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 propery 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.