Ugh, I'm staying at Bally's this year.

Yes, I'm certain. I would usually stay about 10 days and get most of them comped, so I always checked the bill closely to make sure I was only charged for the couple days that weren't, and also to apply my TR credits correctly.

That'd be weird if one total rewards hotel charged for the safe (ballys) and one didn't charge for the safe (rio) are you diamond in their rewards program? Diamond members get free safe use according to that article I posted

I was Diamond for the first three years and Platinum last year (Platinum again this year). But even when I was Diamond, there was no mention anywhere of a charge for the safe or that Diamonds were exempt.

and CCTV cameras don't actually arrest anyone, but there a deterrent. If you were going to rob a room, and knew as soon as you opened the door it'd be logged as someone entering the room at that specific time, also sending a text to the person, you'd definitely have to be better organised and extremely ballsy at the very least to go ahead with it.

You can convert cash into chips as well. Seven 5k chips keep them in a little pouch.

If I was going to Rio for an extended period with large amount of cash I would get a players card and then just buy high limit slot machine vouchers. High limit rooms sell them to you, or you can just walk up to a machine and feed all the hundreds into it. then take photo of voucher. You don't have to gamble a cent but if someone tries to cash your 20k voucher they will be denied at cage and they will be on camera. They won't have the slot play to justify the voucher. When you eventually cash it out you can just say the machine you wanted to play was occupied. The rio system will have a record of your card being in the machine when the 20k was placed in machine so they will cash it no problem. The vouchers go up well above 20k, I would carry these before I would carry cash

Are their available boxes still at the pavilion?

That's a good idea James, thanks.

CCTV cameras don't arrest people, but they do lead to arrests.

It's really not so tough, it's going to take the person a few minutes at least to get to the room if they pick up the text as soon as it comes through. Intruders are not hanging about in the rooms they gain entry to for long.

One person enters the room, another acts as spotter by the bank of lifts to see if anyone comes to that floor ready to alert their accomplice. They have the option to buy accomplice a bit more time and act as a distraction. If all else fails, there's no CCTV camera in the corridors so go figure what the next options are.

Can't you just use front money ?

Use the in-room safe. Even if it costs $3 a day like Bally's, to protect $35k it's worth it to save you from:

Door-Pushers: these creeps patrol guest room hallways looking for doors not all the way shut. Once inside they'll take whatever they can. They'll even comb through your stuff while you're in there sleeping.

Maids: The maids have permission to enter your room and whatever they can make off with is fair game. Supposedly their carts get searched (who knows how often it actually happens) but small items like cash and jewelry can always be stored in the maid's underwear.

When I worked at the Riviera they ran a sting on the maids by leaving money out to see if they would take it. In over 50% of the cases, they did. How a hotel can check guests into a room knowing employees are willing and waiting to steal from guests is beyond me. Unions have a lot of power and prevent the property from disciplining thieving employees. Certain executives seem more interested in pleasing the union than pleasing the guests. It's the same at every property - especially the mid and lower level properties.

So don't leave your money out - even in a hiding spot. Leave it in the safe.

Hotel security can verify when a door was unlocked and which key was used to unlock it. They should also be able to see which code was used to enter the safe. If someone other than you happens to use the master code to unlock the safe, there should be record of that happening at least.

People need to stop promoting this like it's the answer. It's already been stated there are master codes for the safe several employees know, and several cases where safes were broken into.

This is another reason why you should wash your hands after handling cash.

I would imagine that part of the problem is that it's hard for hotels to protect their guests from theft and also protect themselves from fraudulent claims of theft at the same time.

It wouldn't be so hard for a guest or gang of thieves to find out the codes either.

First of all, to the people blaming the victims in this thread, grow up. Yeah, allowing yourself to get jacked in this manner is naive and silly.

But if you see this thread and only feel the need to belittle the victims, while ignoring the larger and more important point, you're just as naive and probably a huge *******.

Second of all, this is ridiculous. Lee, you have no business showing your face in a thread about this topic. Your advice on this matter is beyond worthless. Your behavior relating to the EPT Barcelona incident was some mixture of cowardly, corrupt, and deeply disappointing to those who still somehow thought you were a well-meaning party with player interests in mind.

The poker community as a whole owes you a giant **** you. So please take your bull**** elsewhere. You are a disgrace.

Poker players have awful Human Resources skills.

$1500 a week paid in cash, you can hire a man- who is fresh off spending time in nasty places where all he did was kill people-to stand between your cash and any turd who may come for it. I'm carrying around six figures, the guy with the beard and sunglasses nearby has one job and its to be wherever my cash is.

There comes a point where it isn't always the money itself, per se, but when you're carrying around enough bread that marginal people would be willing to kill you to get at it, you should probably think about countermeasures, starting with how to move and store that cash so its secure pretty much every step of the way.

That seems like a great idea, invite a hardened thug to "guard" your 6 figures.

This is perfect. What could possibly go wrong with hiring someone that just spent the last 20 years in San Quentin.

How does one go about interviewing someone for this position?

Does anyone know what those safes are rated at? Without a burglar alarm, the general guideline is to have a TL-15 rated safe for storing items which are between $25,000 and $100,000 in value. That's if no one else knows the code of course. I'd be shocked if any hotel on the strip provides anywhere close to that level of security in an in-room safe.

I wouldn't bother with the in-room safe, as they're famously trivially easy to break into. If you have anything of significant value that you can't carry on your person then you ought to pay for a safety deposit box with the appropriate level of insurance. Anyone who leaves cash or valuables lying around in a hotel room in Vegas during the WSOP is naive at best.

So so wrong its comical.

Can a player not use debit to purchase their buyins? It's obvious the dude made a special trip to the bank for a 35k withdrawal. So if this is possible, then why not get preapproved for a large debit transaction?

The word has been out for 10+ years now of how much cash is involved in every big event which will continue to draw out these thieves in the cities where events are held.

I honestly see no need of lugging a large amount of cash around unless you are a drug dealer.

If buyins are cash only when we have access to 35 yr old fool proof technology called a debit card, that's pretty sad.

Among all these reports of people having things stolen from the Rio, I haven't heard anyone claim they had used the in-room safe. Do you think those people who had their stuff stolen are glad they didn't bother with the safe?

I'm not saying it wouldn't be difficult to break into if someone was trained to do so (or of course had the override code). But keeping your belongings in the safe is still several orders of magnitude more secure than just leaving them lying around your room.

Two years ago at the World Series I came back to my room and found a Do Not Disturb sign on the door that I hadn't placed. I walked in, and to my horror, found my safe door was open. Amazingly, the ~20K I had in it was all there. Turns out a maid had found my safe door open, and in near terror called her supervisor. They couldn't lock the money in the safe without using a new code, so they put a DND on the room. It took two days but I tracked down the Philippine maid. She looked scared to death when she saw me but I thanked her and gave her $200.

That $20K was my whole trip bankroll. I felt like I was free-rolling the rest of the time!