Another Way to Lose

I am going to talk about losing today – but not in the way I had planned to discuss it.  However, yesterday I found an unusual way to lose – not, of course, because I was looking for this!  🙂   Here is the sad story:

Brad and I walked into the Palms.  I had gotten a postcard for a good promotion – one that was open only to those who got the card – and I saw 2 open machines at the bank of the popular quarter Ten Play 9/6 JoB.  Lucky break, I thought, since these are usually full when a promo is going on.

I pulled out a  ticket voucher I hadn’t cashed in from yesterday – some odd amount around $450 – I didn’t look at it carefully because I would write down the exact amount when I put it in the machine.  I waved it to Brad, who was just around the corner on the other side of the bank – and said I would use it to start playing and he could put new money into his machine.  I thought I then inserted the ticket into my machine but I was slightly distracted because I was also downloading two sets of free play – one from a promotion and one redeeming my points.  During this time I was standing right by my machine, trying to get organized.  Finally after a couple minutes, I sat down at the machine to begin to play when I noticed there were only credits from my free play downloads, no credits from the $450+ ticket.  I looked in my purse; maybe I hadn’t actually put it into the machine yet. 

No ticket.

Hummmm…..I must have put it in and the machine didn’t register it.  Okay, no problem.  I’ll call a slot floorperson and they can open up the machine and find my ticket.  But they couldn’t find it.

Okay, they would check to see if the ticket recorded on the machine’s internal records but just didn’t give me the credits for some reason.  No record.  By this time I was questioning my sanity.  I knew I had the ticket a few minutes before.  I had showed it to Brad.

I  – and the slot supervisor – wondered if I had inserted it, the machine rejected it, and I didn’t notice it had come back – and someone had snatched it.  But that didn’t seem likely.  I was standing right in front of the machine and would have seen that.

The supervisor finally asked when I had cashed out that ticket the day before.  Fortunately I knew the approximate time I had quit playing and showed them the machine where I had cashed it out.  They were able to check their computers to get the ticket number and found out that it had been put into a cashout kiosk just a minute or so after I realized it was not in my machine.

Surveillance solved the mystery with their videos: me at my machine where I had dropped the ticket and a man had immediately swooped it up from the floor right beside me; then the man cashing out at a kiosk on the other side of the casino; and then his quick exit out of the casino.

Wow!  All this took was a few seconds of distraction by me to drop the ticket and then not notice a man bend down so close to me.

Since security has photos of this thief, they said they will keep a lookout for him, but I think it is a stretch to think he will ever be apprehended.  Although I certainly appreciated how quickly everyone worked and that all the employees were very kind and sympathetic about this incident, I didn’t expect any monetary reimbursement from the casino.  After all, it was my own fault – I dropped the ticket.  However, I was pleasantly surprised when the supervisor came back and said she had put $200 in free play on my card.  I thought that was a good public relations move and it did make me feel better.

However, I have decided not to mourn this loss  – I have lost more in two minutes on an ugly-acting VP machine.  Instead I look on this as a learning experience – to stay more alert and careful when I am in a casino and handling money.  And it could have been worse, since I have handled much bigger tickets than this! 

But the thing that makes me feel the best about this is that I have imagined the thief as a usually very honest hard-working husband and father who has lost his job and his house is in foreclosure and he doesn’t know how he is going to be able to support his family.  A dire time has made him discouraged and desperate.  Perhaps finding this $450+ will be the event that will lift his spirits and he will be able to think more positive and things will turn around for him.

I hope so!  But in the meantime I prefer to do charity work on my own terms so I will definitely be more careful when I am in a casino!

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16 Responses to Another Way to Lose

  1. The shoe was on the other foot for me about a year ago. I was playing vp in the wee hours of the morning in one of our Indian casinos in Michigan, when I heard the beep sound of a cash out ticket in one of the machines behind me. I noticed no-one around so I took the ticket and held onto it, hoping the person playing that had been playing the machine would return. About 5 minutes later I noticed a gentleman at the machine looking around (probably for his ticket) I asked him if he had been playing that machine, and he replyed “Yes, And I forgot to take my ticket from the machine”. I then gave him his ticket and he was so thankful there is some honest people still in this world. PS The ticket was $75.00.

  2. Ann says:

    Jean, kudos to you for not feeling vindictive about this theft. I agree with you this person could be in who knows what financial/life situation. If he did need it to feed his family I hope that is what he uses it for.

    I have come across money before and always return it to the person or store personnel. I was at a discount store and an older customer in front of my dropped a folded up $100.00 bill, I picked it up and promptly gave it to her, she had no idea she dropped it.

    It takes a certain caliber of person to be honest and know when something does not belong to us. I would feel something bad would happen to me if I took something that was not mine.

    You will continue to win, enjoy life and have lots of luck in the future.

