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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101214/ap_on_re_us/us_bellagio_hold_up

LAS VEGAS ? Las Vegas police are looking for an armed casino bandit who escaped on a motorcycle with perhaps $2 million worth of gambling chipsfrom the posh Bellagio hotel-casino.
Police Lt. Clinton Nichols told The Associated Press the robbery happened quickly.
He says the bandit wore a full-face motorcycle helmet as he displayed a gun in a casino pit area then demanded chips and sped away on Flamingo Road on a black sport-style motorcycle.
Detectives are reviewing video and camera images of the robbery that occurred just before 4 a.m. Tuesday at the Las Vegas Strip resort.
No shots were fired and no one was injured.
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yeah id assume theyd have to mix them iin over a period of time. then again maybe the bellagio wins if they get/order new chips. (i have no idea what the cost to replace an entire casino worth of chips might be, nor do i have any idea how many chips they have, nor the length of circulation for the chips)
 
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jimotis4heisman;1833963; said:
yeah id assume theyd have to mix them iin over a period of time. then again maybe the bellagio wins if they get/order new chips. (i have no idea what the cost to replace an entire casino worth of chips might be, nor do i have any idea how many chips they have, nor the length of circulation for the chips)

Their chips cost as ton. They actually have microchips in them. It's not uncommon for them to replace chips all the time.

Yet for a guy to physically get away with $2 million worth, it would have to big denominations (probably $1000 chips and higher). Most people with big denomination chips aren't allowed to leave with them. I believe the Bellagio actually requires people cash them in before they leave (those microchips let the casino know when some are about to walk out the door). So, if these chips show up in the future they will not be worth jack.

This guy essentially stole a nice home poker set. He could possibly sell some to idiots and maybe some collectors. Yet the actual value of those chips is no where near the value printed on them.
 
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THEWOOD;1834056; said:
Im not so sure how true it is that one can not leave the casino with 1k chips.

You may be right, but I heard from some people poker chips from casinos are more difficult to come by due to new technologies. I could be wrong. Each casino has their own thing. Yet some major casinos in Vegas are using RFID chips. So even if they let them out the door (like I said, I have heard from chip collectors casinos are not letting them walk out the door like they used to...could be a rumor), they know exactly what chips were stolen and will not honor them. So if they have RFID chips, they won't even have to change any.

Even then, if they don't use RFID chips, I am sure the Bellagio will just change to different chips, and they will also refuse payments on large denominations if you do not have a history of gaming with them. Casinos already do that. If you walk in and try to cash a large denomination chip they will refuse unless you are known to gamble there in large denominations. You could try to play and then sneak some in before you cash out, but with new chips mixed with old ones they would wonder where they came from. Plus they do a decent job of tracking your betting so a big difference from what they thought you won would also raise questions. He could try and sell them to known gamblers at the Bellagio, but any major gamer that plays at the Bellagio is not going to risk arrest and lifetime ban from the casino (I am sure they would know where they came from).

In the end, there are multiple reason why those chips have little worth.
 
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ScriptOhio;1836659; said:
Apparently you can sell them on ebay for more than face value. However, it probably would be difficult to sell $2M worth. :biggrin:

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=Bellagio+Poker+Chips

Those are for collectors, and yes, they often go for more than face value. Yet you will notice most are $1 chips, some $5 chips, and I think the most is $10. Plus, you can tell there are different generation chips there. Some are clay, some are newer gen plastic style chips with the bigger inlay. So they are probably older chips. Anyway, $1000 chips are not going to go for more than $1000 (I doubt he was able to carry 2 million $1 chips). They are just collectors items. Heck, Paulson chips (used by many casinos) go for more than $1 a chip even though the face value may show $1. Real poker chips are not cheap.

Here is a follow up showing how that guys chips became worthless the moment he took them outside of the casino...

http://www.minyanville.com/business...-casino-rfid-gambling-las/12/15/2010/id/31714

Like I stated, he got himself a really nice home set. He could even sell them that way. Yet that will be about $1 a chip. Not exactly a big heist.
 
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