Casino Safety Tips

While the large majority of casino visitors will have a safe and enjoyable time, there is always the occasional visitor who runs into trouble with thugs. After all, there is a lot of money floating around casinos because of all the tourists, so criminals like to target these areas when they think there’s an opportunity. This being the case, it’s very important that you keep a few casino safety tips in mind when you’re gaming.

One of the most common mistakes that many casino gamers make is not keeping a watchful eye on their chips. And this goes beyond just paying attention to who you’re playing casino games with because there are plenty of lurkers who hang around tables just to take chips. Poker player/former pro hockey player Greg Mueller found this out the hard way when a table lurker stole one of his $5,000 chips. Luckily, Mueller’s buddy saw the incident, and they chased down the perpetrator to recover the chip. In any case, always check your casino chips, and watch for suspicious characters around the table.

Now this casino safety tip might sound kind of weird because most people don’t think they need a bathroom buddy. However, more than a few casino robberies have occurred in bathrooms because these are secluded places without much, if any, security around. So it’s always wise to take at least one other person with you to the bathroom since robbers are less likely to threaten two or more people. Moving past the bathroom, you should also consider traveling with a friend in hotel hallways and elevators too – especially at night!

Sticking with the theme of being careful in secluded places, another area around casinos that you need to watch is parking garages. There are plenty of dark spots for thugs to wait in parking garages, and lots of robberies occur here. That said, many casinos offer valet parking for their customers, and it’s always better to spend a few extra bucks doing this, rather than risk being robbed with self parking. Of course, you have to be careful even with valet parking since a poker pro named Barry Greenstein had a little trouble with this in a San Diego casino. A man lied to the valet by saying Greenstein’s Ashton Martin was his, and the valet gave him the car; strangely enough, the man took it to get detailed before returning the car an hour later where the police were waiting.

Those who carry large amounts of casino chips and/or cash are always prime targets for would-be robbers. In fact, robbers always try to target people who are alone and carrying large amounts of chips. Assuming this fits your description, a good way to go about things is getting credit to play casino games, and taking checks when you win big. To get casino credit, you need to either call the casino and have them send you an application, or go online and find the application on their website. Once you’ve filled out the necessary paperwork, the casino will let you know if you’ll receive credit, and how much it will be worth. As for taking checks, many casinos will pay winners in this manner when they don’t want to carry a bunch of chips around.

If you don’t want to be paid with a check and/or you don’t feel safe when going to cash out chips, you should ask for a security guard escort. Casinos are almost always willing to provide a security escort for you when you’re carrying around a lot of chips. After all, big winners are often the target of criminals, so it’s important to ask for security when you’re going to the cage or your hotel room.

We often see big winners cheering wildly, and drawing all kinds of attention to themselves in the movies. But as with anything you pick up in movies, this scenario doesn’t represent how you want to be in real life. Instead, when you’re winning big, it’s far smarter to be discreet about your winnings, and keep the cheering to a minimum. Now obviously there is going to be a little buzz going around if you’re hot at the table, but don’t act so wild that you attract unsavory characters from other parts of the casino. 

A little known casino safety tip that could potentially save you money is called “chipping.” Basically, chipping involves arranging your casino chips so that the highest denominations are in the middle. So if you were playing with $5,000 chips, they would go in the middle, and your smaller chips would go on the outsides. The whole point of doing this is to minimize losses if a thief does manage to slip a few of your chips away. After all, it’s next to impossible for thieves to takes your biggest chips when they’re stuck in the middle of a stack.