On Ben Rosenthal said
Something sort of related happened to me recently: I forgot which casino, but I needed to show ID when cashing in a ticket under $1.
I’d imagine if I came with a pile of tickets, that might have caused an issue, as they might have assumed I went around the casino looking for vouchers. Although if I were doing such a thing, I’d just combine them all in a machine anyway.
Maybe it’s more if you keep coming in throughout the day with like 50 of these tickets. Or maybe they figure a homeless person might not have ID, or perhaps it’s just to identify someone like that so they can keep better tabs on everyone.
That’s exactly what it is. In Vegas, particularly on Fremont Street, homeless folks go around and cash out money left in machines, and very few of them have ID. Many of them are also aware of the principles taught here, although their entry points leave much to be desired. Having the cashier check ID before redeeming a sub-$1 voucher is an easy way to keep the homeless people from coming up on the money actual players leave behind, although it’s by no means a perfect solution. Gathering enough tickets, sticking them all in a machine, and then cashing out a voucher over $1 would defeat that, but most homeless people also have addiction issues, and they’d be more likely to play what they’ve gathered in desperate hope of getting lucky and scoring some drug money than cashing out a $1+ voucher. Video keno is a common game for homeless folks for precisely that reason; if you see a rather disheveled individual playing video keno, there is a .90+ probability that said individual is a homeless drug addict.
King of Hearts
