Visitreno

[CaSwede]

About 4 years ago I was playing at the GSR and a guy a few machines down hit a royal flush playing at the $.50 for $2,000. The payoff team came over and I noticed not much progress. I walked over there and listened to the crew asking for an I.D. and social security # for tax purposes. It was obvious that his English was limited, and all he said over and over was - "no taxes". I kept watching to see what would happen, but he just kept repeating- "no taxes". They brought over more people until there were about 8 employees around the guy. The next thing I noticed was he got up- and walked out the front door....no $$$. I am sure he was not legal and just decided to get out of there. I always wonder what the GSR did with that money?

Well- I found a story about a lady that did not walk out the door . See what happened to her......

http://news.yahoo.com/video/woman-deported-winning-arizona-casino-220602022.html

[Mammothgambler]

That's crazy! But I have heard of it happening. Whatever the GSR did with that money, it very evidently didn't go back into remodeling their rooms or hiring quality staff (ha! sorry, had to throw that in!) I'm almost thinking I heard a story about that happening to someone at the Peppermill years back when they still had the Wheel of Fortunes.

I also remember another story some years back about a man who had the winning ticket on a Powerball lottery. He was in jail at the time and once all was said and done, he got nothing! Apparently his winnings were held for missed child support payments and all the other people he cheated.

I guess the moral of the story is, don't gamble if you're illegal, or have done anything illegal!

Mammothgambler

[dfens]

I think the official thing GSR is supposed to do is tell the person that they will hold onto their jackpot until they bring back proper id. Usually the casino will photograph the jackpot winner so they can verify it's the same person coming back. If the person doesn't have a tax id number they can show up with the id they used to get into the country (ie passport) but the jackpot will have the taxes withheld.

I used to do law enforcement and search&rescue. When we get involved in anything we typically ask for id to ensure safety (so if something happened there's a name to follow up with). After helping out a disabled boat I asked for id from the three individuals onboard and they admitted they didn't have id because they came to the country illegally. Of course, if they just said they left it at home I wouldn't have pressed the matter but because they admitted guilt I had to get CBP involved and they were deported.

What's crazy about this particular story is that the id was valid but the law enforcement agency went out of their way to check for residency status. Granted, I have no idea what id they used but it seems a little peculiar that the law enforcement agency went out of their way to check for residency.

Oh wait, it's not surprising.. This took place in Arizona, home of Sheriff Joe!