When I broke in at the Nevada Palace casino on Boulder Hwy., I was working graveyard. While standing on a dead quarter roulette table at 3 am., two men, armed with revolvers and wearing ski masks walked in, one man ran to the cage while the other put a gun on the security guard sitting at the security podium. The other man jumped into the open cashiers cage, (I'm not sure why they call it a cage, there ain't no bars, there ain't no glass, there's nothing more than a skuzzy guy with bad teeth and bad breath on the other side to keep people out) forced him to open the cash drawers and ran out with $6,000. That was on a Sunday. On Wednesday, at around 3:30 am. two guys (no I'm not repeating myself, this really happened) with ski masks and revolvers came in, one went to security and held a gun on him, while the other jumped into the cashiers cage, the take this time was only around $3,800. The following night, thinking the cops must be totally brain dead, they came back. The third sat in the car while the two walked to the casino door, pushed down their ski masks, and over a dozen Metro police jumped out of everywhere and surrounded them, one decided to run and the wheelman decided to take off also, they both were remembered by their next of kin at the funerals, the services were brief since the caskets were closed. After the last hold-up, the casino finally decided to spend a few bucks and put up bars in the cashiers cage. Now fast forward to the Bellagio back in June. Three fine upstanding young men decide to lighten the burden on Steve Wynn by jumping into the open cage and taking a few thousand bucks of his "hard" earned money while successfully eluding security after a brief shootout. The outcome was one of the young men decided to finally rat out his compadres and as it turned out, they were also the ones who just a few months earlier decided to relieve Wells Fargo of one of their armored cars and in the gunfight that followed, killed two security guards. As an afterthought, this fine, outstanding example of human waste, decided there must be something he can be successful at, so he hung himself in the Clark County Jail...it was a big success.

SAFETY AT THE TABLES

Sitting at a blackjack table at the newly opened Bellagio. A gentleman playing was ahead $20,000, playing $2,000 a hand with $500 chips. The cocktail waitress brought him a drink and as she stood next to him setting the drink down, the drink tray was suddenly dropped in his lap, he jumped up and as he did, the man who dumped the drink tray on him suddenly grabbed a stack of $8,000 worth of the $500 chips and hit the door running. Security chased him to the sidewalk but lost him.

Chips are stolen off tables all the time. On the Blackjack tables, it isn't hard for two or three people to work together to distract a player to boost a few checks. The best thing to do is to never leave chips on the table when you go to the restroom as many people do. Feeling that surveillance and security as well as the dealer and floor men are watching them. Or that the dealer will somehow feel you don't trust them. But dealers take breaks, players come and go, security isn't watching and surveillance would only be watching the money being played. I've seen everything from teams that operate to steal money left on tables by people going to restrooms. I've seen false bottoms on change cups and styrofoam cups, (thus, the reason change cups, purses, wallets, cell phones, cigarette cases, and foreign cups aren't allowed on the tables) two sided tape on the bottom of coffee cups to stick a chip to the bottom of the cup when rested on someone’s chips and lifted off the stack. Even players stealing black chips and dumping them into a cup of coffee with cream so you can't see the chip, So never leave $100 chips on the table unless they're in play. Watch for someone acting drunk around you, if you're a guy, be slightly aware that the girl coming on to you when you have a few hundred in front of you on the table, might not be after those tight abs and that chiseled chin, and on the other side of her could be someone lifting your chips as you stare into the abyss of her Victoria Secret pushup bra.

On the crap tables, the big thing is rail thieves, or stealing chips off the rack provided on the crap table. The same idea applies as on a blackjack or roulette table. Keep your $25 and $100 chips in your pocket when they're not in play. Color up small chips for larger denominations so it won't be so much to keep in your pockets (you wish!) and on the crap table, try to stand next to the base dealer or stickman and keep your large denomination chips in the middle of your rack. Keep the $5 and $1 chips on the outside on both ends of the tube of chips with the $25 and $100 chips in the middle. That'll make it harder to lift the large denomination chips from the middle of the rack without disturbing the outside chips. And once again, NEVER LEAVE CHIPS ALONE ON THE TABLE FOR ANY REASON. Don't feel that the dealer feels the least bit slighted if you take your chips with you. In fact, we prefer that you do.

On Roulette, people will tend to have a large amount of colored chips on the tables, usually worth $1 each, sometimes worth $5, a roulette chip can be worth any denomination the player asks for, so the stack of pink chips could be worth twenty dollars and the stack of blue chips could be worth one hundred dollars. And these are stolen and turned in later, although less likely to be ripped off for dollars, you still have to keep an eye on the chips, and learn the damn payoffs on Roulette. I've seen many dealers come up with different totals for the same bets on Roulette and Craps.

At the slot machines, there are groups of people that prey on slot players. Mostly women getting their purses ripped off when they shove them under their chairs as they start to play, or between two machines. All they have to do is have one distract you for a moment while the other steals your purse from the machine from the next row. They just reach through between the machines. Another thing they love to do is wait until you hit a dollar or even quarter machine for a bunch. You fill a bucket or stack a rack with the winnings, then set it aside as you begin to fill the next bucket or rack, and when you turn around, the bucket or racks are gone. I saw a lady loose $500 in silver dollars that way. Keep your head on the game. Stay aware of what's going on around you. These people know you're in a trance most of the time, throw in a few drinks, and you might as well have a bulls eye painted on your forehead.

In the hotels, when going up to your room, especially if you've won some money, don't be ashamed to ask security to have a guard walk you to the room. All the casinos provide this service, and in fact, if you did ask, and they refused, and something happened on the way to the room, they know they'd be sued, so they'll always be glad to do it. But when driving to the casinos, don't park in the garages late at night, or if you're going to be in the casino until late. But in any circumstance, park with the Valet. This will cost you a few bucks, come on, you can't tell me your personal security isn't worth a $2 tip to Valet to keep your car and yourself safe. Over the summer a couple was accosted in the Luxor parking lot. A citizen trying to help was knifed to death and the two tourists beaten and robbed. You want to tell me now the two bucks is too much? Try parking in downtown Chicago or New York City for a night out for less than $20.

In the city of Las Vegas itself, I feel it is safe around the strip most of the places, most of the time. Downtown is fine on Fremont St. but the neighborhood even a block away is nowhere to be after dark. The strip from Mandalay Bay to Treasure Island is fine, now that the Aladdin is finished is even better. But walking from Circus Circus to the Sahara Hotel isn't recommended and the walk from the Sahara to the Stratosphere late at night isn't either. The cavernous parking structures accompanying all the hotels are a maze of cars and columns. The back of the lots are blocks from the casino entrances, blocks away from any security, so park as close to the entrances if you're too cheap to use Valet.

Trust me, if you ever get robbed or ripped off at the tables or machines, you're gonna feel like a total idiot that you let your guard down, that someone saw you for an easy mark. So please remember, you're always responsible for your own welfare and security, don't ever feel there's a personal camera watching only you with your own personal security guard waiting to pounce on anyone trying to hurt you. In other words…

CYA.

-Ken Pearlman