Bellagio bandit gets 3-11 years for $1.5 million chip heist

What would someone who was not the son of a former judge have been sentenced to?

Probably 5-10.

From another article:

"...part of a deal with prosecutors, which also saw eight other felony charges dropped."

Wow, lets make a deal alright. This dude is lucky. Prosecutors probably didn't have to make a deal, they had this guy by the balls, but he's a judges son so you know how that goes.

Sands Casino Resort catches chip thief in act tells the story of a guy who reached over and grabbed six $500 chips.

Personally, I hope this guy does not get a lengthy sentence. It seems as if he had an impulse control problem, since he didn't have a hope or a prayer of getting away with this theft. From what I gather he barely concealed his snatch. While it is unlikely he would get no time, it seems as if he needs a psychiatric examination more than anything.

Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem dealer allegedly stole chips, put them in his tip jar turned out to be the guy who cuts my parents lawn. Michael P. Spedding, 50, of Nazareth, allegedly took chips meant for the house and put them in his personal gratuity box, police said. Spedding was observed on surveillance video on five occasions between 3:40 p.m. and 4:40 p.m. Thursday taking chips belonging to the house and putting them in his box, court documents say. The value of the chips was probably around $250.

Unfortunately, I think sometimes the value of the theft is significant. The impulse control guy stole $3000, and the gratuity stealer stole $250. This difference will probably matter more than anything.

Steve Wynn tells a story when he bought the Golden Nugget in the 1970's. He helped out a bar owner when he was selling liquor before he went into the casino business. When he starts in the business, his friend turns in some Golden Nugget employees who were splitting $7K-$10K every night in chips they were stolen. One was the casino manager, and one was the assistant casino manager, and the other nine were dealers. All told he had to fire 195 out 350 employees when he bought the Golden Nugget.

Steve Wynn's saying is In Gambling, Money Sticks to the Hands of Angels. It was something his father used to say to him. There is something about seeing all the money night after night that can corrupt relatively honest people.

Its hard for bank tellers and armored car guards sometimes, but dealers are handling all that money around alcohol and exuberance and empty toke boxes. Though as I recall that Golden Nugget it also included two pit bosses and one box man. It was not just relatively low level dealers. Just after having bought the place he had to do almost a fifty percent housecleaning. Terrible time to bring in new staff all over the place.

Of course the bar owner in whose back room the group had been meeting to divvy up their chips never called the previous owner of the Golden Nugget, he only called Steve Wynn because of the nearly decade old wholesale liquor company that had kept him on credit when everyone else in town was making him pay on the spot or the driver would not even unload the truck.

Ethics? Its a strange disease.

I don't think Steve Wynn ever revealed his next steps but I would have followed the shift managers and pit bosses for his other two shifts and see if they too went to a bar that had a back room to it. That place had been leaking ten grand a day for that one shift. Yet he fired far more than just the six or eight names his friend rattled off to him. So it must have been big-time skimming somewhere.

Maybe that's why they use 'chips'. Maybe some don't relate that chips=real money, otherwise we'd all use cash on the tables, no need for a cage if that's the case.