  3. Mikey says:

    So sorry to hear that, Jean. And another way to view your experience in a positive light is the effect your story will have on your readers now. We will all surely be more alert and aware while gambling thanks to you.

  4. Terrence Murphy says:

    That’s why I’ve always liked, admired and respected you, Jean. No anger, no bitterness, no revenge in mind; you realize it’s just life as usual. If we let the bad/sad parts of life effect us too much, it’s our fault, not life.

    Terry & VP Pappy

    “Winning…it’s an inside job.”
    –VP Pappy

  5. Harris Gibson says:

    Just a note to say that I am sorry that you had to go through something like this. You have to be I gambler to know how it feels I guess. Something similar happened to me many years ago at the racetrack with a betting voucher and a self service machine. The ironic part of this is that every time I saw someone leaving a voucher, I would tell them and give it back to them. What goes around doesn’t always come around I guess. It never happened again however. I usually use my phone account so there is never a problem, but I am always careful to keep that voucher in my sight because IT IS CASH. I think that it was very nice of you to tell this story because you are known for saving your readers money and if it makes us more vigilant, then you have once again saved us from finding another way to lose. As for your lost money, just chalk it up to the cost of doing (monkey) business.
    Yours truly,
    Haris Gibson (A big fan)

  6. Matt says:

    I love how they figured out what happened. It’s like an episode of Las Vegas (the newer one). And Jane Lynch would be playing you (again).

  7. james thompson says:

    I had the exact same thing happen to me at the Wynn. I had turned and walked away from my machine for 30 seconds and my 400 dollars was gone. I saw the guy but he tricked me with a ticket in his palm for 5 cents.
    By the time securtiy showed up and checked things out.
    He had already cashed the tix across the casino.

  8. JAMES says:

    I had the same thing happen to me at Wynn. I was woozy from not eating enough food during the day and I was waiting for a time close to the dinner time switch over so I could get the crab legs.
    I put in my 400 dollar ticket and started to play. For some reason I decided to go play the quarter 8/5 bonus machines near the craps tables.
    I had only walked 40 yards before i realized I left the tix. I turned around and thought I saw some grey haired man quickly walk away with the tix from the machine. I quickly turned around and told him that that was my ticket, but he showed me a tix for 5 cents.
    Because I was woozy I let him go. But after realizing that he had to of had the tix. I couldn ‘t find him. I contacted security and they found that the tix was cashed at the other end of the casino.
    I’ve got to believe that there are guys and gals that just walk casinos looking for left over credits. I’ve seen it at the HRH with a young guy who looked homeless.

  9. Bobby98604 says:

    Wow Jean, talk about a drama episode. Such an ordeal would qualify in an episode of the show Las Vegas (if it was still on the air). I am extremely impressed with how the employees at The Palms handled the situation. They could’ve just said “sorry ’bout that” and that would be the end of it. Such a nice gesture on their part, giving you the $200 in free play. Your ordeal reminded me of an episode I had about a year ago in Reno near a ticket kiosk. I made the mistake of using that area to count the bills in my wallet. I saw someone pick up something from the floor and thought it might’ve been money from my wallet. After taking careful inventory I came to the conclusion that my funds were still intact but I learned a valuable lesson from that…standing in front of a ticket kiosk is NOT the place for an audit of personal funds.

  10. Steve in Michigan says:

    What a great way to handle a loss, or life in general. A similiar thing happened to me and I too tried to think nice thoughts. The good news was I hit for twice the amount I had lost, within the hour.

    From lemons one can make lemonade.

    Love your articles.

  11. Ron says:

    You’re not alone, unfortunately. Last year I cashed out $482.50 from a machine at the Orleans and put it in my pants pocket. When I got to my room my pocket was empty. I know no one picked my pocket and no, there was no intoxication involved.

    I too hope that whoever cashed it needed it more than I did. If they saw it drop from my pocket and didn’t tell me they’ll have to account for their action some day.

    Sorry for your loss.

  12. DICK B. says:

    ALL THAT-TO LET US KNOW—-TO USE COMMON SENSE….A LESSON FROM KINDERGARDEN…..AND THEN YOU CONCOCT A REASON NOT TO FEEL BAD….THE MAN WAS/IS A THIEF…..BUT-YOUR FEELING HE WAS FINANCIALLY CHALLENGED MADE YOU FEEL BETTER…..WHAT NEXT-THE POOR DRUG USER—HAD TO STEAL TO MAINTAIN HIS HABIT…..HOW COULD ANYONE GET THAT CLOSE TO YOU-WITHOUT YOUR KNOWING IT ????????

