Why the casino is a bad laundrymat

Reading through this section, I've seen a couple of posts where people advise using the age old casino trick to 'wash' some money. This is something I know a little about, so i wanted to share what little I can.

To sum up the idea for anybody who doesn't know what I'm talking about. If you cash out over $10,000 worth of chips at one time, the casino has to file a report with the IRS. So if somebody wanted to deposit a bunch of money and didn't want to tell the IRS where it really came from, they could buy chips in small increments, then cash out all at once. You pay taxes, but you make it look like you won it.

Sounds simple enough. It has it's pros and cons.

On the pro side, you are pulling a fast one on the cashiers, who aren't paid enough to give a damn. On the con side, modern casinos are really well organized. If you want to cash out for $15k and there hasn't been a $15k jackpot, they know it. It raises questions. You may have to talk to a supervisor or two. In the end, you will walk out with your money and your paper, which is good. On the con side, many people don't know how well surveilled these places really are. Many don't know that there are law enforcement agencies with offices in house. I didn't know that working at a casino untill I was sent to the state police office to deliver some counterfeit. i didn't work there long, but none the less, i worked there and had no idea who all was in what offices in that maze of hallways the public never sees. The big downside to this old method is that while you do walk away having pulled a fast one, there are people beyond that cashier who know you pulled a fast one. You pulled one on them. The basic problem with attempting to 'wash' some money this way is that you have to put yourself in front of cameras and lie with police watching. You put your face into a detective's memory, and that's a mistake to avoid.

There hasn't been a 15k jackpot, but there was millions of dollars exchanged in the time period that elapsed, so who is to say you didn't win $800 playing poker, and $2000 playing black jack, etc over the course of several days? I think the idea is turn lots of cash into chips with several small transactions that will not raise red flags, then play many games over an extended period, then cash out. You didn't win a $15k jackpot but they can see you leave a blackjack table with $4k, and see you at the craps table, and the roulette table, etc.

You think the casino would give two shits in that case? Help police! Get this customer out of my casino! He is bringing in thousands of dollars and spending it on my games giving me a small portion of every transaction!

Nah, It would probably take a lot of work to monitor you on video and keep a running total of your chip count. I mean if you just cash in $5k with 4 separate tellers, then cash out $20k the next day without playing any games i'm sure they would love to bust you. It would not take many man hours or much brain power to figure out what you did.

guy incognito said:

There hasn't been a 15k jackpot, but there was millions of dollars exchanged in the time period that elapsed, so who is to say you didn't win $800 playing poker, and $2000 playing black jack, etc over the course of several days? I think the idea is turn lots of cash into chips with several small transactions that will not raise red flags, then play many games over an extended period, then cash out. You didn't win a $15k jackpot but they can see you leave a blackjack table with $4k, and see you at the craps table, and the roulette table, etc.

You think the casino would give two shits in that case? Help police! Get this customer out of my casino! He is bringing in thousands of dollars and spending it on my games giving me a small portion of every transaction!

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That is indeed how you do it, and why you would be able to cash out. What raises the suspicion is that most players who would have actually played and won the amounts like you describe would have a 'rewards card' account. Virtually all casinos have them because they want to track the habbits of the patrons. Those are incredibly detailed (and less secure than the casinos would have you believe). For a patron to come and cash out $10k+ and not have or wish to have a reward card would be odd. If you were playing that much, you would have all sorts of comps coming to you. If you have the card, and the amount you are cashing out doesn't jive with your playing habbits, that would seem odd. You are right that the cage cashier isn't going to care. They cash out five figure patrons day in and day out. The heat is in the people working the eye. The odd transaction would be reviewed by someone who has seen it before. You would get your cash or check and walk, but you would have left a trail. Your name, address and SSN (that you have to give for the tax doccument) are recorded and accessable by someone who has seen this trick before. Is this arrestable by itself? No, but it's more info that you might want to gift wrap and hand to the police.

Again, you are right that if you buy the chips in small increments and cash them out en masse you will get cashed out. Obviously done incrementally over time is how it's done. My point is that if you do this, you are doing it under far more scrutiny that you may know. The casinos aren't isolated entities. It's not that the casino is going to cry foul over your use of their gaming. They are completely integrated with the states that they operate in. The old days of DiNero and Peschi characters running the casinos is now just the movies. There are multiple state agencies working under the casino roof and shairing in the take from their surveillance. To repeat something I said and that bears repeating: they have seen this before. They will know what you are doing.

'The eye' isn't all powerful. I remember a woman getting her purse stolen; when we called for surveillance to run it back the theft had happened at just the right moment in just the right spot. It happened when a rotating camera wasn't looking. There were other, more bizarre things that they missed. What they don't ever miss is the chip cages. those are generallly under fixed cams, not rovers.

If you have a bunch of cash you want to deposit but don't want to own up to how you earned it, you have options. The 'casino laundry' has been mentioned in a few threads. Having worked however briefly in casino security, I learned that this is an outdated method. This is something they look for. Most of the entry level people won't see it, but there are pros who will see it. If you want to figure that you are smarter than the LE who have seen it before, that's your call. You can take or leave my free internet advice as being worth what you paid for it. This sight has been helpful to me as a MMJ caregiver getting set up. This is a topic that has come up a few times that I figured I can give some reasonable input on, not just some speculation. I'm just trying to give a little back by helping you guys avoid pitfalls, like you have helped me avoid other pitfalls.

the secret is in the video poker machines. I'm not gonna go into great detail like you did, all I'm gonna say is learn all you possibly can about Random Number Generators.

oh, and there is a modern day version of the "DeNiro & pesci" type of places. ever seen the pit bosses at an indian casino?

