Story of 2 Poker players who have $15,000+ stolen from their safe at rio

Interesting thread started yesterday on 2+2 poker forum about 2 poker players at the WSOP who allegedly had $15,000+ in cash taken from their room safe.

Basically the story is this: Poker Player #1 has $6,500 in cash in the safe in his room at the Rio. His name, and hist name only is on the room. His Room-mate, supposedly has $10,000 in cash in the safe. While poker player is down in the poker room, room-mate invites a poker player friend (who we later find out is named Omar) up to the room to smoke some weed. After they are done, Room mate goes down to the casino to gamble and leaves Omar alone in the room. Room mate later returns to the room to find Omar gone, along with the contents of their safe. Omar supposedly called maintenance and told them the safe was locked and he needed to open it, and they came up and opened the safe without checking ID to see that his name was on the room. Poker Player #1 feels RIO is at fault, because they did not check ID when they came to unlock the safe to ensure the person was the named party on the room.

The thread can be found here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip-sponsored-online-poker-report/rio-does-again-1540357/

I personally don't believe all the facts of the story, and While, if true, it's a shame they lost the money, however, I personally don't believe the RIO is the one who is most at fault here.

 

How can you even guess who's at fault without really knowing the facts?

If these are all the facts and the Rio opened the safe for someone not on the room, that's definitely negligent and they should be held liable.

 

Who knows what the real facts are?!? It will be interesting to see how this develops.

A few lessons, though, which may be annoying but seem more logical as I get older.

1. Hotels ask for your ID all the time for a reason, and it is primarily to protect you. Don't complain about it.

2. At some point, it makes sense to get your own room instead of having "roommates."

3. Use extreme caution inviting any strangers to your room, whether the intent is to have sex, use drugs, look at the sunset, or whatever. It can end badly. I love a party as much as anyone, and I don't mean to sound prudish, but there are enough ways to get in trouble in Vegas without inviting strangers/ casual acquaintances to your room. I risk enough at the tables, I need to have a feeling of absolute security in my room.

4. The in room safes are not really designed for the safekeeping of large amounts of cash, although I admit I have taken that risk. For very large amounts, cash should be put on deposit at the cage. If you take the time to do that, the hotel absolutely assumes responsibility for the safekeeping of the cash, and there will be no dispute about it. Even if the cage is somehow robbed in the meantime, the hotel will be liable for that loss and you will get your money back. No in room safe or safe deposit box can provide that guarantee.

5. The cash allegedly lost by the poker players in the story doesn't really qualify as "very large". If you have an amount of cash which can be stuffed into your pockets, that may very well be the safest place for it.

 

Note that not all hotels have safety deposit boxes in the casino cage or through the hotel. I was surprised that Ceasars Palace does not. I am even Seven Stars there but was told they simply do not provide that service for liability reasons.

 

I agree with you shifter. It would seem that Rio was negligent but it's just heresay how much was in the safe. However, when I think back I can recall at least 3 occasions at different casinos when I've called to have the safe unlocked. Twice because it was not left open and once because I must have locked it and hit a wrong number. Never, on any of those times, have I been asked to show identification. Only once was I asked what was in the safe - before they opened it (that was the time I punched in the wrong number to lock it so couldn't reopen it) but still never showed i.d.

I'm curious how many people here have ever been asked for identification? Not often I'd bet.

 

Is there a disclaimer about hotels not being responsible for contents put in the safes? If there is (I thought I read it somewhere in the safe or on the back of the door) then maybe that's why they don't care to ask for I.D.

But still, it makes sense to check if the person in the room is the registered guest. If anything it upholds the property's integrity and professionalism. Right now I think the Rio is shit.

 

I had to have security come and unlock my safe as soon as I checked in one time. Safe was already locked when I got there. I don't think they asked for my ID when they showed up. I was guessing it was because they saw that I checked in about 5min before.

 

This is not the first incident involving Rio and in room safes, about 10 years ago when i was there for the wsop and another poker player got his safe emptied when they were cleaning his room. I think it was over 30k in it and the insurance disclaimer did say they were only insured to about 1k which is pretty silly.

 

Same thing happened to me. This was at Flamingo (or was it Bally's? LOL, I forget, it was a while ago). Safe was locked. I phoned the desk. They sent up two guys, a techie and a "suit", and they did not ask for ID or anything. I explained it was found locked at check-in. The techie plugged in the magic box and had it open in a few seconds. They both looked inside and agreed it was empty and apologized for the inconvenience.

 

Dh screwed up the safe last trip at the Bellagio. The tech called back that he would be there in minutes but was waiting for a security guard to join him. They did ask for ID from both of us.

 

When the tech from Rio opened the safe and saw that money, I can't believe he didn't request someone from security to verify for his own protection. Everything about this story is fishy.

 

The guy should take it up with his 'poker player friend named Omar'. The guy smoked weed with him and was comfortable enough to leave him alone in his room.

 

If the guy sets up a GoFundMe page, then you'll know it's B.S., otherwise it's at least plausible.

I've had to have safes unlocked three times, always because it was locked when I arrived. I don't remember ever getting asked for ID, but twice, they sent two guys - one safe tech and one security guy, which I'm guessing is so that there's an extra witness in case there's something in there.

 

I've locked myself out of a safe once. The tech. basically hooked up his thing, popped it open a crack, and left. Maybe a privacy thing?

 

Every time I've had to have someone open/fix my in-room safe I've been asked for ID and asked what was in the safe. I'm surprised so many folks haven't been asked for ID - not the most comforting thing to hear.

 

Sounds like a 3-way scam to me.

Reminds me of a scam involving the police in the Philippines while I was stationed there. As in most countries, Marijuana is illegal in the philippines but here's how the scam went.

Drug dealer would sell a small bag of weed to some dumb squid.
Drug dealer would then inform his police buddy who just happened to be around the corner.
Police would approach the dumb squid and tell him he's under arrest, or he could give up the weed and 'pay the fine' directly to him now.
Squid was scared shitless so he 'paid the fine', bribe.
Police would give the weed back to the dealer and half of the fine.

 

I will add my experience that every time I have had security come and open my in room safe, they have asked for ID. The time it happened at the Wynn, they actually sent two security guards up

 

My experience this past visit to Caesars. My friend was staying a few doors down for a couple of nights then moving in with me in an Augustus room. Somewhere wires were crossed and they thought it was the other way around. So safe was locked Day 3. Called and after a very long delay security came to open it. No ID required.

 

I haven't used a hotel safe for years. I always just put money with the cage. Much easier and actually secure.

 

They have $15,000 between the two of 'em, yet they can't afford to spring for separate rooms?