In January, I had an incident at the Harrah’s Cherokee casino that I wrote about. I started my trip by taking a $20,000 marker, consisting of eight $2,500 TITO tickets and began to play $5 Deuces Wild. When I hit four deuces, I got two more of the same size . When I hit royals, I collected eight more.
It was a very successful trip and at the end, I had far more than eight of these tickets. I had signed for every one of them. At the end of the trip when I cashed out, the cage said one of the $2,500 tickets had been cancelled. They weren’t going to pay it until they figured it out.
Eventually, it got straightened out and I got paid. It took a bit longer than I would have preferred, but all’s well that ends well.
In April, I returned to Cherokee. I started my trip as I did before — taking out a $20,000 marker asking for $2,500 tickets. It took a bit longer than usual — the one ticket-making machine was being used to create tickets for somebody else — but eventually I was summoned to the window and my tickets were ready.
When you get these tickets at Cherokee, you need to sign for them. The ticket number of each ticket is recorded, and to the right of the ticket numbers, it’s typical to draw a slanted line and sign on the top of that line. This means you’re signing for all of them.
I was presented the sheet to sign and I noticed there were ten entries. It doesn’t take a math major to realize that ten tickets of $2,500 add up to $25,000 rather than $20,000. I looked at it closely. Had the tickets been made for $2,000 each instead, the amount of money represented by the tickets would have been $20,000. This was not what I had requested exactly, but certainly acceptable.
But no. The tickets were each for $2,500 and there were ten of them. I know this is a mistake, but I take a few seconds to ponder my next move. I was pretty sure I was going to refuse to take the extra two tickets, but I wanted to consider my options. Had I signed and taken the tickets as presented, I would have gotten a $5,000 unintended bonanza. But one that was well documented. Should the audit department be paying attention at all, in a day or two I might well get a tap on the shoulder and be asked for the return of $5,000.
I could feign ignorance, of course. After all, a lot of people sign things without doing all the calculations. I could easily say, “I didn’t really count things. I assumed it was correct.” They couldn’t prove I was lying — but I didn’t want to be under suspicion of “taking a shot.”
My philosophy on keeping an unexpected windfall goes something like this: “If I get a windfall that can’t be traced back to me, keep it. If it can be traced back to me, give it back. If one individual cashier or other employee will have to make up the shortfall, don’t take the windfall. Probably somebody working for wages needs the money more than I do.” Another factor is the last time there was a dispute over tickets at this casino, it ended up going my way. I know things can’t always go my way.
So, I spoke up. The cashier took the tickets back and went away. He returned shortly with eight $2,500 tickets and a new form for me to sign.
I don’t know how he went from 10 tickets down to eight. If he just cancelled two of them, I couldn’t be positive that the two he cancelled had the same numbers as the two that were no longer on the list I signed.
So I decided that if I hit jackpots before I went through this $20,000, I would get tickets in sizes other than $2,500 so I could make sure I used up the original ones I received. If I got a royal, I’d ask for ten $2,000 tickets. If I get four deuces, I’d ask for four $1,250 tickets. This will make it easier to identify the original tickets and make sure I didn’t try to sell them back.
This ended up being a losing trip, but at the end of the day I’m happy with the way I handled things.
Just a gut feeling, but bonanzas don’t happen from financial institutions. Your bank, a casino cash cage, etc… They will find it eventually and have enough surveillance to back-up you being the beneficiary. Good call on not trying to exploit this one.
In spite of today’s entitled philosophy, I have always found that honesty is the best policy.
Its called Karma. Take your pick.
This is a no-brainer for me. Show them their mistake immediately.
“Feigning ignorance” incurs the potential cost of reputational stain, should the mistake be noticed and corrected. Bob wouldn’t be thought of as having tried to “pull a fast one”, but it would be assumed that he likely tried to take advantage of their mistake. That could come back to haunt him in any situation down the road where he looks to benefit from their favorable consideration (something that I, while playing at lower stakes, rely upon frequently).
There was only one smart choice here, assuming he finds it advantageous to continue playing in this venue.
Why on earth is this even remotely worth discussing? Would any even marginally honest or ethical person steal the extra $5,000?
Was the game you played at Cherokee only $10 per Tier Credit?
Do you EVER play a game at a Caesars casino that is a higher rate than $10 per Tier Credit?
Caesars in Reno just went to $20 per Tier Credit on full pay games.
One more place that I can not play anymore.
There is a reason for all that and it’s actually not even worth making a big issue about it. Besides that, I take it the person who printed the tickets made a calculation error of course and that’s why the mistake.
