How to stay safe in a casino

How to stay safe in a casino

This week's brazen theft of $1.5 million in chips from Bellagio in Las Vegas is an extreme example of the most common crime committed in a casino.

When Pennsylvania troopers are called to investigate a casino crime, chances are it will involve a theft from patrons or the house.

At Bellagio, which caters to high rollers, a man wearing a motorcycle helmet pointed a gun at craps dealers and players about 4 a.m. Tuesday while he scooped chips from the table. He hustled out of the casino and escaped on a motorcycle. Police and security officials said no one chased him on casino grounds, because they didn't want to risk a shootout.

Nothing quite as dramatic has happened at a Pennsylvania casino, but state police officers assigned to each stay busy. Through the first 11 months of the year, state police Gaming Control officers reported investigating 3,897 incidents at Pennsylvania's 10 casinos; of those, 2,219 involved theft. [Does anyone ask what this cost?]

State police are responsible for investigating criminal offenses within the casino; local police handle anything outside, even in the parking garage.

Sgt. Daniel Brooks, gaming enforcement officer in charge of the state police contingent at Rivers Casino on the North Shore, said his crew handles about 80 incidents a month, including reports of drunks, domestic disputes and harassment.

Brooks said patrons can take common-sense steps to keep from becoming a victim of casino crime:

• "First and foremost, guard your valuables," he advised. Keep your wallet in your pocket or your purse in front of you or strapped across your shoulder.

• Don't walk away from a slot machine when it still has credits on it. Almost all machines use slot vouchers, so a thief can hit the "cash out" button, grab the ticket and be gone before you realize it. Even video poker guru Jean Scott, author of "The Frugal Gambler," was victimized by a voucher thief this summer.

• At table games, keep track of your chips. At a craps table, cover your chips with an arm or a hand. A hot table can be bedlam, with players shouting and jostling. "It doesn't take but a minute or a second for someone to reach over and take your chips," Brooks said.

• If you win, don't walk around showing it off. Don't count your cash in public or leave a voucher hanging out of your pocket.

Some slot enthusiasts advise cashing out immediately if you hit a jackpot of several hundred dollars. Put that voucher in your wallet. If you want to keep playing, start again with your normal buy-in. Some thieves keep their eye out for machines that have a lot of credits built up and wait for the player to be distracted.

One scam is for someone to drop coins on the floor. When slot players look away from their machines, an accomplice hits the "cash out" button and scurries away with the voucher, which can be cashed at the casino cage or an ATM-like device.

If you are a theft victim, report it immediately to casino security, Brooks said. If a crime has been committed, security must call state police. Casinos have surveillance cameras throughout the floor, and a person's movements can be tracked. For example, Bellagio cameras showed the chip thief walking outside the casino toward his motorcycle.

With cameras in so many places, "a casino is a bad place to commit a crime," said Capt. Tim Allue, director of the Gaming Enforcement Office for state police.

"For the most part (a casino's) a safe place," Brooks said. "But if there's money available, it brings out the worst in people.

"You have to use common sense in protecting your valuables."

Brooks said a common attempt to steal from the casino involves a player "pinching" or "capping" bets — removing or adding chips after the outcome is decided. This week, a Rivers poker dealer was charged with stealing chips.

Counting cards at blackjack is legal as long as a device is not being used, he said.

Brooks said players should contact a slot attendant if they come across a vacant slot machine that still has credits on it.

"It's not 'finders, keepers' in a casino," Brooks said. "Under PA law, any credits left on the machine go to the commonwealth."

He said that applies even on small amounts of credits left on a machine. Players can find themselves in trouble if they try to cash out or play large amounts left on a machine, he said.

A player who inadvertently left "more than a couple of bucks" in credits probably will come back to the machine to get the money, Brooks said.

"They're going to notify security, and in turn we'll notify surveillance, and they'll start reviewing tapes. If you took money off a machine, there's a good chance we'll be contacting you within the casino or at your residence and making you return the money."

Underage gambling draws fine

The Gaming Control Board this week fined Downs Racing, operator of Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, $47,000 for three instances of underage gambling between Feb. 22 and June 9. In each case, someone under 21 played a slot machine for more than an hour.

The fine was part of consent agreement between the board and Downs Racing. This was the fifth time the casino was fined for such violations.