VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: You’re Allowed to Cash Out a Slot You Didn’t Play

EDITOR’S NOTE: “Vegas Myths Busted” publishes new entries every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition. Today’s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on April 7, 2023.

Last week, TikTok creator @ileana.justine posted a video documenting what she called her favorite casino game: “Walking around and collecting all of the leftover cash people leave on their machines and seeing how much I can get.”

After half an hour of scouring slots for abandoned cash-out vouchers, she turned up $7.28. The video earned her 4 million views and a possible future indictment.

Nowadays, many jurisdictions that allow gaming consider it either a misdemeanor or felony theft, depending on the value of the vouchers.

Behind Bars

So far, @ileana.justine is still cranking out TikToks, not license plates in prison. But in 2004, a Colorado man was reportedly convicted of misdemeanor fraud for using a 76-cent credit left in a slot machine by a previous user. A.J. Werling claims he inserted his own $20 bill, not even realizing the credit was already there.

Werling was fined $500 and forced to perform 24 hours of community service.

“It’s been a nightmare,” he told KDVR-TV/Denver in 2017. “I’m not a criminal. It’s ridiculous. It’s 76 cents … I still have to deal with … having to go over what transpired for jobs, apartments, anything that requires a background check. I have to disclose why I have a gambling theft conviction on my record.”

As for @ileana.justine, she reassured her fans with the following comment: “Nobody needs to worry. I had my lawyer check into the legality. It wasn’t illegal in the state I was in.”

Finders Keepers is Not the Law

It isn’t common in Nevada, but the state district attorney has previously prosecuted criminal cases based on slot ticket theft.

One of two statutes applies. NRS 205.0832 prohibits someone who “comes into control of lost, mislaid, or misdelivered property of another person” and “appropriates that property to his or her own use, or that of another person, without reasonable efforts to notify the true owner.”

NRS 465.070 states that it is unlawful “to claim, collect, or take — or attempt to claim, collect, or take — money or anything of value in or from a gambling game … without having made a wager.”

After that, the voucher expires and becomes unclaimed property. According to a law passed in 2011, the state general fund gets 75% of each abandoned ticket’s win, collected by the Nevada Gaming Control Board every quarter. The casino keeps 25% for administrative costs.

In the fiscal year 2022, Nevada players abandoned $22 million in unclaimed tickets.

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