$725,000 in chips are missing
Daniel Negreanu tweeted out a plea for his fans and fellow players to keep an eye open for anyone trying to cash in $25,000 Aria chips that were stolen from a friend recently…
A friend of mine just had a significant amount of 25k aria chips and some 5k arias stolen from them. If you come across anyone suspicious trying to cash in please notify me asap.
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) July 14, 2020
It’s not clear if DNegs’ tweet is seeking the same stolen chips as Daniel Alaei was looking for last week. Again an unnamed friend, this one having lost $725k of the $25k chips, though no mention of $5k ones to go with it.
Friend had $725k in $25k bacc chips stolen in Vegas last week. The casinos are fully aware and the chips are virtually impossible to cash. If anyone has info about the whereabouts of the chips, or aware of an attempt to sell the chips, please contact LVPD or me. RT for awareness
— Daniel Alaei (@dalaei) July 7, 2020
As Alaei’s tweet mentions, $25k casino chips from the Aria, and most other gambling establishments nowadays, are virtually worthless without a good cover story.
The reason being, each high-value chip contains its own microchip. Casinos are generally aware of who holds chips and who doesn’t.
That would make cashing them in a very difficult, if not impossible, task – even if the thief had someone in the casino willing to play along.
Lol. People are so dumb. Those chips have rfid’s in them. And they’re gonna ask for ID and everything when you go to cash them. No point in stealing chips. Hope they catch this idiot
— MikeSiegrist (@MikeSiegrist1) July 14, 2020
Another question doing the rounds is how exactly did the chips get stolen?
Most regular big players would have a box at the casino where cash, chips, and other valuables are held. But apparently it’s not that unusual for some to simply take them home or to their hotel suite.
A list of likely scenarios and ‘baddies’ could include home robbers, hotel sneak thieves, opportunistic prostitutes. However, among the masses of possibilities, one joke version stood out…
I was approached in the Aria Bathroom by a guy asking me if i wanted to make a quick buck. I took this picture as i left.. pic.twitter.com/eQ3rbns1Mp
— Brendan Peterson (@Peterson820) July 14, 2020
With information limited, it does appear that whoever lost the chips – or had them stolen – may struggle to be recompensed by the casino until they reappear.
The Bellagio Biker Bandit and the stolen Cranberries
The most famous case of casino chips being stolen occurred a decade ago, the ‘Bellagio Bandit’ striking in the run-up to Christmas of 2010.
That fleeing masked man in the video was carrying $1.5million in chips he had just stolen at gunpoint from the highstakes craps table.
The armed thief took just 15 seconds to grab his loot. Later he explains: “I had big plans for that night. I was going to rob the poker room. I was going to smash and grab at the Cartier shop. But then fight or flight kicked in. And I flew.”
What followed was an incredible tale of one man, Tony Carleo, and his dream of being a millionaire bigshot.
Highlife at the tables
Carleo returned to the Bellagio the following evening and started spewing off the smaller denomination chips, even playing at the same craps table he had just robbed.
“It just gave me a thrill to be the one person there who knew what’s up,” he told Rolling Stone magazine. “Maybe it was narcissistic, but I really enjoyed playing at that table.”
Carleo was living the highlife at the tables, being comped dinner and rooms at the Bellagio as a big spender, but that was the first step leading to his downfall.
A Bellagio dealer soon realised Carleo was the same person who had mused out loud to him “Man, I’d like to just run over to that table and grab a bunch of those cranberries.”
His real problems started when he tried to get rid of the $25k ‘Cranberry-coloured’ chips, even taking to posting on the 2plus2 poker forum for advice.
That led to a phone call and an emailed image of two of the stolen chips being sent to a fellow forum poster…
…but by this time, the police were on his trail and the extra information would nail Carleo.
A classic sting operation was set up to ‘buy the cranberries’ at a knock-down price, and Carleo was soon in custody. His Bellagio Biker Bandit days were over and a 9-year stretch in a Nevada prison awaited him.
A similar fate is likely to await whoever attempts to cash in the most recent chip theft, but with someone $750k or so out of pocket, it’s unlikely the story ends here.
If you are interested in further updates, make sure to check our poker news. We are publishing news and updates every day!
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