new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

interesting thing happened at bellagio this weekend. Right before we left, A friend of mine who owed me $$ came by with 8k in chips to repay me. I wanted to shower before we left so I asked my wife to cash in the chips for me. She went down to the cage and tried to cash out.

They asked her for her players club card scanned it and said "We can't cash these chips out, you haven't player here enough to have earned them." She then said they were my chips from the poker room, but said that I would need to cash them there.

Am I just naive or does this happen all the time?

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

Both.

If a casino sees someone cashing in high denom chips that they never played with/bought, something isn't right probably 7 out of 10 times. A few hundred isn't much to worry about but 5 figures + will raise suspicions.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

i wouldn't know anything about this but logically this doesn't seem right. just as is your case a person could be paid a debt owed with casino chips.

what would happen if you (you or your wife) had never played there before? would they refuse to cash them altogether?

doesn't make sense, but like i said, i wouldn't know.

the most i ever cahsed out at there was 7k from BJ and i was playing.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

It's for security purposes. Casinos dont like being used as a form of payment for services, fraud, or other not on the up and up things.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

Several years ago, when I cashed out $500 chips at two smaller casinos (Barbary Coast and Casino Royale), the cashier asked where I won them, and proceeded to actually call the pit to confirm that I won them. Obviously, the threshold is higher at the Bellagio, but casinos want to make sure that the chips come from casino play and not some sort of money laundering scheme.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

Go to the Eldorado in Henderson. They don't keep anything higher than green ($25) in the pit. I cashed out over $700 in green, they stopped and called the pit for verfication. I had to turn around so they could see me, lol.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

I don't have a players card at the Bellagio. Does that mean i wont be able to cash chips 5k or higher??? This can't be right...

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

They sure act awfully surprised when you win anything.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

It is worth remembering that the "use of gaming tokens for any purpose other than gaming" is not an accepted practice, there are signs dotted around restaurants and shops saying something very similar.

The casinos do not like their chips being passed around for non gaming purposes.
They also are not fond of others cashing in chips that do not belong to them, they could after all be avoiding paying the IRS LOL

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

[ QUOTE ]
The casinos do not like their chips being passed around for non gaming purposes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do they also frown on people using casino chips for tips?

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

[ QUOTE ]
I don't have a players card at the Bellagio. Does that mean i wont be able to cash chips 5k or higher??? This can't be right...

[/ QUOTE ]

Nah you'll be able to cash out flags at B fine... the smaller casinos are the ones that may present problems.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

I think that the biggest issue is that the casino has to track transactions of $3K or more and report anyone who transacts more than $10K in a day to the government. Giving someone who hasn't gambled $8K to cash seems suspiciously like a way to circumvent this requirement, and the casino would be liable if they allowed people to circumvent these rules.

One of the guys in my poker game won $15K at a casino and when he tried to split it up among his 3 friends and got in some trouble with the casino.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

[ QUOTE ]
interesting thing happened at bellagio this weekend. Right before we left, A friend of mine who owed me $$ came by with 8k in chips to repay me. I wanted to shower before we left so I asked my wife to cash in the chips for me. She went down to the cage and tried to cash out.

They asked her for her players club card scanned it and said "We can't cash these chips out, you haven't player here enough to have earned them." She then said they were my chips from the poker room, but said that I would need to cash them there.

Am I just naive or does this happen all the time?

[/ QUOTE ]

Look at it from the casino POV. Someone with $8k of dirty money comes in and buys chips. They walk around for an hour, then give the chips to Joe Random to exchange for cash. Casino gets to be middleman in a crime, free of charge.

It just makes their life easier to keep track of bigger/odd exchanges. 90% of the time it's probably nothing. But 10% of the time is enough of a PITA that it's not worth being lax.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

I still dont understand how using dirty money to buy chips, and having someone else exchange the chips for cash cleans the money. In the end, you walk in with cash, walk out with cash, and there is no paper trail to indicate the cash is clean.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

tell the cage you want to speak with a supervisor and if the supervisor doesn't cough up the cash offer to call gaming control. Yes it is common for casinos to do this but they must cash them in the end.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

[ QUOTE ]
I still dont understand how using dirty money to buy chips, and having someone else exchange the chips for cash cleans the money. In the end, you walk in with cash, walk out with cash, and there is no paper trail to indicate the cash is clean.