So how would you do it then? I was going to go a bunch of my time and bring $1000 each and play with 50 and then cashout. Would that work?

I have worked in and around casinos for a couple decades. Title 31. For a casino that trains their employees well, it is not as easy as you might think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_31_casinos

hair of the dog said:

That is indeed how you do it, and why you would be able to cash out. What raises the suspicion is that most players who would have actually played and won the amounts like you describe would have a 'rewards card' account. Virtually all casinos have them because they want to track the habbits of the patrons. .

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So do supermarkets, doesn't mean i have or want a clubcard each time they offer, nor do i have to have one. Or are we talking the "common sense" route of "he doesn't have a facebook account he must be dodgy" plenty of people do not use reward card things for very good reasons, such it being none of the shop/casinos business.

C3Pgro said:

So how would you do it then? I was going to go a bunch of my time and bring $1000 each and play with 50 and then cashout. Would that work?

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Pretty much. Anyone who brings in huge sums of money, changes it, plays for 10 minutes and then changes it again deserves to get caught. It's really not that hard, people. My cousin used to work at a casino and would see people make such stupid mistakes all the time. Wear a suit jacket and a button-up shirt and you're even less likely to be called out, don't go in looking like you just woke up and harvested some illegal drugs.

I would never bring in more than $1000 at a time. You can make $50 of that work for a while if you're playing good games like craps, blackjack, or baccarat. After an hour of gaming (which is enjoyable itself) just cash out and go home. You might even end up making money.

this is kinda funny lol wish u guys luck

Easiest way to laundry is liquor by the drink, it doesn't matter bar/club/restaurant if you have enough cash you need laundered this is the establishment you need to buy. Sink all the taxable income back into the club and you won't even have to pay too much in taxes.

Whatever money you take to Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Just go to a casino that has unlimited hold em. Play at big tables. Double and cash out. Works for me. No issues ever.

C3Pgro said:

So how would you do it then? I was going to go a bunch of my time and bring $1000 each and play with 50 and then cashout. Would that work?

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How would $1000 at a time get you a 1099?

Real answer is, don't use the casino to launder money. Do something else. Laundering money is a crime. Committing crimes in front of surveillance cams is foolish.

tip top toker said:

So do supermarkets, doesn't mean i have or want a clubcard each time they offer, nor do i have to have one. Or are we talking the "common sense" route of "he doesn't have a facebook account he must be dodgy" plenty of people do not use reward card things for very good reasons, such it being none of the shop/casinos business.

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Dude, law enforcement is in the casinos looking for drug dealers who are trying to launder money. I've never worked in a supermarket, but to the best of my knowledge no one is using the buy one/get one free cheese sales to hide their dope money. Having worked in a casino, even as briefly as I have, I can tell you that they are hand in glove with The Man. Organised crime 'task forces' have unrestricted access to floor surveillance because they use it to see who such and such a made guy is hanging out with. They use the unbelievable amount of in house surveilance as an 'intel asset'. No kidding, they talk like that. Like their James Fraekin Bond.

Do what you want. I'm just saying that the old trick that people often reccomend of taking a bunch on cash into a casino, buying small increments of chips, then cashing out with a tax reportable amount is a fool play.

Maybe things are different here in Canada but going to a medium sized casino, I've never had problems. Just keep your receipts . You don't need to cash out 10 grand every time you go to the cashier. I've washed 25 Gs in a week with no problem at all. I've also gone in every week for over a month washing 8G at a time. I was investigated by Canada's Major Crimes Unit and they couldn't prove dick. It's simple, take a couple hundred bucks out of your bank account. Bring in cash to casinos. Buy chips, play for an hour, cash out and keep receipt. Now you have paperwork that shows you took cash from your account, bought chips and won money with a receipt for that too.
Obviously you can't get away with this forever, but the casino will not report you as long as you spend some money. Cops only go after big fish by staking out casinos. They don't just pay cops 60 grand a year to hang out at casinos and hope to catch someone washing money, lol. They have to already be on to you and watching you.
If you have half a brain, wash enough money at the casino to move up your game. Start a business, buy a house/trailer/RV and renovate, help a friend with his business as a private investor and collect checks every 2 weeks. There are better ways than the Casino for the long term, but for short term, washed money, Nothing beats the casino.

go to vegas buy in at a few tables for about 5 grand each table then play and win and cash out short time later.

buy in big,play small, cash out.

One word, shell. Easiest way to do green laundry.

As for casinos, it's the worst place to attempt this or any other type of dealings because you have to do it in low amounts many times making the chances of getting caught near 100%. Even at the track. An old simple way was to have two people at roulette, one betting red one black. You could basically clean money at a 100% rate as long as it didn't hit 0 or 00. But the casinos are so tech smart now there are three sets of eyes everywhere, committing a crime at a casino is now basically like videotaping your crime and handing it in to police.

Art selling is a good trick.

Foreign banker(expect 25-35% fee) Off-shore Banking. The key is avoiding most paperwork.

But who honestly on here makes enough to need to do green laundry? I find this black briefcase section comical but interesting.,

buy gold in cash, thats as clean as it gets.

If you cash in 9,999 you do not get filed on
so just go to a few casinos

But in reality they do not give a fuck if your doing it don't go over that and you can do it all day at differant casinos. You stay off the raidar