Well dressed beggars in casinos. Old or new Scam?

I was watching TV this past weekend. There is a show, manswers on the spike channel. They interviewed a panhandler. He said that some panhandlers can make up to 70K a year. He said the main thing about panhandling is "location location location". He said that he can rake in a lot at the right place and gave some examples of where to panhandle. He also said that looks make a difference, I guess you have to look like a sad case that needs the money but not look like a dangerous or unstable person.

The beggars/panhandlers that bother me most are the ones who sit there w/ a dog or cat.

I pity the poor dog who gets a human owner who's "homeless"... now thats bad karma

A saw a "homeless" guy in France with a little Yorkie trained to look sad.

Not long ago in the 4Queens, I rode up the elevator with a middle-aged guy dressed as you would on a golfing trip. He asked if the workers were as rude to me as they were to him. I said no and that I had always been treated well. He launched into his spiel about his friends left him and took off back to Cleveland, and if I could help him out. Creeped me out as this was about 3 am and I didn't know if this guy was about to rob me or what.

I don't know if many of you have been to Vegas for either association conferences or busines meetings. I have organized a 60 person conference the past 3 years. The 1st year we held the conference at Treasure Island. During the 1st day of the conference, this guy approaches my group wearing a lanyard and name tag for a conference, and gives us a 'my conference just finished up, and I have these luggage samples I need to get rid of'. He was real pushy, butting into conversations to push his products. Ultimately, I believe a couple of the individuals purchased some of the luggage, and I didn't think anything of it.


That was until the next year, when we are Paris, and all of a sudden, I see the same guy, and he starts giving me the same story from last year. I told him no thank you, and told the Meeting staff at the Paris. They ran him off.

Then at our conference last year at Paris, don't you know it, but here comes the same guy up to us again. Once again, I engage the staff at Paris to have him taken away from my group. It upset me that the Paris would allow this guy to solicit business to their guests. So, this year we decided to move the meeting to The Mirage. I'm wonder if I'll see him this year.