[/ QUOTE ]

Because they will cash out large enough for the casino to give them a a tax form and report it to the IRS, thereby legitimizing the money as if they were simply winnings. Hey, I plunked $100 at BJ, got on a monster roll and ended the night with $20k. I'll pay the govt my fair share in taxes and keep the rest as legit income.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

Yea but the same person could take his dirty money buys chips play a few games and cahs out and they cant do anything

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

[ QUOTE ]
Both.

If a casino sees someone cashing in high denom chips that they never played with/bought, something isn't right probably 7 out of 10 times. A few hundred isn't much to worry about but 5 figures + will raise suspicions.

[/ QUOTE ]

I remember in smaller casinos in Reno they'd ask where you were playing if you were cashing $100 chips. Then they'd call that pit to make sure. Kind of suprised me the first time they did that to me.

b

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

This type of thing always happens as a result of tracking money nearing the magical 10K mark. Depending on location, any transaction in excess of 2500 or so gets flagged and you have to write your name down. Get up to the limit and you trigger a CTR. I was playing at the Bellagio a few months ago and had a flag and 3 1K chips. The line was long at the poker room so I went across to the main cage on my way somewhere else. They wouldn't cash the chips because they couldn't confirm where they came from. I told them poker and they said I had to go back there to do it. So I did. They track the serial numbers on the chips, but I'm sure they see crossing up of these things all the time because players always loan/repay with chips, buy cash at tables, buy chips from other players in big games, etc. They probably don't care in the poker room as long as you look somewhat familiar.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

I've cashed 4 figures at Turning Stone on 6 or 7 different occasions and have NEVER been questioned or even given a second look. In fact, when I FTd at the Empire State Tourneys last year, we chopped at the end with the winner getting like $18K. The tournament director told the guy as he was giving him the chips "now, you know how to cash these right? Give some to a friend, your wife - whoever, so you cash out less than $10K."

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

lgkeeper -- then your experience was VERY different from mine. My friend and I went 50-50 on the Bellagio $1060 tourney last year. He chopped first place with others and won $28k. TD would give him NO information other than handing him a brochure outlining the IRS rules. TD DID say to hang on to the poker tournament receipt they gave us b/c it would make it easier to cash out. Sure enough, I tried to cash out 4k by the blackjack and they asked to see my player's card. I told them I didn't have one, but when I showed the tournament receipt, they cashed the chips right away. When we cashed some in the poker room, the cashier gave us no problems.

It's simply a combination of security practice on their end, and trying not to make it too easy to circumvent IRS regs. ALso, as others have said, chips are not to be used for non-gaming (payment of debts) purposes except for tipping casino (NOT hotel ... I don't think you're supposed to tip the waitress or maid with chips) personnel.

--Headhunter

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

[ QUOTE ]
The tournament director told the guy as he was giving him the chips "now, you know how to cash these right? Give some to a friend, your wife - whoever, so you cash out less than $10K.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can guarantee that the tournament director could get fired for doing this. I worked at a Harrah's for a short while, and we were repeatedly reminded that assisting a customer in avoiding internal tracking or CTR reporting in any way was grounds for immediate dismissal.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

[ QUOTE ]


Do they also frown on people using casino chips for tips?

[/ QUOTE ]

My casino frowns on people using chips to tip/pay for drinks.

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

[ QUOTE ]
we were repeatedly reminded that assisting a customer in avoiding internal tracking or CTR reporting in any way was grounds for immediate dismissal.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not to mention I believe its a federal crime...

Re: new to me... wife not being able to cash out
 

Yeah, telling the customer to give the chips to his family and friends sounds pretty outrageous to me. Wow.