Originally Posted by MDawg View Post
Thanks! AndrewG.

What's interesting is that the first article from 2011, about the Bellagio robbery of the chips stated that all the stolen chips had been RFID deactivated. That the caper had been "foiled" due to RFID.
https://singularityhub.com/2011/02/1...to-rfid-chips/

But the article from 2016,
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture...t-away-105349/
years after the robbery, outlines how the guy got away with cashing all but the $25,000. chips. That subsequent article does not mention RFID whatsoever and makes it seem more like Bellagio just became hyper vigilant and started looking out for chips post-robbery, which, obviously didn't work out too well for the casino in that the robber was able to cash a half million of the $1.5M that he stole. (BUT: he did gamble even these half million in chips all away, so the casino got it all back...one way or another.)

I suppose we could just assume that the 2011, article was based on misinformation or conjecture, or maybe put out there by the casino industry to deter would be chip thieves.

I am aware of some people who recently got busted for possession of thousands upon thousands of $5. counterfeit chips. In their case they weren't even discovered at the casino - they were pulled over for a DWI type check, and the chips found in the trunk. The cops didn't even know that the chips were counterfeit but suspected something in that fifteen THOUSAND dollars of $5. chips seemed suspect.
The lawyer in me wonders how much restitution the robber was ordered to pay to Bellagio?

Here, his attorney argued that he should not have to pay any because even the chips that were never recovered were "valueless."
https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/...coast-robbery/
An additional argument I might have made is that even the chips that were not recovered were gambled away at the casino such that the casino incurred no actual loss. But, perhaps at that time the full story wasn't yet known about how he had been able to play with a half million of chips so why bring up what wasn't yet known, and anyway, the judge might not have been so sympathetic to an argument of "he lost them playing anyway."

If you follow the story closely, all the $1.5M or so in chips that he stole were either never cashed in (never played), or cashed in (played) and lost at Bellagio. In fact, the robber claims that he played many of the chips at the exact same craps table from which he stole them!