1.5mil

Not a lot. As mentioned they are already ready to go. Just swap them at the tables. You ever see them bring new chips to a table? It takes under 5 minutes to swap them out and the dealer and boss sign the tracking paperwork.

Just send out a few dozen people with all new chips to each pit/area and it's done.

 

[kranky]

Yes, stealing $1.5 million worth of casino chips is like saying you have $1.5 million worth of Monopoly money. It might have a value printed on it, but it cannot be exchanged for "real" money.

I thought it was pretty well known that casinos will invalidate chips and switch to an alternate set when something like this happens. I'm not even a gambler and I had heard that.

And even if the crook thinks he can sell them at a discount to tourists, don't you think the casino industry will go to extremes to make people aware of the theft just to thwart such an idea? Plus, if some stranger offered to sell me chips at a discount I would just assume it's a scam anyway, even if I didn't know anything about the theft.

 

[darkxshade]

Not a lot. As mentioned they are already ready to go.

Well, not that I know much about how casinos operate, but I was reading into the assumption that once a set gets retired(swapped out) that the casino would have to place an order to replace the backup that they just activated no? Thus, it would cost them something, the question was how much to buy a completely new set ready to go?

 

[zokudu]

Do you gamble a lot Spidey?

 

[dabuddha]

Hell, maybe the thief works for the company that produces the chips for Bellagio!

 

[Sureshot324]

He should just rob the casino again a day later. It's unlikely they'll have a 3rd set of chips ready, so they'll have to use one of the first two sets.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Just got done watching a bunch of heist movies, huh?

haha. you think thats just in movies?