VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: You’re Allowed to Cash Out a Slot You Didn’t Play
Posted on: September 29, 2023, 08:03h.
Last updated on: July 18, 2024, 12:29h.
EDITOR’S NOTE:?“Vegas Myths Busted” publishes new entries every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.?Today’s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on April 7, 2023.
Last week, TikTok creator @ileana.justine posted a video documenting what she called her favorite casino game: “Walking around and collecting all of the leftover cash people leave on their machines and seeing how much I can get.”
After half an hour of scouring slots for abandoned cash-out vouchers, she turned up $7.28. The video earned her 4 million views and a possible future indictment.
The practice, called ticket mining, isn’t new. In the age of analog slot machines, it was called silver mining since quarters, not tickets, were the payday. Back then, it could get you kicked out and even permanently banned from casinos, which decided the penalty on a per-case basis.
Nowadays, many jurisdictions that allow gaming consider it either a misdemeanor or felony theft, depending on the value of the vouchers.
Behind Bars
So far, @ileana.justine is still cranking out TikToks, not license plates in prison. But in 2004, a Colorado man was reportedly convicted of misdemeanor fraud for using a 76-cent credit left in a slot machine by a previous user. A.J. Werling claims he inserted his own $20 bill, not even realizing the credit was already there.
Werling was fined $500 and forced to perform 24 hours of community service.
“It’s been a nightmare,” he told KDVR-TV/Denver in 2017. “I’m not a criminal. It’s ridiculous. It’s 76 cents … I still have to deal with … having to go over what transpired for jobs, apartments, anything that requires a background check. I have to disclose why I have a gambling theft conviction on my record.”
As for @ileana.justine, she reassured her fans with the following comment: “Nobody needs to worry. I had my lawyer check into the legality. It wasn’t illegal in the state I was in.”
Finders Keepers is Not the Law
It isn’t common in Nevada, but the state district attorney has previously prosecuted criminal cases based on slot ticket theft.
One of two statutes applies. NRS 205.0832 prohibits someone who “comes into control of lost, mislaid, or misdelivered property of another person” and “appropriates that property to his or her own use, or that of another person, without reasonable efforts to notify the true owner.”
NRS 465.070 states that it is unlawful “to claim, collect, or take — or attempt to claim, collect, or take — money or anything of value in or from a gambling game … without having made a wager.”
Even if a slot ticket is abandoned in a Nevada casino, it still belongs to the person who originally put the money in, not to someone who finds it poking out of a slot machine. Casinos are charged with holding an abandoned voucher for 90 days for the rightful winner to collect it.
After that, the voucher expires and becomes unclaimed property. According to a law passed in 2011, the state general fund gets 75% of each abandoned ticket’s win, collected by the Nevada Gaming Control Board every quarter. The casino keeps 25% for administrative costs.
In the fiscal year 2022, Nevada players abandoned $22 million in unclaimed tickets.
Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. Visit VegasMythsBusted.com?to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email?[email protected].
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Last Comments ( 4 )
Fvcking hacks. If there is a balance / money in the credit window, that money / credits does NOT belong to the casino. It's not the casinos money until it is played. The only way the casino would ever know who's money was in any machine is if that persons players card was still in the machine. It is a pure jerkoff law (like a lot of others), these fvcking thieves have no business ever accusing anyone of theft, unless they literally saw someone take something out someone's pocket. A lot of people believe that those who give never lack, and leave money / vouchers on machines, just as others will drop a chip on the floor after a good and sometimes after a bad run. 8 out of 10 people who find money on a slot machine are going to play it. A casino would never (usually) have odds so in their favor.
Justine must have nothing to do. Why doesn't she collect cans to recycle for .05 too. Go to school or get a job!
What are you supposed to do when someone leaves credits on a machine? It's not uncommon for people to leave money on the machine if it is less than the minimum bet, but the law says it is unlawful “to claim, collect or take — or attempt to claim, collect or take — money or anything of value in or from a gambling game … without having made a wager.” The only way to get the abandoned credits off the machine is to cash out, which is sometimes called "collect" on the slot machine....which the law specifically prohibits. I guess next time I'm in Vegas and see a machine with abandoned credits, I'll hit the service button and wait for an attendant to come over and clear it out for me so that I don't get blacklisted in Vegas. Of course the law also says "without having made a wager." So, can you insert your own money and make a wager and then cash out? Also find it interesting that Vegas holds vouchers for 90 days - the casinos I've seen have vouchers that expire after 10-15 days.
In Vegas, it's also called Voucher Hunting. You probably won't go to jail unless you have a Nevada driver's license. Locals and tourists suffer different rules. The Casinos will blacklist you for life. They will also share the list with all the other casinos. They hate it.