Casino Chips Stolen From Bellagio By Motorcycle Mystery-Man May Be Worthless

While the Bellagio Hotel may have taken a 1.5 Million Dollar hit from its recent motorcycle mystery-man craps table robbery, casino industry sources say that despite the chips being worth seven-figures at 3:50 a.m., at 3:51 a.m. they weren't worth a thing—and any potential financial damage to the Bellagio is exactly none."

Apparently, the Bellagio like many other casinos,  has a secondary set of chips with a different design, which can immediately be used to replace every chip in the house, so that the stolen chips can no longer be used. Sources say, that most chips with a face value of $100 or more, as well as some with a face value as low as $25, have embedded electronic RFID transponders using the same technology as safe pass uses on credit cards.. Thus, each chip can be uniquely identified.

A hotel deploying RFID-enabled chips can quickly determine which serial numbers are associated with those that were stolen and immediately invalidate those particular chips. In that way, if a thief tries to redeem them for cash, or use them at a table, they can be identified as stolen and the thief can be apprehended.

An industry expert, John Kendall, the president of Chipco International, a gaming-chip manufacturer with more than 100 million chips in use in casinos worldwide stated that "I have spoken to the people at the Bellagio, whom I know well, and those chips became worthless the moment they left the casino. This guy obviously just did not understand the dynamics of the industry he was attacking."