Is It a Crime to Keep a Slot Ticket You Found?

Is it true that a guest in a casino who finds, and then uses, an unattended ticket near a slot machine is committing a crime, even if it's a small amount? Is that also true for using or cashing out leftover credits in slot machines? If so, how often do casinos enforce that policy of theft? And what should guests do when they see unattended tickets lying alone with no owner in sight?

Leave them alone, that’s what. They’re fungible items that don’t belong to you (or even the casino).

As the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s senior researcher Michael Lawton explains, “Technically, taking unattended slot tickets or cashing out slot machine credits left behind is considered a theft under Nevada Revised Statute 205."

As for casinos enforcing the policy, Lawton tells us, "It's not about how often the casino enforces the policy of theft, but rather how often the victim wishes to pursue criminal action against the perpetrator.

“More often than not, the offender is trespassed from the location, depending on the amount of money involved in the crime."

Bottom line, Lawton says is, "Guests who come upon unattended slot tickets or credits should notify casino staff and return them.”

Boyd Gaming spokesman David Straw offers further clarification.

“Unattended slot tickets belong to the original player. Legally speaking, it would be like any other personal property you left behind, whether cash, jewelry, personal belongings, or anything else. In short, you don't know why the player left the ticket behind, so if it doesn't belong to you, don't take it. And no, the amount doesn’t matter.

"It's also important to note that the abandoned ticket doesn't belong to the casino either. If we find a slot ticket, we keep it for 90 days in case someone tries to claim it. After that time, it becomes abandoned property. In Nevada, 75 percent of abandoned-ticket proceeds are turned over to the state, while 25 percent reverts back to the casino.”

Now you may take issue with the casinos getting a cut of someone else’s property simply for turning it into the state. But we’re discussing the law as it is, not as it should be.

“Finally, to answer your reader's question,” Strow concludes, "if you find an abandoned ticket, you can turn it in to an employee, who will get it to the cashier's cage — again, much as you would if you found any other lost item. But under no circumstances should you keep it yourself. You may be trespassed by the casino if you're caught doing so.”

No part of this answer may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.

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Comments

Gregory May-25-2023

Laughable

Many years ago I was at the Fremont and I cashed out an archaic slant top machine where the ticket spit into the "coin tub", so the ticket delivery was not obvious.  I figured out my mistake a couple minutes later and the ticket (just over $100) was gone.  I contacted a floor person, they looked up the ticket and said yeah, that ticket was redeemed on another machine.  That was all the "help" I got.  So if you can steal a ticket worth over $100 with no consequences, why do they sh!t bricks over a few cents?

O2bnVegas May-26-2023

Gregory

I agree...laughable.  Because another aspect of this is "how often the victim wishes to pursure criminal action against the perpetrator."

It would have been all on you to get an attorney; presumably your attorney then must file papers to get copies of surveillance, the perpetrator's name and address etc., file the appropriate paperwork/charges/arrest the perpetrator, go to court, etc.  Of course few of us know this.  We assume casino personnel would chase things down for us, which is like near-impossible. 

The casino personnel can only go so far on the front end...check the surveillance, maybe in a good place try to see if still in the casino, which is unlikely anyway.  JMHO. Sorry that happened to you.

Candy

gaattc2001 May-26-2023

I've had a few tickets go "missing," too...

leading to a set of fundamental rules:
1. Don't leave the machine--even for a moment--without cashing out and taking the ticket;
2. Do not just stick the ticket in your pocket: put it in your wallet, put the wallet in your pocket, and button the flap;
3. Before leaving the casino, and especially before leaving town at the end of a trip, check all pockets and wallet compartments carefully for uncashed tickets.
Usually if you lose a ticket, it's gone within minutes. The casino can tell you that it was cashed, and even in what machine; but that's the end of it. Like a losing gaming session, you chalk it up to experience. Once however (in Laughlin) they called me at home to tell me that the ticket had been found, and offered either to send me a check, or to hold it for me until next trip. Unfortunately, that was a relatively small one.  
A good example of Caveat Emptor.

