Since Vegas is a resort destination, there are families with kids staying in the hotels. By design, access to the hotels, restaurants, and other amenities requires people\u2014including minors\u2014to pass through casino areas. That’s why Vegas doesn’t ID people for age at the door. Instead, security, dealers, and waitresses all play a part in IDing people who are loitering in the gaming areas, especially those who are ordering drinks or gambling.<\/p>\n
Now go to the Midwest. These are not<\/strong><\/em> resort destinations with kids playing at the pool and riding rollercoasters. Before you can enter the “riverboat,” you must pass through a checkpoint. Some of these checkpoints have turnstiles to count visitors for business or tax purposes. All of these checkpoints have security, and if you look young, under 50 years old, you’ll get IDed. For an AP, this is a stressful moment.<\/p>\n Prevention is the best medicine. There are a number of tricks you can try that definitely help reduce the chance of getting IDed. First of all, dress older. Do not wear an Affliction T-shirt, a Hollister sweatshirt, Chuck T sneakers, True Religion jeans, or any of that trendy junk (or am I already a decade behind the fashion?). Look at the kids in line at the LA and Vegas clubs. Don’t dress like them. Dress like an old person, or, like a sick, degenerate gambler. And tie your shoes. Untied shoes make you look younger.<\/p>\n Next, when you go in, don’t look happy. Kids going to a casino or nightclub have a happy, excited look, like school kids starting summer vacation. Fun is for kids. Kids get IDed. You want to look like you’re going to a casino not to have fun, but because you’re a degenerate. I think the ideal look when going into the casino is to look tired, unshaven, and miserable, like you don’t even want to be there. Casino personnel, especially pit bosses, love that look; it relaxes them.<\/p>\n Carry chips in your hand, and make sure the checkpoint guard can see them or hear you clicking them. But don’t look happy. When you are about to pass the guard, don’t hesitate or look evasive, but don’t try to rush past him, either. You just have to look confident and give a slight nod of acknowledgment, remembering that you are too tired and miserable for a full-blown “Hello.”<\/p>\n Don’t go in with a group of young people, because then the guard just reverts to: “ID all of ’em.” It does<\/strong><\/em> help to go in after a group of young people, so that you are not associated with them, but the guard is still busy IDing them while you confidently pass by with the attitude that that IDing business has nothing to do with you.<\/p>\n Another trick is to walk up to the security checkpoint, and without trying to pass through, ask the guard for some casino-related help. For instance, flash a player’s card in the air and ask, “My card is supposed to be Platinum. Can I get a reprint in the pavilion or is the Player’s Club on the boat?” Or, “Can I just give my player’s card at the steakhouse, or do I have to go to the pit to get a comp slip?” Or, “Is valet parking free with my Diamond card?” Or, “My wife is coming tomorrow and she’s going to need a wheelchair. Can I get one here?” It doesn’t matter whether the question has anything to do with the security guy’s job. You’re trying to talk the talk of a long-time degenerate.<\/p>\n After establishing a rapport with that guard, exhibiting your casino experience and lack of fear, leave briefly, then return and attempt to pass through the checkpoint manned by that same guard.<\/p>\n Despite your best efforts, you may be IDed. Some places will simply look at the ID to verify age, some will copy the ID information into a log, others will swipe it through a card reader, and others will photoscan it. Whatever they do should not come as a surprise to you, because you should have done your homework by asking around, or by sending in a young-looking, expendable civilian to get IDed intentionally in order to ascertain the procedures. For instance, at the former Empress Joliet, not only would they scan your ID, but they’d tell you to stand on a dot and pose for the overhead camera!<\/p>\n If you have time, such as a few days before a major play, go through the checkpoint a few times visibly, to the point where the guards know you on sight. You want them to recognize you as a regular, but not know your name. There are many casinos where I enjoy this status. Try to find out their shift schedules.<\/p>\n If your ID does get logged or scanned on the way in, and you expect to make an AP play that can trigger heat, realize that the pit will use the entry logs to try to identify you. One minor thing you can do (it’s a free roll), is to leave the casino once your ID has been logged, greeting the guard on the way out so that when you return, he’ll remember you and not ID you. Then wait 10 minutes to a few hours, re-enter with the same guard, and pray that he doesn’t ID you this time. If not, then you can play your target game, and if the casino rolls back the tape to your most recent entry, they’ll see no ID check. These tricks may not work if the casino is slow with very few logged IDs. They don’t see many Las Vegas IDs in Peoria.<\/p>\n If all else fails, there is a Plan B that will solve this problem, but it’s a longer-term plan that will take a bit of set-up\u2014about 30 years of set-up to be safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since Vegas is a resort destination, there are families with kids staying in the hotels. By design, access to the hotels, restaurants, and other amenities requires people\u2014including minors\u2014to pass through casino areas. That’s why Vegas doesn’t ID people for age at the door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[558],"tags":[697,1235,644,1236,1237,1238,1239,592,853,1146,1240,652,1241,574,1242,659,1243,1167,1244,1245],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}