News

Wednesday, 09 June 2010 08:41

Counterfeiting casino chips is every bit as illegal as printing counterfeit money, as a man living in Missouri found out this week after being caught.

The counterfeiter, 50 year old William Reece Lancaster, was sentenced to five years probation after he pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him. His crime was being caught taking chips away from his local gambling establishment and then altering them and making them appear to be more valuable than they were in their original state. In fact, Lancaster admitted taking chips worth just 25 cents each from the casino. He then went about bleaching and dying them a different colour so they closely resembled the much higher value $500 chips. He then returned to the casino with the counterfeit chips and used them to exchange for cash and also to use them for playing in an effort to win real chips.

Unfortunately, the ruse was soon uncovered by casino security staff after they began to notice an increase in the amount of $500 chips that were in circulation at the casino. Using surveillance video they identified Lancaster after observing him using a number of the large denomination chips that were then found to be fakes.

The court ordered that in addition to his five year probation sentence, Lancaster serve the first six months under home detention and ordered him to repay a restitution sum of $70,000. He agreed to begin that restitution by paying $7,000 in cash plus $1,600 in real gambling chips he had in his possession at the time.

Lancaster could have faced up to ten years in jail for the offence, but was given the lower sentence after admitting that he is suffering from a form of pathological gambling. The probation terms mean that he will have to refrain from all forms of gambling, stay clear of any gambling establishment and also receive the appropriate professional treatment for the condition.

After a full inventory inspection, the casino that had been used by Lancaster to recycle his forged chips found that around 40 percent of their $500 chips were in fact counterfeit. It is well worth noting that online casinos could never suffer from a similar situation. This is because their digital chips cannot be physically tampered with in any way. Peace of mind for both online gamblers and casinos alike.