Watch Your Cash

"I had my purse on the rack underneath the chip rack," said Judith, who asked us not to use her last name. "And I was keeping my knee against it."

As is often the case at a craps table where the numbers are hitting and players are cheering, people were pressing against Judith trying to get in on the action. While her attention was riveted on the dancing dotted cubes, the purse disappeared. Judith noticed it after she "colored up" -- changed smaller-denomination chips for larger ones -- and reached down for her bag.

"My heart just dropped. You just don't believe it," she said. "If it hadn't been for the money that I won, it would have been worse. That cushioned it a little."

Unfortunately, Judith's experience is hardly unique. Travelers anywhere have to be careful to protect their cash and belongings, but a casino can be particularly treacherous territory.

Money is changing hands at a feverish pace. Cash is lying around in buckets of coins or as piles of chips. Then, of course, there is the mesmerizing spell that gambling can cast, creating a distraction that becomes a crook's accomplice.

 

Jim Blair, executive director of security at the Mirage in Las Vegas, and Danny Wright, director of security at Caesars Atlantic City, have seen it all too often.

"The interesting thing is that people feel safe here in Las Vegas," Blair said. "And that feeling is justified. People are relatively safe here. They're walking around with $10,000, $15,000 in their pockets believing there's safety in numbers. But it doesn't take much to become that one case."

Even with the ubiquitous cameras that watch casino floors and patrolling security personnel, casino patrons are vulnerable to packs of well-rehearsed thieves. Perhaps the most common casino ruse is the "distract and grab." One thief tosses a couple of coins or chips on the floor and asks the victim whether they are his. While the target bends over, the thief's partner grabs a bucket of coins or lifts a fistful of chips.

"Sometimes, they'll actually hit you in the ankles with the coins, and your first reaction is to look down," Wright said.

Both security experts have suggestions for thwarting crooks.

Keeping a thick rubber band around a wallet makes it tougher for a pickpocket to slip it out. A wallet also is safer in a front pocket than in the back.

• Slot-machine players should keep their accumulated cash as credits in the machine until they are ready to cash out. If a player does have a pile of loose coins, the money is safer in the machine's tray than in a bucket where a thief easily can snatch it and run.
  
• Patrons with purses should keep them on their laps rather than on the floor or wedged between slot machines, where a thief on the other side can reach them.
  
• If chips begin to pile up, exchange them for a higher denomination and put them away securely.

Judith, whose purse was recovered in the rest room of another casino but minus the cash, now knows what she'll do if she ever scores big again: change the cash into traveler's checks or put it in the hotel's safe at the front desk.

"I've just never won that much again to do it," she said.

Some casinos have special hooks that slide under the padded armrest at a blackjack table. Patrons can wrap the strap of a purse around the hook and have their bags in front of them. Not all casinos offer the contraption, but it pays to ask. Folks who regularly visit casinos might consider investing in a travel blazer that has zippered inside pockets. They're made for men and women and found in travel-wear catalogs.