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Hot chips will be hard to cash
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Courtesy of las vegas metro police
A man who robbed the Bellagio on Tuesday morning is seen here in an earlier robbery at the Suncoast in this surveillance picture provided by the Metropolitan Police Department.
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Police news conference on Bellagio robbery (includes surveillance video of robber fleeing casino)
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A man who robbed the Bellagio on Tuesday morning is seen here in an earlier robbery at the Suncoast in this surveillance picture provided by the Metropolitan Police Department. COURTESY PHOTO
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Dec. 15, 2010 | 7:14 a.m.
Gambling chips stolen from Bellagio in a brazen armed robbery Tuesday morning might total $1.5 million, but the man who stole them will have a tough time cashing in.
David Schwartz, director of gaming research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said it would be extremely difficult for anyone to swap those chips for money -- especially the $25,000 chips, which are rarely given out and are closely monitored by casinos.
"I can't think of any way you could," Schwartz said. "It's not like they're currency that you can use anywhere. If you steal so many chips, in such a big, dramatic way, there's going to be a lot of scrutiny at the casino, and that makes it very difficult to cash in."
The robbery occurred at 3:50 a.m. Tuesday when a man parked his late-model black sport motorcycle at the north valet entrance of the Bellagio, Las Vegas police said.
The man entered the casino wearing a white, full-face motorcycle helmet and a leather jacket. He approached a nearby craps table and demanded money, which he received, and left the casino.
The man went west on Flamingo Road on the motorcycle, police said.
No one was hurt, and no shots were fired, Lt. Clint Nichols said. The man did not take money from casino patrons and was in the casino for only two to three minutes.
"He parked, walked in, committed the robbery and left," he said.
Security officers did not try to stop the man, who was carrying a handgun, Nichols said.
A casino employee had dialed 911 even before the man had left the casino, he said.
"They had a full staff, and they were on it quick," he said.
Nichols said the man took chips from $25,000 to $100 in value, which he stuffed in a backpack before jogging out the door. Nichols agreed that the chips will be difficult to cash in because of industry safeguards, which he said he could not disclose.
Schwartz said every casino has different safeguards, and for good reason:
"If they didn't, people would try to find creative ways around them," he said.
Some casinos have gambling chips with radio-frequency identification technology. When scanned with a casino chip reader, it can tell the casino exactly where the chip came from, he said.
It's unclear whether Bellagio uses the technology, but it's a useful tool in preventing fraud, he said.
"It would be the equivalent of stealing a gift card," he said. "It doesn't have any value. It looks good, but they know it's been stolen."
The suspect, described as a white man about 5 feet 10 inches tall and 220 pounds, is suspected of robbing the Suncoast last week in a similar manner.
About 12:30 a.m. Dec. 8 , a man wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet held up the cashier cage in the poker room of the Suncoast, taking $20,000, Nichols said.
Although the man committed the robberies alone, Nichols said it's common for criminals to have a "layoff guy" to alert them when there is a large amount of money coming into a casino.
Police are reviewing surveillance footage from the robberies but said the photos reveal little about the man's identity.
Nichols said $1.5 million was large for a casino robbery but not the largest he's seen in the past three years.
Casino robberies are infrequent but not rare, he said. In 2009, there were nine casino robberies in the Las Vegas police jurisdiction. Tuesday's robbery makes 10 for 2010, he said.
"We're not seeing an epidemic or anything," he said.
Anyone with information about the robberies is asked to call the Robbery Section at 828-3521. To remain anonymous, call CrimeStoppers at 385-5555.
Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.
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I like how this whole story got turned around from, how in the world did this guy get away with robbing this casino, to he can't cash the chips. What would the story be if it was cash not chips?
"What are they going to do? Not honor any chips??"--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Yes the casino can choose to that, they don't have to honor chips, it might make for bad PR but they can do it. My guess would be that the casino already has a back up batch of chips different than the ones currently in use. When chips are compromised, like in this robbery, they replace the compromised chips with new ones and don't honor those compromised chips.
$1.5 million from one table?!? No wonder MGM can afford to consider imploding the Harmon Hotel http://www.flickr.com/photos/thatcar/5254402114/
What does Security have to do with this Vegas Dude?
They can use the chips. As long as the guy doesn't get greedy and start trying to cash in too many chips too soon. They are just saying they have all this technology. They can't possibly have a way to tell which ones that night were stolen and which ones are legit. What are they going to do? Not honor any chips?? He got away with it. They just don't want copy cats doing the same thing so they are putting out disinformation about the crime. Good for this guy! I am glad the casino took a hit. I've lost so much, score one for the common scumbag.
the girls at the rhino will get the chips because they dont read the news or watch tv so they have no idea what is going on he or she will probably go this week and the girls will take the chips
I remember when the MGM burned, a few people got caught on video taking hand fulls of chips. And if I remember correctly some of them got caught. In the long run this guy will be caught too. These casinos do not like it when they look bad or look like an easy mark. I'm sure there will be a few more people than just Metro looking for this guy. To bad this isn't like it was in the old days when you would want Metro to find you first.
LVC... you're correct... the $10K limit is actually to prevent money laundering... he could also try to "clean" some of the chips thru the sports book
"yes cashing out more than $1200 will get you scrutinized for tax purposes"-----------------------------------------------------------------
Not so when you are cashing casino chips at the cashier cage. The $1200 tax reporting is for wins on machines like video poker. I routinely cash in chips at the casino cage for amounts well above $1200 and have never had to show ID or have it reported for tax purposes. If you cash in chips above $10,000 then it gets reported.
VegasDude,
Most of the chips were high value and therefore useless. The $100-500 chips would take some time to disperse. Given that Bellagio has probably changed chips, anyone coming in with a number of the stolen $100-500 chips will struggle to go unnoticed.
Unless the guy is prepared to keep going back to the scene of the crime, he will need to involve someone else. The reward for turning this guy in is more than this guy could offer. It will only be a matter of time before he gets caught.