I was told not to come back, is that serious?

[Tedlark]

Scavenging is a term given to people who cruise the Ultimate X games in casinos, they are looking for machines where players have walked away and left high value multipliers ripe for picking by scavengers. These scavengers will insert the proper amount of money to play off the multipliers in hopes of hitting a decent hand.

[billryan]

I remember a certain someone scoffing at the idea of anyone making money scavenging the game.

I assume that certain someone was me? I wasn't scoffing. I pointed out that scavenging is not a viable long term profit opportunity. My point has been proven by this post. If you find a way to beat the casino, the casino will find a way to remove you or your advantage. Anyone who is allowed to consistently "beat the casino" does so because the casino sees a benefit in allowing you to do so. If they don't, this is what eventually happens.

If people weren't beating the casino short term or long term, they wouldn't be cracking down on it.
Most places still aren't. The trouble is there are more wanna be scavngers then machines in most casinos.

[FloridaPhil]

I am not disputing the fact that there are players who can beat the machines. I am not disputing the fact that there are still a few positive VP opportunities. A casino is a business. They own the machines. They set the rules and can change them at their discretion. They even hold the right to decide who can and can not play their games.

There is no fair or unfair when it comes to a casino. They hold all the cards. If players start winning too much, things change. They may find their comps reduced. They may find the positive game they played last week is now negative. They may even find the game has been removed. Today's video poker is not the same game it was 18 years ago.

[Chicagoan]

I detest scavengers. Sometimes they even stand back in the shadows and watch a particular player, such as a senior citizen who is playing a designated budget. When the budget runs out and the senior leaves, the scavenger swoops in like a vulture and inserts just enough into the machine for one hand, catching the multipliers left by the departing player. To beat the scavenger at his own game, have enough funds available to depart when there are no multipliers. I had a security type tell me that some scavengers will sit at the machine doing nothing after a swoop in an attempt to avoid notice by the eye in the sky.

[FloridaPhil]

This scavenging thing is new to me. How desperate do you have to be to do that? Try robbing a bank, it's a lot more productive. Getting a job would work even better.

[FloridaPhil]

Here's a question for you. If you were walking behind someone in the casino and they accidentally dropped a hundred dollar bill, would you give it back or think you had gained an advantage by keeping it?

[Vman96]

This scavenging thing is new to me. How desperate do you have to be to do that? Try robbing a bank, it's a lot more productive. Getting a job would work even better.

It's the same as vulturing Ultimate X, which will lead to long term profit at VP. Even in Florida! But as we can see by this story, casinos frown upon play that leads to long term profit. Comparing it to robbing a bank is insulting though. Doing this is NOT illegal.

I do this periodically myself. I've only been warned once out of 50+ casinos I've done it in (Harrah's Joliet), but they didn't kick me out, ask for ID, or give me anything in writing.

I don't tend to "vulture" much in Vegas, competition is too great. And i'm a drunken tourist more in Vegas.

Question for the OP, which casino was this?

And since they scanned your ID, i'm not sure I would go back, casinos have facial recognition software. When they asked for it, I would have considered leaving voluntarily.

[Vman96]

Here's a question for you. If you were walking behind someone in the casino and they accidentally dropped a hundred dollar bill, would you give it back or think you had gained an advantage by keeping it?

This is not even close to the same comparison. People leave multipliers behind voluntarily constantly. People RARELY voluntarily drop $100 bills in public.

I would certainly give it back to the person that dropped it. And a majority of (definitely not all) vultures would too I bet.

[FloridaPhil]

Comparing it to robbing a bank is insulting though. Doing this is NOT illegal.

I suspect we have different standards as to what constitutes a win. I see no difference between scavenging multipliers and picking up loose tickets from the casino floor. That's not using skill or intellect to beat the game, it's receiving benefit from something you didn't earn on your own. If that's what it takes to win, I want no part of it.

[Chicagoan]

The legal term is unjust enrichment. I'm not going to sit here flapping my jaws about it because we all have our little sins, but my point in the above post was simply that I find scavengers to be the type of players who degrade the casino experience. I'm not talking about someone like Vman who I doubt does this regularly --- I'm talking about the hobo's with no funds who wander the aisles looking for 80 cents left to play on the machine, or three leftover 4's as multipliers in Ultimate X. I feel the same way about chain smokers sitting down next to me, or hopeful drunks who try to strike up a conversation when you hit a jackpot.