While dealing the other night, I sold a player $100 worth of chips for a bill, and after I had tucked the bill into the well, I realized that I had barely looked at it, and thought of this thread.

So don't worry about being stuck with phonies. Just use 'em to buy chips. I assure you the people who handle a thousand of them a day won't give yours a second look. Maybe the $100s you brought home from Vegas raised eyebrows in Hutchinson, Kansas--but nobody in a casino thinks of $100 bills as eye-catching, or worthy of extra scrutiny.

Good fakes have those too. It's not just Leo Dicaprio printing fakes.

But assuming you don't lose them all, you still have to cash them in. Too bad you can't just do an EFT to your bank.

ive never seen a fake where they can put the strip that says usa100 in the correct spot and make it only visible under light. so ill take my chances and check for that....

UV lights aren't that expensive. You don't need a super strong one. Seems unlikely that a fake the pen picks up will be missed by the UV light in terms of sophistication, plus it picks up more bills besides. Since if they used the paper from a lower denomination, it'll be the wrong color under the UV.

I would say in my experience in the bigger plo games at the WSOP I have not had a year go by without getting a likely counterfeit, or knowing someone nailed at the cage.

The older version ones in circulation still are highly likely to be counterfeit. The good news is that the casino itself isn't going to catch them as they are flawless superbills. This is becoming less common though.

I have received some really bad fakes at the table and usually just put back in a pot if I suspect it. I go through my bills to make sure they will pass muster with the cage and keep the dodgy ones for cash games.

The US makes it really hard to know especially as a foreigner what security features it has on them. Not only that, they are very weak ones that allow counterfeiters to fool all but experts on the validity of them. I much prefer Euros which have checksums on the serial numbers and other features special bill readers can read. There are no problems with counterfeit 500 euro notes as far as I am aware.


These are worthless. Really low quality fakes that set this off you can feel anyway with your hands. This is really just a measure for brain dead clerks to catch the really amateur ones. False sense of security.

I heard of at least ten instances of it this year at the Rio. The most was for $300, everyone else it was one counterfeit bill. They call the secret service without fail and you lose your money and 15 minutes of your time being questioned.


Finally, the bills you get for chips at the casino are just as likely to be fake almost as the ones on the floor. They weed out only obvious ones and have no incentive not to pass them on if they make it through security. The best way to avoid this is to keep a box, deal with only chips, and get a wire transfer for your chips at the end of your wsop.

It's absurd they allow cash on the table. It slows the game down having to split pots, count out bets, then verify, then ask people to count their stacks down always. It's a joke.

Just my opinion, but I don't think getting counterfeits would really harm you. Just use them to go grocery shopping with, unless the bill is obviously fake (in which case make a stir at the time of getting it) the cashier at a Wal-Mart or whatever won't notice.

I used to have a cheap UV led light on a keychain. $1.50 on ebay (good 'ol china) that worked like a charm... Until it fell apart and I lost the key components.

(not a smart ass comment)

Moving them around in the casino isn't the problem, it's taking them home and making a couple dime deposit that gets people nailed. Where you have no recourse, no way to prove it was the cage at a multimillion dollar casino that just handed you forged money.

As poker people we handle 100's all day every day. It's the usual. Most people don't give them a second thought(like you just said) That's why it's predominant to have fakes floating around.

If i'm a counterfeiter i'm going right to the poker room, and i'm not pushing in $3k i'm pushing a few a week.

Scott Tom is 110% right, few easy precautions take care of almost all that.

http://articles.economictimes.indiat...money-printing has the headline "Italian enterprising sorts printing reams of counterfeit euros"

Every country has counterfeit issues. The US has one of the least counterfeited currencies around, measured in parts per million (probably due in large part to the vast numbers of US bills circulating). It's 6.5ppm in the US. G-20 nations aim to have <50ppm.

You only think you haven't.

550,000€ to 800,000€ only...

I didn't say people wouldn't try, but it isn't a problem at all in poker and I have never heard of a large counterfeit note being passed anywhere in Europe. I have seen a few 5€ notes pasted up in bars that were really fake looking, but that's about it. Contrast that with almost a dozen stories in my 1 month at the rio, and the same story year after year in America.

The reason is that the counterfeit protection is much much greater with Euro notes. Counterfeits might be a problem with drug deals, but any bank or casino is going to use its computer to scan the serial number and secret checksum for validity. Outside of Europe it might be a problem though as people wouldn't have access to these tools easily.

I might add the problem is so bad in America that I have had fast food outlets pen my $5's and $10s.

Honestly fellas alot of counterfeit money are considered "washed bills". Basically taken a older bill, any denomination and wearing it out to the point where it is hard to see what it is. Then a higher denom is put on that bill

Also always look for security thread, watermarks with face actually matching what is on the bill, microprinting, red and blue fibers embedded into the paper. Also the feel of it has alot to do with it aswell

Also pens are useless if they are actually using a real bill juss a diff denom. Just tests paper nothin else