The reason why there is this sort of extra paper work etc is simple: Anti Money Laundry procedures. That way it is transparent what somebody is doing. Simply buying tickets and cashing them out afterwards without the actual intention of it would make it easy for money launderers to wash their dirty money. The casinos want to be on the save side in case questions are asked by compliance officers or IRS people. The casinos are also to protect themselves against unwanted events.
From Switzerland
Boris
Selective honesty isn’t a “philosophy”…it’s a broken moral compas.
One should always do the right thing, even when no one is looking…or when one won’t get ‘caught’.
I got Mike Tubbs’ “drift” when he wrote “Selective honesty isn’t a ‘philosophy’…it’s a broken moral compas.” But actually, “selective honesty” is not necessarily a “broken moral compass”. Anybody remember the planned lying that the Allies did to the Nazis during World War II? I think you have to look at the conflicting principles and ask which one is more important in the situation. During World War II, defeating Hitler was more important than being honest. But I agree that a situation in which all that is going on is personal financial gain does not provide a valid exception to the honesty principle. However, there are other situations in-between those extremes in which a small windfall (generally not something large like $5K) doesn’t have to be pointed out and given back. Sometimes a person holds a title/position in which they have the authority to give a customer more than the basic amount of something that is due or should be given. And still other times, the worker is giving you a little something out of their own pocket. So I say that you shouldn’t make an inflexible universal rule, but rather you need to look at the situation and think about what is going on and what is appropriate or permissible. In this case, the $5K windfall is likely an error, not an intentional gift, so I think it would be best to report the discrepancy immediately, but to the person who handed you the bonus. If you report it to Management instead, you could get the worker in trouble, maybe even fired. If that person simply made a mistake, they don’t deserve punishment, just the jolt of corrective feedback from learning what happened.
The best point of all this, besides the honesty factor, is to always, always stop and count things right then and there, whether cashing a check at the bank, chips at the cage, picking up prescriptions from a pharmacy (make sure yours are correct, correct amount of pills, mgs etc), returning items to a store for a refund…check your receipt. The other day I got home from pharmacy with a sack of Rx’d meds and found one was not for us though it had my husband’s name on the label, but I knew it was wrong. I had not stopped to check before leaving the pharmacy. It turned into what was a fairly minor inconvenience for me to notify the medical practice and pharmacy (the pharmacy wouldn’t take it back!) and now I wonder if the ‘real’ patient ever got his antibiotics (had been filled some 3 weeks earlier). Humans make mistakes.
I always enjoy reading about gambling adventures, especially Las Vegas, and this was the first time that I’ve read your column. The moral dilemma you seemed to experience concerned me, but it was a good read nevertheless.
Could this not have been a trap to get rid of you while keeping/confiscating your money? This casino has a history of allowing a player to win big and then refusing to pay him. Maybe they were angle shooting Bob.
The fact it’s a reservation is the best reason to have pointed out the mistake.
The morality posters are interesting. If the mistake had occurred at cash out from a place they never intended to revisit and they were leaving by their own self parked car immediately, would they take the mistaken payout?
If they offer 6 to 5 or csms at tables labelled Blackjack and single deck blackjack, would that make a difference to the high roaders?
I think the reason to point it out or not is, as you say Bob, can it be traced to you. I believe this is synonymous with asking, can I get away with it!
What goes around, comes around!
I am surprised that there are good pay tables at the casino.
I was coloring up chips at a table game and the dealer put out the correct amount of large denom chips, $3600. He waited for the pit boss to come verify it, and the pit boss said it should be $4600. The dealer said nothing and increased the payout to $4600 in large chips. It took me by surprise, and I was half-thinking: well that must be right I guess. But I’m pretty sure my count was correct (and the dealer after all agreed with my count). I took the chips they gave me and as I walked away, I heard the pit boss say “that’s why I get the big bucks!” I expected a tap on the shoulder as I walked towards the cage. But none came, I cashed out, and I still play there (and count cards) to this day.
To those who have made very strong moral stances against this sort of thing, you have made me think; and though I think what I did might be a crime (though very hard to prove that I knew I was being mispaid), I don’t think it’s the same or as serious a crime as stealing. I was overpaid by mistake; that’s not morally the same as actively grabbing and taking away something that isn’t mine. I have no moral problem accepting mistakes in my favor made during the course of play. When Tom Brady or any quarterback is under center and notices the defense only has 10 men on the field, does he call timeout and let them know about their mistake? No, he tries to take advantage, and so does every other athlete or competitor in the world. I am competing at cards, and I follow the same moral compass. When the mistake happens at cashout or at the cage and not the during the game itself, perhaps it’s different; I honestly don’t know. I would entertain some thought-out moral arguments about why it’s wrong. I wouldn’t be interested in someone stating in all caps why I’m a bastard for not knowing the difference between right and wrong.
I am proud of you, Bob, that you did the right thing.