Banned for 38 cents

     And it just happened to me at the nearby (Rivers) casino.  I had been at a row of slots about a half hour before and won a bit, maybe $40.  Walked upstairs, sat down at another and noticed 38 cents in it.  No sooner did I take the cashout slip when out of nowhere came, Arturo, a security guard  

     He claimed they'd been watching me, I had to cash out, leave and would be banned.  I won't deny I've done this before but every time there's been under $1 someone left and I've kept the slip.   Is not as if I found an envelope with $10,000 in the mens room, or tried to snatch chips off a table or grabbed a woman's wallet. 

     I wondered if he would've been as quick to ask me to leave had I just lost....$8,000 at a $100 blackjack table and THEN taken the 38 cent slip?  

     I'll miss the sportsbook during football season as it's a great place to watch an NFL game whether betting on them or not.  More than that I'll miss all the great people I'd meet there.  For now I'll try and look at the positive side of this.  I'd never lost more than $160 there on one trip yet felt terrible when I did.  I never had a gambling addiction, quite the opposite.  If I was up $40 or $50 I'd cash out and leave.  

    In the long run I'll be better off for this.  But as much as I'd like to send a letter to 'Arturo' the security man, am pretty sure people would advise me not to.    So that's the story.  I guess I just have to admit I was wrong.

             Tim

First of all...I don't know where you live, and there are a few casinos named "Rivers," so, which one is this?

If you want to return (and I'm not sure I'd want to if something like this had happened to me, but you say you've really had fun there in the past), then I'd say, tell somebody there who's in a position of authority exactly what you've just told us. Say that you understand that what you did was against the rules, but you thought that the offense was trivial, given the dollar amount. Promise you won't do it again. Emphasize that you've enjoyed visiting and playing there. Butter them up a little.

I've run across this sort of issue before in casinos (and in other contexts). Some assistant manager-level boss man feels compelled to exert his authority/manhood. A customer gets hammered over the head for a trivial slip-up/offense. The business loses a customer, and ill will is generated. What happens is NEVER the business's intention. But give some people power, and a list of rules, and they will gleefully exert that power to the utmost. Who knows, Arturo may not have gotten laid since January. Or his hemorrhoids may have been acting up. Or even...he wasn't right to throw you out at all. (Had you received any kind of warning before for a similar offense?)

I'd make you a heavy favorite, let's say in sports bet terms, about -900, to, if you humbly protest this, be reinstated as a player in good standing, receive an apology, and maybe even get some kind of gift or perk as recompense. Casinos, and any other businesses for that matter, don't want Arturos working for them.

Maybe you can get his ass canned! Bonus!

Sounds to me like they weren't watching you, but watching that $.38 TITO slip waiting for someone to take it!   I'd get all my freinds to visit that casino and look for unattended TITO Slips, and each time call for "Security" to come and properly remove it!  and ask them to pull security footage to Identify the rightful owner!  

Exactly what should have occurred, rather than Arturo sitting in wait to nab a desperate criminal such as Tim.  Tim could have a case, since it sounds like he did not get to the point of cashing the 38 cents.  

Candy

Yeah, well, that doesn't matter...from the point of view of "criminality," there's no legal difference between stealing 38 cents and stealing something that's worth 38 cents or can be exchanged for that amount. And the courts have ruled that the TITO in such an instance is the casino's property. Hell, if you find a nickel on the floor and pick it up and put it in your pocket, you've just stolen it.

What should have happened is that Arturo should have been knocked unconscious, trussed up, stuffed in somebody's trunk, and then driven out into the nearby wilderness and dumped, to be devoured by whatever indigenous predators happened to wander by. But there is rarely justice in this world.

This whole scenario makes no sense.  If Tim doesn't actually cash ticket, how can anyone say that he meant to keep it?  That would be conjecture on the part of the security person/team.  

I've been in situations where I have found credits on machines.  Some instances I've just put in my money and started playing.  A couple times I have asked a nearby player if the credits were theirs, and they said yes, I cashed it out and gave the ticket to them.  One other instance I actually sat at a machine that had $110 and some change.  I hit the service button and got the attention of a cocktail waitress to get a slot attendant.  10 minutes later a slot attendant showed up and opened the machine.  Apparently they have some readout that tells the casino which player....provided they used a players card, was the last person to use the machine.  Not sure if that did any good, and no one came by looking for the money as I was playing.  

Tim getting 86ed over 38 cents is ridiculous, but does happen. 

 Whew! I am here @ South Point and found folded $1 dollar bill on the floor behind a row of VP machines - I guess that I will go back down to the casino floor and turn the dollar in to Security - you never know who is watching... Tim, you getting barred is just dumb on the casino's part. 

Technically, it doesn't matter if it's 38 cents or 5.38 cents or 28 dollars.  When people do that it's an indicator that they deliberately do that. Casinos don't like that. It's not that the casino has the idea these 38 cents should go to the casino, but it's a matter of principle. Same here in my country. When we see people doing that (the modern way of "silver mining" which was done in the 80s and 90s before the ticket games took over) we also ban people. Could be that you get a stern warning first, but if you do that over and over again, then the casino has no choice.

It may be different with found cash.  Years ago husband and I were walking toward the exit, but still inside, of Bellagio when he noticed two $20s on the floor (carpet).  He picked them up.  There happened to be a Security guy standing nearby.  Husband approached him with the two bills, explaining that we found them on the floor.  The guard waved us off, said something to the effect of 'no keep them'.  We actually felt sort of creepy about it.  

Candy

     Thanks to all of you for the input.  This Rivers Casino is in Des Plaines, just outside Chicago.   There was more to the story.  This happened to me before there.  It was 2019 and a rude head of security named Travis Clarke.  He led me to the door and I just thought to ask him - does this mean I'm banned from every casino in the country?   He said YES!  I found that to be a bit nervy.

     But shortly after I got a bit lucky.  The whole COVID mess began and of the 12 months I was banned, 10 of them the property was closed anyway.  Awhile after this, I asked a worker if Mr. Clarke was still there but she told me no, that he took a job at another casino.

     Some of the  reviews I've read from visitors there have had other gripes.  So I guess I'm not the only one to have an incident.   For a casino that was said to have taken in $1 billion last year from their sportsbook, only upsets me more.  A bit of tact from Arturo and Travis would have sufficed.  Just tell me - plese don't do that.

I'd have listened.

        Tim