Table Games Bellagio Squeamish About Winners?

I had an interesting experience cashing out at the Bellagio cage this morning.

I had turned about 10k into 35k over the course of a couple late night / early morning blackjack sessions at the tail end of all night poker sessions.

I go to the cage to cash out my chips I had accumulated this week during my trip, and the table games manager (I think that's what her name tag said) comes to me and tells me, "We are going to go ahead and cash you out, but we are flat betting you".

I just said "Ok", because it is their business and they can do whatever the hell they want -- however, if someone were to review my play they would see their is no doubt I wasn't counting. I was barely paying attention to the cards, tipping extravagantly, etc. I just like to vary my bet wildly since I have a lot of gamble and it's the only chance one has to win in my opinion. It seems they just got super lazy and thought "poker player does pretty good at blackjack, we better not let him play anymore".

Even more insulting though was the line "We are going to go ahead and cash you out... but..." Of course you are going to cash me out, I won the chips fair and square! Is that a line that is supposed to make me feel like they are doing me a favor or something???

You can be certain I will be telling everyone I know not to play at the Bellagio because if you win they won't let you play anymore.

 

Wow...thank you for sharing that story. And congratulations on your winnings.

 

no casino likes winners.

 

I'm assuming flat betting means you can't increase or decrease your bets? If so I would definitely boycott them. I guess they don't like winners.

 

That's exactly what it means. Form my experiences, I can't say I am surprised

 

Do you think that's a judgment call from the table manager, or does that call come from those watching on the cameras?
Just curious...

Congrats on your win, sorry to hear about the other news!

RICHARD

 

I think I would have asked them "why?" and then tell them what you told us. I would certainly not allow them to call me a cheat in so many words!

 

Somebody got a hair up their a$$. Screw em.

Of course, if you go in and play without your players card, they probably will not notice you - at least right away. Once you start winning, after high and low bets, they probably will.

Big babies. (bellagio that is)

 

I think I would've said, "Fine - I'll Wong-out then, anytime I wish." (and watch them freak-out!).

 

I'm confused as to why she told you they were going to flat bet you when you were cashing out at the cage....shouldn't that be something they say when you're, you know, still at the table gambling?

I guess she meant that you would only be allowed to flat bet during any future sessions?

 

LOL, that would draw a few more sets of eyeballs going forward....though since OP said he isn't counting, he would have nothing to worry about!

 

I'm assuming based on the numbers the OP posted, he was playing at a level where they will not let you gamble unless you give them a players card or an ID. They certainly won't let you cash out $35k without one

 

They probably did not reach that conclusion until the OP was finished gambling

 

Yeah must be....strange though, you would think that reviewing his play after the fact would work in the OP's favor, since he wasn't counting.

Since OP said he likes to "vary his bet wildly" I wonder if just coincidentally placing a few large bets when the count happened to be positive could trigger a flat bet mandate? I don't know exactly what the house looks for when determining to flat bet, back off, or ban a player.

 

Things may have gone better if you cashed in your chips daily. Or at least your gains.

 

who told u there flat betting u.i assume not the cage person but a floor critter or host came over and told u.it would be outta place the cage guy too.

i guess there were notes in you players account left

 

I would GUESS

That you play had similar occurrences to someone that was counting. Does not matter if you were or were not. If it looked like, perception rules.

At cage - they may have called to the table to make sure they were legit chips and the pit boss made the "flat play" statement - either serious or off the cuff which the teller then passed on. Hard to say how serious it was at that point.

Again - just guesses.

EDIT EDIT - I missed the part where a floor mgr/person came over and told him. Still, surprisin they did not say something on the floor as he cashed out.

 

Entirely possible. Or if it was DD, maybe his large bets coincidentally matched up with aces and they thought he was tracking

 

I dont blame the casinos for trying to control their losses. good for you for winning some money.

 

I had not played except for poker in a couple days, so I thought it was strange too. Someone came to the cage as I was cashing out and told me they were "flat betting" me. Was really strange, because the way I was playing even if some of my large bets coincidentally coincided with good counts, I still couldn't possibly have been profitably counting. Some (most) of my largest bets were the first few hands of shoes, I was tipping more than my expected profit from counting would be, etc. That's why it really felt like a lazy job by someone making this decision.

Someone on another board suggested they thought I was cheating, but I hadn't played in a couple of days and they would have had plenty of time to investigate that and certainly wouldn't have paid me if that was the case I wouldn't think.