25 Ways to Protect Yourself Against the BAD Guys in the Casinos! - Part 4

Some casino games and some casino-hotel locales lend themselves much more readily to criminals preying upon us than do others. Gaming readers get great advice in handling the various games in the casino, but rarely do we get good advice about how to handle the variety of games criminals might play upon us in and out of the casinos. Considering that there are two ways to lose your money in a casino: One, by having bad luck when the casino's edge defeats you, and two, by having even worse luck when some criminal steals whatever money you might have won after you had good luck, here are 25 ways to protect us (the good guys) against them (the bad guys).

11. Yell "Fire!" in a Crowded Building. If you are already on your floor and walking down the hall and someone accosts you, do not yell for help. Instead, yell "FIRE!" at the top of your lungs. Very few people will physically put themselves on the firing line for someone who is being mugged, but almost everyone will run out of their rooms if they think a fire is occurring. Just keep yelling "Fire! Fire! Fire!"

12. Knock on Any Door. If you are walking down your hotel hallway and you are suspicious of the individual trailing you, stop, and knock on the door of whatever room you stopped in front of. Then knock on the door next to it. And on the one next to it. You might even mutter: "I forgot which room we're all in." Just keep knocking on doors. Some are bound to have people answer. It's a rare mugger who will wait around to see which room you really have. Muggers usually like to do their nastiness in silent secrecy.

13. Don't Trust a Key Check. Do not assume just because a casino-hotel posts security at the downstairs elevators that you are in fact secure. Some casinos make you show your room key before letting you on the elevators. This gives many an unwary hotel guest a false sense of security. It is not too difficult to get a hotel key for any hotel in Vegas, Atlantic City, or anywhere USA. The casinos rarely change their plastic key design, just the combination that opens the individual doors of the rooms. Even though a key found last week by a criminal won't open any doors, it will open the hotel floors to him. That's all he needs. Once he passes security, the hotel is his. In crowded casinos, such a bad guy will enter the elevator banks with a crowd of people, flash the outdated key, enter the elevator, notice the weakest-wealthiest prey and get off at that person's floor with him or her. So use that same sixth sense of yours when deciding to get on the elevator with individuals even if they have passed the security check point by showing a key.

14. They Look Like What They Are. One of the good things about most criminals of the street variety is that they look like criminals of the street variety. If you notice someone who looks like a criminal, assume he is a criminal. If you notice that he is headed where you are headed, then head somewhere else. If he heads that way, you head another way -- right to the security desk. Chances are the guy tailing you will head elsewhere when he realizes your dodge.

15. Box It. If you are bringing cash to a casino, never leave it in your room. Get a safe-deposit box when you check in and leave the bulk of your gambling stake in there. Take out only what you intend to use for the first session of play and for incidental things such as tips.

In the next part of this article, Frank lists five more ways to protect yourself in the casino.