I instantly pointed it out, and she apologized, said he had been working for 12 hours and took it back. I had $700 from playing $1/2, and she gave me $1200. I have no idea how she came up with that.

The absolutely only reason I pointed it out is because I did not want her to lose her job. I work a ****ty retail job, and if I made a mistake at the cash register, I would hope someone would point it out.

Now I have two questions:

1) Would she have got in trouble? This is a ****ty Florida casino I go to, and I know they rip the players off by keeping undealt high hands and not putting in the appropriate BBJ earnings, I got this info from several dealers who work there. So **** the house.

2) Could I have got in trouble? This is a dig right by my house and is soft as all hell, I play there all the time, I wouldn't want to get banned.

If the answer is no to 1 and 2, then I probably leveled myself and I should have remained silent. With my current BR, $500 is a significant amount of money.

So you're saying if you knew ahead of time she wouldn't lose her job, you would be good with stealing $500 from the casino? Nice.

I'd say probably yes to #1, definitely yes to #2.

For #1 - We have internal rules for who gets in trouble for what amount of money, but a $500 error would likely cost someone their job in my room. But I'm no casino.

For #2 - If we make a mistake in paying out customers, we expect the customer to make it back up to us if they want to continue playing. And even after they do, we may not allow them to return if we felt they took it intentionally. Of course if we shorted them, we'll have their cash ready for them - and we'll make all efforts to contact them asap and let them know of the error. Usually I'll throw in lunch and a drink, maybe a tournament entry, to make up for our mistake.

Personally, if you're a poker player, I'd recommend worrying more about #2. Integrity and honesty counts for a lot in this game, at least in my experience. Sure there are plenty of places that cater to degenerates and scumbags, but do you want to limit yourself to only those type of places?

Like allin said, she is most likely losing her job over a $500 shortage. Especially if this is not her first significant shortage. But each house had their own rules.

As far as you are concerned, you wouldn't want to keep the money. When they discover the shortage, it wouldn't be hard to track it to your transaction. They will take your picture and likely not allow you to play until you pay it back. They might ban you, they might not.

*edit* Plus, integrity ftw.

I was in a casino in Dublin with a reg once; he got overpaid 200 punt at the cage (800 instead of 610 or something), and immediately put the 200 on black (he seldom played table games, cage was close to table). He doubled it, returned 200 to the cage, and tipped the dealers the rest. Then told the floor what happened. Pandemonium ensued.

(Montague club, 1999 approx, if anyone remembers it)

1) yes
2) yes

they would have tracked you down and approached you the next time you visited the casino and if you failed to pay up they will most likely ban you for life.

Yes. Yes.

You lose your wallet with $700 inside.

Okay with the homeless guy turning it into the Lost & Found with just $200 inside? I am sure the $500 is a significant amount of money for him.

But hey, its better than if a poker player had found it. Then it would have been returned empty.

Wow what came out of the pandemonium? Did the dealers have to return the tip? Was he banned?

I remember being hopeful once that a player wouldn't pay back a cage mistake.

A variation on "If you lend someone $20 and never see them again it was worth it."

I seem to remember both the table and the cage shut for a half-hour or so to confirm the counts, partly because the manager couldn't figure out what just happened.

The cage kept saying she immediately spotted the mistake and had called him back, and he'd come back. This wasn't really true, I guess she was covering herself.

The floor was pissed at the roulette dealer for boxing the tip without checking with the floor first.

Player was leaving anyway, but I IIRC he managed to convince the manager he would have paid back anyway, as he knew the end of day count would pick it up. He was a losing reg, and a well behaved one, and well rolled. He was definitely back at some point.

The Monty was (is?) a teeny-tiny place, poker upstairs, table games down. Two wheels, four or five BJ/brag tables, a single cashier by the stairs.

Thought this thread was gonna be about Nicolas Cage.

1 - Yes, she would likely either have to pay the money back out of her paycheck or get fired or something in between.

2 - I don't see you getting in trouble, but you would be required to pay it back before ever playing there again.

Even if she wouldn't lose her job over it, if you knowingly take money that doesn't belong to you, it's stealing. Claiming that the establishment is a crap hole and they do shady things(bla bla bla) is no justification for you to just accept money that belongs to this business.

Legally and morally, you did the right thing, but, seeing that you're questioning yourself about it and wondering if you wound up leveling yourself, suggests that you did the right thing but aren't fully aware as to WHY it was right. But you went with your gut instinct (even being low on funds) and it still steered you in the right direction; if your instincts are this good in poker, you won't have to worry about taking something that doesn't belong to you...you'll earn it the right way.

As to the bad dealers: tip less. If they're doing shady stuff and you aren't going to question it/report it?...then either don't tip them at all or tip a lot less than you normally do and only the ones that are deserving of it.

I don't think she would have been fired. Suspension w/o pay for a day or two is most likely the outcome depending on how many times it had occurred within the calendar year.

And yes, you did the right thing.

1) yes, she will loose her job

2) they will find you (cameras, players cards) and ask you to pay it back. If you don't they will assign one of their lawyers to file suit in small claims and sue you, where you will loose and probably pay court costs and lawyers fees on top.

In some jurisdictions not return the money would be a criminal offense (yes there are all kinds of evidentiary issues that may make it hard to actually prosecute..... but its amazing how often people confess).

My old boss told me he used to handle these things by calling the rperson who was overpaid (if he could identify them and find contact info) and ask them to come in and repay it. ... if they balked he would tell them that if they didn't repay it by a certain time his next phone call would be to Metro (police). He says he never had to call Metro for this.

Keeping quiet here would have been the +EV move.

Only in $.

“Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.”
― H. Jackson Browne

I know this is not how any of us should response or use as an excuse to keep money that does not belong to us. But in the above situations, I can not help but wonder:

If this well know regular customer was shorted say $200 at the cash cage, would the casino review the film and attempt to return the $200 to the customer the next time he came in the casino?

no they would not.

1) Seriously? Would she have gotten in trouble for a $500 mistake? Obviously, yes. Depending on her track record the punishment would range from a write-up to suspension to termination. Depends on the casino. My old casino allowed $600 in variances per year. So this one mistake wouldn't be enough for termination. My current casino doesn't have a set variance limit. They take each case individually and determine to proper disciplinary action.

2) In trouble? Probably not, but the casino will review the tapes, find out who you are, and you won't be allowed to play again until you pay it back.

I have no experience with this issue but it wouldn't surprise me if they did or didn't pay it back. After I read that question, it made me think "Why haven't I heard of such a thing happening? I heard stories a lot about people being overpaid, but never about somebody being underpaid. Hmm" And then I realized why. People are selfish.

If I underpaid 100 people, I'd say at least 95 of them would point out my error immediately. Probably even more and possibly all 100.

If I overpaid 100 people, not even close to that many people point out my error and just walk away.

Yes, they would. Keep assuming that they wouldn't though, so you can justify to yourself any immoral or selfish actions you take against your local places of business.

Not really. The OP states that this room is nearby and "soft as hell." Failure to repay the money would almost certainly get him banned, costing him much more than $500 overall. It's better to play the long game on this one.