O2bnVegas May-26-2023

Laughlin

Laughlin (Harrah's, anyway) has actually done right by us at least a couple of times.  Once I came home with a $20 TITO.  It would be beyond the 30 days or whatever for redemption. A cashier cage person would not cash it.  I mentioned it to my Host, who put a $20 comp on my account to make up for it.  My friend left an $80 ticket behind.  She called, whomever she talked to said they found it and held it for her.  Same friend was playing last minute before bus would leave to the airport to fly us home.  She hit something that gave her like 500 bonus spins.  She kept going but kept getting more spoins, finally had to leave the machine for the bus.  An attendant somehow worked it out so she wouldn't lose her money or remaining spins.  Amazing.

Dave_Miller_DJTB May-26-2023

Bearer instrument

Back in November 2021 I started a thread about this on the Wizard’s forum after discovering the words “This ticket is a bearer instrument.” on the back of a TITO. 

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/off-topic/general/36700-tito-is-a-bearer-instrument/

jay May-26-2023

Obligation

The fundamentals of an American Casino is that they take your federally regulated US Cash and turn it into a convertible monetary instrument. You give them cash they give you chips, you give them chips they give you cash. 
This is no different than you going into a bank and depositing your pay cheque. They need to manage and track the deposit to the owner of the account. In essence the casino is acting as a bank they have an obligation and a fiduciary duty to manage your deposit.

If a ticket is turned in, the casino should be obligated to review the camera footage, determine who dropped it and seek out their creditor to return their money. While this sounds like your expecting a lot from the casino, if you understand that they are really acting as a bank - they have an obligation to track your deposits. Its not like they don't have the tools to do it. 

It would also be good to have a player tracking number printed right on the ticket so the appropriate person could be contacted.

Robin Heller May-26-2023

Wish the theif had been honest

I wish the thief who took my $350 ticket and ran with it had known he could have been prosecuted... It got cashed and absconded with. It was redeemed at the cage.

VegasROX May-26-2023

AI will solve the issue

Soon, maybe even soonER, AI will know who the ticket belongs to and be able to stop it from being used by anyone else, notify your ticket can be picked up from and automatically notify security that someone was trying to play a leftover .23 credit on a penny machine, all in a blink of an eye. Watch.

PK May-26-2023

No more titos

Now you can just put it back on your players a card

[email protected] May-26-2023

Sessa

I'd say do not even touch it, look at it and walk pass, its consider theft, i read alot of comments of people playing and leaving their machine unattended, call a slot tech or any employee to stand by and watch your machine. If you leave your machine unattended and someone jumps on it, then the problem is yours not anyone else's, and when i say anyone else's i mean any employee in the casino building. So don't go cussing out anyone for your stupidity. and this is me just stating facts, i do work in the cage in the casino industry.

Howard M May-26-2023

Tremendous Conflict?

You recently addressed the issue RE: who's the actual winner/ owner of a jackpot. If I'm correct, you said that whoever hits the spin button is the winner of the outcome even to the extent of a jackpot. I believe you said that this is even true if I'm sitting at my machine with my players card inserted ... if my wife, a cousin, or a total stranger reaches over and hits the spin button, the resulting payout is technically his/hers? Is that not what was printed here?
If that's the case, there's a tremendous conflict between a total stranger taking [my] money from my machine with me sitting right there watching, as opposed to me finding a 50 cent voucher on the floor and being considered a criminal for taking it.
I'm not saying either one is right or wrong, just that there seems to be a tremendous conflict in how these two issues which do occur in casinos are perceived and handled. Please comment.

timtanium May-27-2023

extra .03

Recently, I was playing video poker at a bar, I put in $100.  Played $1.25 per hand for about an hour or so, got a few good hands, and I cashed out at $125.  However, the ticket was for $125.03.

I'm speculating someone left .03 cents in the machine.  So is it theft when I cashed out the $125.03?

AL May-29-2023

A miracle!

A sentence in the latter part of the Answer mentioned a truly miraculous event, though it wasn't discussed earlier or fully in the text.  It said, "Now you may take issue with the casinos getting a cut of someone else’s property simply for turning it into the state."  I didn't think that it was possible for anybody to turn an object into the State of Nevada.  Wow!  Changing a piece of paper that's just a couple inches long and a couple of inches wide into a plot of land that has over 110,000 square miles would be a really immense supernatural act.  That's way more impressive than someone "turning a ticket in to the state".

Question of the Day - 26 May 2023

Comments