Nolan Dallas confiscated flag (5k chip)

[tipperdog]

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I, too, would like to know why the chain of custody/legitimacy of the chip can't be determined through its original holder.

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This was explained [on another website or blog, I can't remember]. Nolan took his friend back to the MGM cage to do just this. However, the friend didn't have his play tracked when he won the chip and nor could he remember exactly where and when he won it. His story was insufficient for the MGM, so they refused to return the chip.

If refusing to cash the chip was "ill," refusing to work more closely with Nolan's friend to establish custody was "double ill."

That's the greatest illness of this entire case. The MGM should have said to Nolan originally: "I'm sorry, but we don't allow our chips to be used to satisfy private debts. We won't cash this for you. We're are going to test to make sure it's not counterfeit. If it's legit, you must return it to the rightful owner and he/she must cash personally." Had MGM said this, there would be no basis for complaint.

[goodgrief]

The friend is suspicious if you ask me. He colored up for a $5K chip "several months ago" and is unable to remember where or when. Yeah, right. Because people forget about $5K color-ups all the time. I mean, the Bob Stupak thing happened some years ago. Everybody knows that you don't just walk with a $5K chip for some months. It can be dicey to do it for 24 hours. The friend has a chip he can't cash that he obtained in some unknown fashion, and he successfully palmed it off on somebody else.

It's like the story about the bank robbery. Two buddies are in line at the bank when the robbers burst in and tell everybody to empty their wallets. Friend #1 feels something being pushed in his hand. "What's that?" "That's the $50 I owe you, I'm re-paying it now."


It usually does cost money to have friends of bad character. I don't see what MGM can do about it, once Nolan admits that he received the chip in a non-gambling transaction. The law is clear. Nolan broke the law when he took the chip for payment of a debt, rather than in the course of gambling at MGM. It is no different from the guy who receives any other kind of stolen goods, such as a work of art. When you get caught with the item of questionable provenance, you don't get your money back. You are grateful not to be put in prison for the felony you committed when you received the stolen good. Nolan wants to have his cake and eat it too -- he got caught with something he shouldn't have had in the first place, and now he wants to be compensated in addition to not being prosecuted.

Honestly, when I first read the story, I at least believed the friend had legitimately won the chip and was just afraid to cash out for some reason, such as he was a timid card counter afraid of being barred at the cage. But the postscript to the story makes it pretty questionable that the friend came by this chip honestly. He himself conveniently recalls nothing. That's pretty odd with $5K being involved.

[King Yao]

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Everybody knows that you don't just walk with a $5K chip for some months.

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Most people don't. But there are some people who do. I held around 100K worth of 5K chips for around 6 months at one point. I still have a 5K sportsbook chip from a cashout after the Super Bowl. The addendum to the story about the friend not remembering the exact table is not suspicious at all to me if he is a high limit player.

[CincyLady]

Gee, is this a common problem in Vegas where casino's won't pay up or something?

Over in the Tournament/WSOP forum, there is a guy posting about how in one of this years WSOP events, he came in 2nd and accepted a $269 check from Harrahs ... which when the guy deposited it into his bank, promptly bounced and his bank froze his accounts because of it!

I thought that it was state law or something that casinos had to pay up when someone is cashing out, is that not the case I take it?

Why can casino's not get in trouble with the law for bouncing checks, and not allowing large chips to be redeamed, yet if the average joe was to write a bad check, they'd get in trouble?