Weird Gaming Law of the day

http://www.wpxi.com/news/26954595/detail.html


So, in PA if you find a chip on the floor you are not allowed to keep it. You can't even keep cash you find there. Am I crazy or is this kind of crazy? Any other places have laws like this? I know in the Bellagio Heist thread we discussed the cheques belong to the casino, but to say if you find it on the floor and can be arrested if you don't turn it in?

Same in Vegas.

If the chips belong to the casino I am in major trouble for stealing 105 chips (my current collection, I hope to get more next week)

The intent of the law is to discourage unsavory folks from cruising the floor looking for "lost" chips. If you bought the chips and took them home as souvenirs (a practice encouraged by casinos), it is not a problem. The restriction is that you cannot spend them like money, nor can you transfer them to another person outside of the context of gambling in that casino.

Well, it was cash, not chips, he found. Why should he legally be able to keep cash that is not his he finds anywhere, let alone in a casino?

Why would you think if you find a chip on the floor, instead of cash, you should be allowed to keep it? This guy refused to turn the cash over when confronted - only then was he arrested. And rightly so. He had his chance.

Try playing $5 left over that's not yours in an "apparently abandoned" slot machine. You watch it for an hour, no one comes by to claim it so you decide to play it. That's theft, is it not? Of course, you'll likely only be caught when the owner of the unplayed slot play comes back 75 minutes later and complains somebody played her money.

Try cashing-out one of those abandoned pay-out tix for 6, whatever, cents that one often finds lying around. Just don't be caught doing it.

That uncashed tix for 6 cents does not belong to the casino either, I would assume. After a period of time, outstanding uncashed unclaimed pay vouchers would be turned over to the State just like how an abandoned checking acct cannot ultimately revert to the bank? The bank must send it to the State, no? People got 7 years or so to re-claim their property kind of thing.

I don't know, with checking accounts and such I thought it would be, say, maybe at least 3 years of inactivity, maybe more, before the bank would have to turn the money over as abandoned property to the State. Yet, I also think I read crap like winning Las Vegas sports bet tix would not be honored if not cashed within, like, 90 days? Maybe even 30 days? What's that about anyway?

If so, say the casino won't honor your winning sports ticket 120 days later, who ultimately gets to keep the money you bet and won since you don't? Obviously, you are getting screwed out of what I view as a cash-equivalent winning ticket that should, like cash, have no expiration date, but, surely, somebody please tell me the casino is not allowed to take that money back into income and never have to eventually revert to the State that which never belonged to them in the first place? Is this, if so, then State-Sanctioned theft allowing a casino a way to not have to pay a bet he made in good-faith?

Is it really that the Casino can effectively find your "expired" winning pay voucher on the floor and ultimately suffer no consequences, indeed benefit from it, but if you find and cash someone's winning pay voucher on the floor you have committed theft?

Back to the point - had the man returned his found $15 cash to the casino what would/should the casino have done with it? Tried to find the owner, and if ultimately unsuccessful, send the $15 to the State? Take the $15 back into casino income perhaps? Put the $15 in the pocket of the guy who is asking him for it back?
Maybe advertise the lost money for 30 days and, if no original owner comes forward, the money belongs to the person who turned it in - I think that's what supposed to happen if you are stupid enough to report money you find on a side-walk to the police?

It's probably like heads-they-win tails-you-lose kind of thing.

Surely they allow you to pick up your own money if you drop it right then and there?

If you find cash on the floor, you take out your wallet, rummage a bit and drop a bill.

Then you pick up both.

Well, don't they have to prove you didn't think you were picking up your own money?

(I don't know, just a thought)

One thing is that the woman "Threw" the money down. She didn't drop it. So we would have to know her intent. Was she accidentally throwing items? Did she have a killer session at keno and wanted to throw some cash on the floor for a lucky passerby?
So money on the floor of the gaming area is property of the casino. What about the food court? Or the bars? Shops? When Lil Wayne stops by Pure and makes it rain w 10k does everyone have to give the money to the casino at the end of the night?

Quote: rxwine

Well, don't they have to prove you didn't think you were picking up your own money?

(I don't know, just a thought)

I think the casino assumes once it hits the floor they own it. They may have a 5 second rule.

I tried to find the relevant NV gaming law, but my searches failed. I wanted to see what the specifics were?

Anyone?

http://gaming.nv.gov/stats_regs.htm

I knew a guy who picked up and pocketed at least 600 bucks at a baccarat table when a disgruntled player "Threw" his money on the floor. It's one thing if you drop it. It's another if you blatantly throw your cash around the joint like you don't give a crap. Still, 600 bucks, I would have picked it up and put it on the table in front of him. But 15 bucks? Don't the authorities have better things to do?