Since Vegas is a resort destination, there are families with kids staying in the hotels. By design, access to the hotels, restaurants, and other amenities requires people—including minors—to pass through casino areas. That’s why Vegas doesn’t ID people for age at the door. Instead, security, dealers, and waitresses all play a part in IDing people who are loitering in the gaming areas, especially those who are ordering drinks or gambling.
Now go to the Midwest. These are not resort destinations with kids playing at the pool and riding rollercoasters. Before you can enter the “riverboat,” you must pass through a checkpoint. Some of these checkpoints have turnstiles to count visitors for business or tax purposes. All of these checkpoints have security, and if you look young, under 50 years old, you’ll get IDed. For an AP, this is a stressful moment.
Prevention is the best medicine. There are a number of tricks you can try that definitely help reduce the chance of getting IDed. First of all, dress older. Do not wear an Affliction T-shirt, a Hollister sweatshirt, Chuck T sneakers, True Religion jeans, or any of that trendy junk (or am I already a decade behind the fashion?). Look at the kids in line at the LA and Vegas clubs. Don’t dress like them. Dress like an old person, or, like a sick, degenerate gambler. And tie your shoes. Untied shoes make you look younger.
Next, when you go in, don’t look happy. Kids going to a casino or nightclub have a happy, excited look, like school kids starting summer vacation. Fun is for kids. Kids get IDed. You want to look like you’re going to a casino not to have fun, but because you’re a degenerate. I think the ideal look when going into the casino is to look tired, unshaven, and miserable, like you don’t even want to be there. Casino personnel, especially pit bosses, love that look; it relaxes them.
Carry chips in your hand, and make sure the checkpoint guard can see them or hear you clicking them. But don’t look happy. When you are about to pass the guard, don’t hesitate or look evasive, but don’t try to rush past him, either. You just have to look confident and give a slight nod of acknowledgment, remembering that you are too tired and miserable for a full-blown “Hello.”
Don’t go in with a group of young people, because then the guard just reverts to: “ID all of ’em.” It does help to go in after a group of young people, so that you are not associated with them, but the guard is still busy IDing them while you confidently pass by with the attitude that that IDing business has nothing to do with you.
Another trick is to walk up to the security checkpoint, and without trying to pass through, ask the guard for some casino-related help. For instance, flash a player’s card in the air and ask, “My card is supposed to be Platinum. Can I get a reprint in the pavilion or is the Player’s Club on the boat?” Or, “Can I just give my player’s card at the steakhouse, or do I have to go to the pit to get a comp slip?” Or, “Is valet parking free with my Diamond card?” Or, “My wife is coming tomorrow and she’s going to need a wheelchair. Can I get one here?” It doesn’t matter whether the question has anything to do with the security guy’s job. You’re trying to talk the talk of a long-time degenerate.
After establishing a rapport with that guard, exhibiting your casino experience and lack of fear, leave briefly, then return and attempt to pass through the checkpoint manned by that same guard.
Despite your best efforts, you may be IDed. Some places will simply look at the ID to verify age, some will copy the ID information into a log, others will swipe it through a card reader, and others will photoscan it. Whatever they do should not come as a surprise to you, because you should have done your homework by asking around, or by sending in a young-looking, expendable civilian to get IDed intentionally in order to ascertain the procedures. For instance, at the former Empress Joliet, not only would they scan your ID, but they’d tell you to stand on a dot and pose for the overhead camera!
If you have time, such as a few days before a major play, go through the checkpoint a few times visibly, to the point where the guards know you on sight. You want them to recognize you as a regular, but not know your name. There are many casinos where I enjoy this status. Try to find out their shift schedules.
If your ID does get logged or scanned on the way in, and you expect to make an AP play that can trigger heat, realize that the pit will use the entry logs to try to identify you. One minor thing you can do (it’s a free roll), is to leave the casino once your ID has been logged, greeting the guard on the way out so that when you return, he’ll remember you and not ID you. Then wait 10 minutes to a few hours, re-enter with the same guard, and pray that he doesn’t ID you this time. If not, then you can play your target game, and if the casino rolls back the tape to your most recent entry, they’ll see no ID check. These tricks may not work if the casino is slow with very few logged IDs. They don’t see many Las Vegas IDs in Peoria.
If all else fails, there is a Plan B that will solve this problem, but it’s a longer-term plan that will take a bit of set-up—about 30 years of set-up to be safe.
There are some places that I consider “tough but fair.” They will nearly always ID you, but you can get a stamp on the way out and they will always let you back in with no ID and a flash of the stamp. I like to get the stamp and then come back an hour or so later at these places. And then there are places that are just ridiculous. I use to regularly go to a small riverboat. They would ID me hard every time even though they knew me. They scan it, ask questions, everything. Then they would give me a stamp, but the stamp was completely meaningless. I could leave and return with a stamp but have to go through the same ID process. One day I left and returned twice. Came back a 3rd time and showed 2 stamps from the same day – no good still got IDed. Another time I passed the check point but had to go back to my car to get something. I mention this to the guard as I leave. Less than 10 minutes later I come back to the same guard and try to walk past but he stops me. There is no way he doesn’t remember me. There are about 20 people on the boat all about 50 years older than me. During the couple minutes I am standing in front of him I ranted about the purpose of stamps and capabilities of human memory. I got some dirty looks, as he continued to go through the motions.
A year or so ago I was playing in Blackhawk CO. Their procedure is to put a bracelet on you once you have been ID’d. At one point I had maybe 10-15 bracelets on from different properties. At one property I returned later in the day only to be asked to see ID. I show them their property bracelet along with the others. His response…I still need to see your ID those could be fake. I then I had two bracelets from the same property. Some guards take their jobs very seriously.
On the other hand I was automatically given a bracelet without having to show ID at quite a few places. The guards all thought it was funny I had so many of them.
Zerg,
Some jurisdictions require ID check of anyone looking under certain age. The may take this law very seriously and ID whether they know your age or not. The enforcement group that oversees the casino may not know you are old enough even when the casino does but believe you look young enough that they should have demanded ID.
Nice observations.
One casino I play at in the mid west has an “oldies” line where they don’t ID.
I must be getting old!
James, this is the first time I had visited your blog in a while so I was concerned when Anthony mentioned you had been Ill.
Hope everything is OK and you are feeling much better.
D.
The casinos near me use scanners that accept an ID similar to placing a bill into a slot machine. An easy way to avoid having your ID scanned is to carry a US passport. The guards are used to seeing them; so, no one with a pen to record your information gets involved. I imagine this would work in a lot of casinos.
The only time we (husband and wife) have ever been “IDed” is late at night upon using the room elevators. It’s strange that only certain casino-hotels do this at all. Mostly the upper class like Wynn and Venetian and also Boyd off-Strip. Luxor did it when it was new, as it was a big-deal to use the “sideways inclinator” to access rooms.
John Hirschtick of the MIT Blackjack Team grew out his beard while playing blackjack to change his appearance, wore a watch, and had special clothes.
Unfortunately for me, I am extremely baby faced and get ID checked frequently, which becomes a problem if a casino company is on the lookout for me.