Tips & Tricks – Stay Weird Las Vegas

Last updated 07/26/24 Las Vegas is a fun place to visit and a great place to gamble. Unfortunately any place that attracts as much money as a casino also attracts a lot of unsavory characters. Even though you are having fun you have to be on guard. No one wants to feel like a chump and get scammed while in Las Vegas so we've put together some of the scams you might run into. Buying anything Looks real, might have been printed at home. Don't buy. This might seem like common sense compared to some of the strange obscure scams you are about to read about, but you'd be surprised. We know of people who have bought "winning" lottery tickets from people in a casino. Gift cards, gold chains, and slot tickets (TITOs) are all things that have been sold by people down on their luck to casino patrons. Shockingly, they were all fake and worth nothing. I know right. I haven't heard of things like people buying diamonds or fake artwork, but I'm sure it's happened to someone. Oh, and bridges, don't buy any bridges. Gifts Accept a bracelet from the monk and you'll pay Sometimes people don't try to sell you anything, they just give you a gift. Like a bracelet, or their new CD, or they let you take a picture with them. Then after you've accepted their generous gift they tell you it's time to pay. Fake Monks will give you bracelets. Musicians, mostly rappers, will give you their new CD. And, showgirls and characters will let you take pictures with them. Then they will all want a tip, or payment, for what you thought was a gift. Avoid anyone trying to give you anything. Salespeople will also try to give a free lotions samples and nicely dressed people at an information desk will try to give you free tickets to shows. These are not scams per say, but the free lotion leads to a sales pitch about a lot more expensive products. The free tickets are yours for a short sales pitch about timeshares. Not scams, but a rip off for sure. Avoid anyone trying to give you anything. Souvenir chips Every casino has their own chips. Everyone is different and sometimes the casino has several different versions of their own chips. There is no way for you to know what all the different chips look like, unless your a chip collector or hard core gambler. There is one scamster on the Strip that buys souvenir chips from gift shops and sells them to tourists as the real thing. He approaches people on the street and tells them a story about why he can't cash out this $100 chip. But, he could sell it to you for $50 and you could cash it out and make $50. Win, win. The souvenir chips cost him about $1 and you $50. How do you know if you're getting the real thing? Easy, only get chips from the casino. Buy them from the cage or at a table game and you can rest assured they are the real deal. Chip collecting can be a fun activity/hobby for visits to Las Vegas. They can cost as little as $1 apiece and it's a good excuse to visit various casinos. Don't start your chip collection with a $1 chip that cost you $100. Roulette/Slot advice for a percentage There are some "experts" out there who will offer to help you find a good machine to play and give you a strategy to win. All they ask in return is a percentage of the winnings. Sounds good they don't win unless you win, right? The trick is they don't have anything to lose. They are gambling with your money and if you lose it's no skin off their nose. And if you win, then they get some free money. No one has any better strategy than you will sitting down guessing numbers on roulette, or punching the buttons on a slot machine. Anyone who has a "system" for winning would just use their own money to win and never talk to you. Give me some money and I'll gamble for you This scam can take a couple of different forms. Much like the "advice for a percentage " scam the person could gamble with your money with no downside to themselves. You take all the risks and they take some of the rewards. Another, less scammy, version is just outright theft. You give someone money and never see them again. They go to the bathroom and don't come back, ever. I heard of one scam artist that would go "deposit" the money at the cage so the victim could be assured their money was safe. The problem was when the scam artist was at the cage "depositing " the money he was really just asking for change. To the bystander, it looked like the casino had their money until the scamster disappeared and they went to the cage to check on their "deposit ". Play this slot machine, now git For some slot machines, there is a way to see if they are close to a bonus round. A classic example is the Plants vs. Zombies slot machine. There is a brain on the screen that gets filled when certain symbols hit. When the brain is full it activates a bonus round. So, if you're walking around a casino and you see an almost full brain you know it would take less of your money to get that bonus round. Which means you could make money. There is a whole subculture in Vegas that comb the casinos every day looking for machines to play where they have an advantage. They are known to the casinos as bonus chasers or bonus trolls. If you've ever been playing a machine and someone is hanging around watching you, depending on the machine your playing, they might be a bonus chaser hoping you'll leave before you hit a jackpot and they can sweep in and snag it. Bonus chasing isn't a scam, but some of the bonus chasers have scams they use to take advantage of regular casino guests. Their "go to" move is to tell you they have a hot machine that's been really paying out for them, but they have to leave. They'll be nice and lead you to it. You play for a while and then suddenly someone shows up that makes you feel so uncomfortable that you leave. That's the other bonus chaser who wants the advantage you've built up on the slot machine. Their tactics vary, but bullying you to leave is their only goal. Sometimes it's not a stranger, it's the person who showed you the machine in the first place. If anyone is steering you towards playing a certain machine, it's most likely in their best interest. Google the name of the machine your playing with "slot advantage play" after and see what comes up. It might give you a whole new way of looking at the machine your playing and how to beat it. It will also give you a good idea of when some scoundrel might show up and bother you. I'll get you some change, cause I work here Make sure anyone you deal with is an actual representative of the casino you are at. One scam artist would dress up in a suit and pretend to be a supervisor in the slot department. He would graciously offer to go get you change if you needed it. You give him $100 to get some change and you never see him again. When you find a legitimate casino employee they won't know who you are talking about. I've never heard of anyone dressing up in a casino uniform, but a suit like the supervisors wear is easy to come by. 3 Card Monte 3 Card Monte is real, not just something you see in movies. A guy with three cards on a table and you just have to find the queen, couldn't be any easier than that. And the guy who was just playing made $100. That should be you right? Nope, it's a trick. The other guy is in on it. When it's your turn to bet on finding a queen you won't be able to. A little sleight of hand and you are separated from your money. 3 Card Monte teams are actually fascinating. They are bigger than you think. A team can have 5 to 8 people. The front man who actually moves the cards, a couple of players, a lookout, and the guys who grab the equipment when it's time to run. If you see a 3 Card Monte team stay around and watch them. Don't play, of course, but watch. When it's time for them to leave it's like a magic trick. If you blink they all just disappear. The front man will go one way with the money. One of the players will grab the cards from the table and head off in a different direction. Some random guy from the crowd will grab the table they were playing on and go a third way. It's choreographed magic. Be safe, be wary For more ways to stay safe in Las Vegas see our article Is Las Vegas Safe? Yes....if you don't do theses stupid things. Not everyone in Las Vegas is some type of huckster. Most are, but not everyone. There are a lot of people on vacation who just want to meet new people and have fun. That's nice. So, don't treat everyone like they are out to get you. But, as soon as someone is trying to get some of your money it's time to pay attention. Be careful, and stay weird Las Vegas.