Comments on: The Rest of the Story

By: mofromto

mofromto — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:19:22 +0000

A few years ago, I was staying at a Laughlin casino and was playing VP a couple of machines away from a very elderly gentleman. I hit a royal which made him come over and take a look while I was waiting for the hand pay. After warmly congratulating me, he walked away. The handpay was taking time so I decided to go and play on the machine next to the one the gent was playing which is when I noticed he had not cashed out his $900+ credits.
I looked around the sparsely crowded floor (it was very early in the morning) and saw no sign of him. I cashed out his credits and when the attendant finally came back with her supervisor for my hand pay and to give me my 1042 form, I gave them the ticket and told them about the forgetful customer and they immediately took the machine’s number on which he was playing and said that they would be able to trace him provided he had his player’s card in the machine. If he didn’t, they said I might have a claim on the money. They asked me if I had a host and as I did I gave them her name.
I didn’t think anything about it until later that day when I returned to my room to see a message waiting for me. It was my host informing me that the gentleman had been found and was overjoyed that his money had been recovered as it wasn’t until he was going to the parking lot that he realized he had not cashed out. To thank me he asked the hotel how he could find out what wine I liked so that he could send me some. He was put in touch with my host who knew what I liked from the dinners she had comped me for in the past.

By: Brenda Finchum

Brenda Finchum — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:33:43 +0000

Jean,
Had an incident at Biloxi. I put a ticket in a machine and then decided not to play it after looking at the payback table. It printed me a partial ticket for the change only. When I went to put it in another machine realized the error. I am used to having a partial ticked printed as soon as I put a ticket in, but not printing 2 when I cash out. The casino personnel said someone had cashed it out, but got out of the casino before they could stop him. I should have looked at the amount of course, but this unusual way of printing out partial tickets and then the main one was a total new wrinkle to me. Will always look at the ticket now.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:35:09 +0000

Jean, glad you were able to get the money returned. Can the casino void the ticket if it isn’t cashed before the casino is notified of your loss? Say the person left with the ticket planning to cash it a few days later. Would the casino have been able to flag that ticket so it couldn’t be cashed?

By: Lynn

Lynn — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 02:38:50 +0000

I’m glad you got your money back. Did I miss it, or did you intentionally omit the name of the casino? Do you think that lady will be allowed back in that casino, or if a gaming agent was there, do you think they’ll ban or from other casinos?

By: PNE

PNE — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 23:16:02 +0000

I had a similar story a number of years ago in Harrahs AC. We left the ticket and came back a minute or two later and the woman sitting there who had been at the next machine said there was no money in the machine and we left to report it to security. We came back 5 or 10 minutes later and of course the woman was gone. We left our information and got a call later that night to come and claim our money. It turns out the woman used here Harrahs card and they called her home, where her husband answered. She was not home in Delaware and he did not know she had gone to the casino. He did not also know that she had been there with another a guy. Maybe it was her brother. He called her and she called the casino. A similar conversation as in the back room occurred. She turned around and dropped the money off. I guess she was not as smart as she thought. In this case we probably would have prosecuted as she had the opportunity to give us our money back up front and planned on stealing it.

By: Rob Massa

Rob Massa — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:19:51 +0000

So glad you had a happy ending!!!! Interestingly this happened to my wife and I, but we were the ones who found the ticket. We were getting ready to leave Harrah’s Kansas City and I noticed that the bank of DDB progressive was up to $1700 on the Quarter machines. We decided to run $20 through the game just for kicks. As I sat down I saw that some had hit Aces and cased out for over $800 and low and behold the ticket was laying on the machine. My wife and I decided to wait and surely someone would be back to look for it. Sure enough about five minutes later a young lady with tears in her eyes came back. I held out the ticket and asked nicely, “You wouldn’t be looking for this would you?” She broke down and cried a bit and asked us if she could give us some cash in return. We declined and told her to have a great evening.

By: Phoebe

Phoebe — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:15:14 +0000

I am so glad you got your money back! I have certain routines that I follow so I don’t screw up. One of my routines is that I always cash out my ticket and put it in my wallet before I pull my player card from the machine. I also glance at the machine as I am walking away as a double check. As I get older, I have more memory tricks that I use.

By: Jeffrey Compton

Jeffrey Compton — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:08:14 +0000

I am going to be a little contrary here – and say that it is too bad you did not press charges. There is a big difference in finding some loose coins in a machine and printing-and-redeeming a ticket for $1,199. She was a tournament-level customer so I doubt she needed the money to feed her children or keep herself warm (or cool). Yes, prosecuting someone is a huge hassle – but someone should have checked to see if she had a record (or at least some past incidences at this or other casinos).

By: Eileen Pratte

Eileen Pratte — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 10:11:50 +0000

Always read your blogs. Just love to hear about you and Brad and the rest of the family. After happily reading about the return of your $1510, I have a couple of \curiosity\ thoughts. You stated that the security guard recognized the woman(a \well-known customer\), and then you generously say that you are sure she had no idea that she broke the law. Casinos have so many people coming through on a daily basis that, if the security guards recognize them they must be there a lot, and/or act in such a manner that they get security’s attention. Seems like such a person would probably be aware that they are breaking the law. Even if they weren’t breaking the law, it just isn’t the honest thing to do. Hopefully she’s learned a lesson on values, if nothing else.

By: jg thompson

jg thompson — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 03:37:07 +0000

I’m not a senior either, but I’ve had some memory loss due to longterm lipitor usage.