Swindled by casino?

I wonder if anything like this has happened to any of you. Last night, an outing to the local bar with a colleague turns into a spur of the moment trip to Atlantic City. I play some blackjack at the Tropicana and am up $100+. After a while, the table switches from $15 minimum to $25. My colleague and I decide to leave, so we color up. This is where the minor disaster occurs. I know I have eight or nine green $25 chips plus a stack of $5 chips. I should have close to $300. I get back $175. My mistake was that I didn't really pay attention to the dealer while he was coloring up, but once I got my chips, I obviously pointed out that I should've gotten more. The dealer disagrees. So does the pit boss, who insists that I received the right amount. Another pit boss eventually calls for a surveillance camera review. At this point, I'm hopeful that the mistake is going to be resolved. And then the pit boss comes by and says, nope, the camera shows that I got the right amount of chips. I'm 100% sure this cannot be true. It's not exactly advanced math to know that I was up about $100, that I had eight or nine green chips. I didn't feel like I had any recourse, so I left. I was, of course, pretty angry. I called the Tropicana today and the people on the phone were actually fairly nice, but I'm supposed to call back later tonight when the same "shift managers" who ostensibly reviewed the surveillance tape should be in. I remain very doubtful that I'll ever see my money. But I wonder if this was an orchestrated scam (if so, why all the fuss for a measly $100) or a weird series of mistakes. Either way, pretty damn annoying.

Nope, all done by the pitboss over the phone. Added to the sketchiness factor.


Yeah, I felt completely powerless. And it did strike me as odd that they would scam me for such a small sum. On the other hand, I'm really not sure how it was an innocent mistake.


Yeah, I thought it was odd that I wasn't grandfathered in. I asked, and the pitboss just said that the minimum went up.

Completely unexpected outcome: I called the casino a few times, spoke to the right people, and they admitted they owe me $150. They took my name and DOB and the money's waiting for me when I return. I might call today and see if they'll mail me the money.

Yup. The shift managers were way friendlier and more helpful than the cranky pit bosses. Since I sounded like a reasonable person who might know how many green chips he had in his hand, they looked at the video again. They said that the dealer didn't even get authorization for my color-up. Of course, I know exactly how this will play out: I'll go, get my $150, and lose it all in twenty minutes. Ahh well.