Have you ever sat down in an empty seat to play your favorite slot and found credits left in the machine by the previous gambler? What did you do? Did you change machines? Did you cash out the abandoned credits and turn the ticket in to the casino cage or to security? Or did you decide it was your lucky day and play that money together with your own? If you chose option three, you might have found yourself in for a nasty surprise.
Money left in a machine belongs to the casino, and players other than the one who left it there cannot claim it. Nobody ever tells you this until you have committed the unpardonable sin and found yourself being treated like a criminal for playing out a few pennies that don’t belong to you.
Most people are honest. If you found a purse or billfold on the floor by your machine, you wouldn’t hesitate to turn it over to security. Why? Because there’s probably a driver’s license or other identification inside that will tell the casino who the property belongs to, and they can return it to the owner.
If there was a player’s card inserted in the slot machine with the abandoned credits, you wouldn’t use that money or play that machine either. You’d understand that the owner was still playing the machine and had probably just needed a bathroom break and would be returning soon to continue his play. Players often leave their cards and a small amount of credits in their machines when they leave so no one else will play their machine while they’re gone. They often leave something like an ash tray on the chair also. You wouldn’t touch that money.
Twenty cents in a machine with a minimum bet of a quarter is not so clear. Is the player coming back, or did he not want to contend with payment vouchers for such minimal amounts? I’m afraid when I first started playing the slots over a decade ago I would have seen nothing wrong with playing those coins. Finders keepers is what I would have thought, and no one told me anything different. Now I know better. I wouldn’t dream of playing that twenty cents today knowing what I know now.
Does the prohibition against playing found money apply only to money in the machines? What about a five dollar bill found on the floor? Does the old “finders keepers, losers weepers” rule apply when the money is not in a machine? Or does that belong to the casino too? The safest option is to turn found money over to the casino whatever the amount wherever you find it and hope they say you can have it if no one else claims it that day. But don’t hold your breath.
I don’t remember anyone ever telling me, when I took up slot play years ago, what the rules were about playing found money. I don’t think it would have ever crossed my mind that found money belonged to the casino. I know better today. Today I would not play found credits today under any circumstances, and you shouldn’t either. Abandoned credits belong to the casino if the actual owner doesn’t claim them. Take them and you’ll be labeled a thief or worse.
Everybody who writes about gaming says you cannot play this money. I have been searching for something written by a gaming commission or legal source that tells us the same thing. There is so much information available on the internet that it is hard to find what you are looking for sometimes.
I did find a citation in the California Penal Code: Section 337u(c). It says there that you are breaking the law if you claim, collect, or take (or attempt to claim, collect or take) anything of value in or from a gambling game, with intent to defraud, without having made a wager contingent on the game - or if you claim, collect, or take an amount greater than the amount actually won. Penal Code section 337(z)(a) says the penalty can be imprisonment in a county jail for up to a year or a fine of not more than $5,000 for a first offense or both.
Here’s another example. Colorado Gaming Regulations read: If an award is abandoned in the tray or on the credit meter of the slot machine, the award becomes null and void and the property of the casino unless the person who originally won the award makes a claim for the award. Claiming credits in Colorado is a class one misdemeanor for which you can be arrested.
I’m sure there are similar written prohibitions for other states on the web too — if you have the time to look for them. It’s easier to just check with the employees at the casino where you plan to play about what you should do in these circumstances, or easier still, to not play with found money.
There are a lot of stories on the internet about the problems people have had playing with or cashing out abandoned money. I was sent a narrative on Facebook just last week written by a woman whose 73 year old father cashed out (but did not play) abandoned credits at one of our Native American casinos. He kept the credits separate from his own money while looking for the true owner to give them to, but didn’t think to hand them over to security and let them search for the owner. She felt the casino should have been more understanding of an older player’s not knowing what to do in this situation. He wasn’t fined and wasn’t sent to jail, but he was embarrassed and made to feel like a thief. I don’t know if she realized things could have been a whole lot worse for him.
If you want an article to read, HERE'S ONE. It was written by John Robison in Casino City Times this January.
Perhaps the casinos should publish a brochure explaining the rules for practices such as seat switching, pushing the button on another player’s machine, and playing abandoned money. The brochure could include a little helpful tax information too about where to report and the rules against netting wins and losses at tax time. They could hand these flyers out to their new gamers when they join their player’s club. Some of us veteran gamers could probably learn a thing or two also. Maybe it’s time to think about revising my gaming guide to include some of these issues.
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