  13. Pilot 1953 says:

    Wow. At least the guy did not fight you for it. I was at Bally’s about 3 years ago on a Saturday night, about 1am. I had just won about $1600 in 3 hits on VP (no W2G, 2 x 400 and one set of A’s for 800). I cashed out and was waiting for the ticket to print. Just as it started to come out, I got shoved away and knocked down. The guy grabbed the ticket and ran into the hallway between Bally’s and Paris. Security must have been watching the guy, cause they went rigth after him, and one security person checked up on me. To make a long story short, they did not catch him. He somehow got out by one of the parking strctures. I do not know if it was my status (Diamond) or if they felt responsible, but they gave me cash for the ticket (not freeplay, if they even had it then). They said they would catch him and knew who he was. Turns out they had flagged the ticket. The next day, the guys girlfriend came in to cash the ticket, and instead of using a kiosk, she went to the cage. Needless to say, she was apprehended within 2 minutes and later gave up her boyfriend. He us now serving time in prison, but not for the robbery. He beat up his girlfriend while out on bail. I was told this by a supervisor (who shall be nameless) when I returned about 6 weeks later. This was the second time I got robbed in Vegas. First time was at the Trop before they went TITO. Won 300 in coins, and a guy grabbed the big plastic cups. One broke, scattering coins all over, and he got the other one. He ran, but never made it out of the casino. Another patron tripped him and he hit the floor. All of my coins were all over the floor by the old Island Gods machines and the crap tables. I got back about $200 of the coins. The rest, who knows who picked them up. I never thought that it would happen twice to me.

  14. Len Z says:

    That is quite the amazing story there Jean ! I had a similar situation happen at a harrah’s casino, but what happened to me is that when I tried to redeem a TITO payment voucher into another VP machine, the machine kept trying to read the ticket, but it kept being rejected by the bill acceptor. After minutes of continuous trying, and moving from VP machine to VP machine I just figured that my ticket would not read right, so I would eventually end up redeeming it at the end of my gaming session. But my biggest surprise was when I finally went to take it to the cashier, they scanned the ticket, it didn’t beep, but BUZZED back and said that my ticket had already been redeemed !!!! This was for over 300+ and it was like sorry, your ticket has already been paid out. When I questioned how that was possible, as I had the original ticket in my hand. No one could give me any details, so I insisted on talking to a supervisor as they were saying that the ticket was already paid and redeemed, and I would not be getting any funds for it.

    Come to find out, when I had stuck that TITO slip into one of the VP machines that I was trying to play and it kept rejecting the ticket and spitting it back out, one of the machines that I tried and I think I tried over 7-8 machines, accepted that ticketed, redeemed it internally in the central computer system, but gave me NO credits on the machine and then just spit the ticket back out. This finding was based on me going to every machine that I tried the ticket on and where it was rejected and they did an internal audit of the machine’s bill acceptor log. They finally found the machine that showed the ticket being redeemed on, since they had the actual ticket from me. After over 1 hour of this investigation going on, I was then told this was a RARE event, but that it does happen and I was paid manually. But I guess nothing is fool-proof with computers and errors do occur !

    I guess there are positive and negative events that happen with TITO machine payouts. In the olden days of VP, dropping a bucket of stacked quarter cups being carried to the cashier, would have resulted in a few misplaced quarters. Dropping and accidentally losing an entire cashout slip is a much more and costly consequence . . .

  15. Carol says:

    6/23/10
    Jean, you are so benevolent. I would have wished something very bad to happen to the thief as “karma” or payback for his evil thievery. Feb of last year I was at a trade show convention at the MGM Grand and dropped my small purse to the floor for a minute while I readjusted all the other stuff I was carrying. I was so tired, distracted and was carrying so much, I walked away and left the purse on the floor. When I realized a few minutes later that I’d left it I returned to the spot and it was gone. My ID, credit cards, make up,about $400 cash and tickets to see Terry Fator’s show that night were gone. No surveillance cameras in the MGM convention building. Never saw the purse or its contents again.
    My husband not only had to put up with my hysteria that turned into depression and anger, but had to drive me all around the Strip area to find inexpensive makeup (finally found at Walgreens), and stop our credit cards (which have several auto debit charges each month),
    Ruined my trip. The Mirage was great when we showed up for Terry Fator and explained what had happened. They had the record of me paying for the tickets with my credit card (fortunately that transaction had been approved). They had us wait in the lobby until 10 minutes before showtime. An usher kept an eye on our seats. They were prepared to apprehend anyone who had our tickets. No one showed up for our seats, so we were escorted to them and enjoyed the show.
    Security at the airport was also helpful. However, I only got through it because my husband had his ID and could produce two other items (a vehicle insurance card and our itinerary) that had both our names on it.
    Needless to say it was a real lesson about thinking clearly and staying alert when visiting Vegas. Both of those are very difficult to do when you’re running on very little sleep and lots of distractions and excitement all around you.

  16. cynthia stodolka says:

    That’s a scam artist for sure. Sorry you lost your ticket.

    They say what goes around comes around so someday somewhere that person will get the done back to him or her. Always comes out in the wash as they say.

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