
$1.5M Robbery of Bellagio Casino Foiled Thanks to RFID Chips - stefanobernardi
http://singularityhub.com/2011/02/12/1-5m-robbery-of-bellagio-casino-foiled-thanks-to-rfid-chips/
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jrnkntl
From the comments over there:

"This is nonsense, they didn't catch him by using RFID chips, they caught him
with police work. He was an idiot, and told anyone that would listen that he
had the chips. People came forward, a sting buy was set up, he was arrested
after selling them to undercover LEOs. Read the police report, there is no
mention of RFID chips.

Police Report:
[https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://media.lasvegassun....](https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://media.lasvegassun.com/media/pdfs/blogs/documents/2011/02/03/carleo0203.pdf)

This is just marketing by a company that is trying to sell the technology to
other casinos."

~~~
kkleiner
The writer doesn't have anything mixed up. Most of the chips were large value
denominated and hence nearly all of the stolen chips were worthless the moment
the thief walked out the door.

Also, the article is not claiming the thief was captured because of the RFID.
The article is simply highlighting how the RFIDs in the chips foiled the thief
by making the chips worthless almost immediately, and then goes on to
highlight how RFIDs within chips are enabling casino operators to track user
behavior in new and novel ways. The focus of the story is not that RFID was
used to catch the bad guy, rather the focus is on how RFID tech within these
chips has changed casino operation, from user tracking, to "turning off"
stolen chips on demand.

~~~
MichaelApproved
What do you consider "large value denominated" and where did find out what the
breakdown was? In my book "large value" in a 1.5 mil heist would be $5,000 and
higher. My _guess_ would be that most chips were $100, $500 and $1,000 chips.
But AFAIK, Bellagio hasn't released any of that information.

~~~
jerf
The fifth sentence of the first paragraph of the linked article is "Thanks to
RFID tags embedded inside them, the chips with denominations of $100 to
$25,000 could be immediately deactivated rendering them unredeemable for cash
value."

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heyitsnick
He was caught because he did stuff like sending photos like the following to
members of the poker forum he frequented:

[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DaIlH1TvGHA/TUsgWhzTV0I/AAAAAAAAAG...](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DaIlH1TvGHA/TUsgWhzTV0I/AAAAAAAAAGY/Xz4jZw2iDuM/s320/DSC03741.JPG)

~~~
emehrkay
If I got away with something like this, I'd want to brag via message boards
too.

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MichaelApproved
I believe the writer has his information mixed up. Bellagio doesn't have RFIDs
in the lower denominational chips. It's rumored to be in the $5,000 chips and
above. Newer properties like the Wynn hotel put RFIDs in all their chips
because they're the ones who have the play tracking tables he wrote about.

He wasn't caught because of the RFIDs in the chips, he was caught because he
was trying to sell the $25,000 chips. In fact, he was gambling with the
smaller chips and lost over $100,000. If those had the RFIDs in them, they
would have caught him sooner. Instead he should have kept all the smaller
chips and thrown the larger ones into a river and forgotten about them. It
would have still been a nice haul.

~~~
wallflower
> If you’re using high-rolling chips you can almost guarantee that a casino
> knows what you’re up to. Turns out Big Brother is alive and well, playing
> craps in Las Vegas.

After I originally read the article, I was about to take my chips that I have
from a recent casino trip to a belt sander. But then I read your comment. I
think the writer knew what he was talking about (the high-roller chips
disclaimer) but couldn't resist breathlessly hyping up the Big Brother aspect.

But then I read this comment in the original thread:

5 points by vegasbrianc 54 days ago | link

"As engineer for the Casino Industry 99% of the casino RFID solutions on the
market track all chips all denominations. The Casino RFID system is used in
multiple ways \- Tracking players bets - Ensure the dealer is paying out or
taking in the correct chips - Accurate accounting - Fraud Prevention So next
time you go to the casino remember they are tracking you even when you cannot
see it."

~~~
MichaelApproved
Even if they're are RFID's in the chips themselves, the table still has to
have scanning equipment to read the payouts and that's expensive. Not all
casinos use that to track play and payouts. I believe Bellagio uses old school
tracking with pit bosses going around writing down your play from time to
time.

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AndyJPartridge
I'm having trouble understanding the technical possibility of chips being
deactivated in this scenario. I see from the police report it wasn't, but just
wondered anyway.

If someone grabs X chips, where X is quite a high number, and walks out the
door - are the numbers registered as they go, and can be deactivated
thereafter?

Can a high value of X be scanned and stored by RFID technology? How are legit
walk-outs and stolen separated?

Also, I see mention of the technology "Spotting a dealer accidentally shorting
a player" - is this technology that granular that a transaction like that can
be logged accurately?

Just curious if anyone can indulge me.

~~~
Joakal
IANAM. Hypothetically, I gather that they have a database of 'activated'
chips. If it goes through door, it's logged (similar how there's beepers at a
shop if you accidentally didn't pay for something). When a large amount of
chips leave within 30 seconds, the casion owners went to the database and
marked the chips as 'stolen'. If the person claims it wasn't stolen, the
casino has cameras to follow up.

If a chip was later used in the casino, the teller would swipe it to read from
database. Ideally, it would raise a flag and be refused to be exchanged for
money (stolen goods).

~~~
AndyJPartridge
Thanks for the reply. I looked this up:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulk_reading>

"Bulk reading is a means for orienting in conduct of logistics processes, but
caused by a higher quote of reading failures, not suitable for inventory
management."

So I am still unsure how they could, as the PR is stating, 'turn off' a
selection of chips reliably.

I guess it's a mute point as the Bellagio swapped out all chips, and therefore
the RFID inside any/all.

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dhughes
I'm more amazed at currency being accepted at all, the North Korean "Super
$100" I hear is nearly perfect but slot machine bill validators still rejected
it.

It's one thing to have custom made chips with RFID, notches, decals and who
knows what else but to accept paper as a valuable item seems to risky yet most
counterfeit bills are rejected all the time.

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thematt
I think it's more accurate to say that it was foiled because of good old
police work. An undercover investigation and a sting (plus a large amount of
his own stupidity) is what brought the guy in. The embedded RFID stopped the
high value chips ($25,000) from being cashed in, but there were still plenty
of lower denominations that could have been used.

Interestingly enough, after the heist the Bellagio replaced ALL the chips on
the floor with a complete new set. It would have been pretty suspicious when
somebody strolled in with $25,000 chips...even without the RFID at that point.

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vaksel
I guess we won't be seeing Ocean's Fourteen

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catshirt
there was previously some discussion and speculation about these chips on hn,
when the story was originally reported

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2023413>

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philthy
Why was he not caught when himself or one of his associates attempted to pass
off the chips at the casino, he obviously found out some way they were
worthless. I am really surprised the Bellagio cage allowed someone with a chip
that couldn't be cashed to walk away AFTER a robbery had recently taken
place... The whole chain of events is suspect.

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adulau
In other hand, I would like to have a close look at the high value chips using
RFID technology especially that the cashier has usually more confident in
those ones. But that's another side of the story...

