One of the most important keys to running a casino is the ability to monitor and account for your cash flow. In a business with no tangible products, the only way to tell if you are making or losing money–or have a leak somewhere–is to keep tabs on every cent that comes in.
Some casinos do this better than others, though with massive governmental oversight in some states, you’d think that it’d be pretty hard for casino money to go missing. Of course, in the real world things don’t always work out that way. Witness the goldmine of cash found under the closed Sands’ slot machines, via IHT:
It is the casino equivalent of reaching under your couch cushions and finding a bit of loose change.
Only the change collected from under or around slot machines at the former Sands Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, topped $17,000 (€12,700) worth of coins.
The casino was closed last November after 30 years and will be torn down later this year to make way for a new gambling hall. So when workers began removing the 2,350 slot machines for use at other casinos owned by the Sands’ parent company, they expected to find a bit of cash.
The money belongs to Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., the Las Vegas company that purchased the Sands last year. New Jersey gets 8 percent of the money in taxes — the same as it would had the money been won from gamblers.The money was coins, casino tokens and even a $100 bill.
Some change had rolled into small spaces between machines, but most of it was found underneath them. The older-style machines contained buckets inside to hold coins that were deposited, and when they overflowed, sometimes coins rolled underneath.
But, $17,193.34 (€12,876.98) was a bit more than they had imagined.
“We never expected this much,” said Carmen Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Pinnacle Atlantic City. “It was just shocking.”
$17,000 found under old Atlantic City casino slot machines – International Herald Tribune
Funny line: “New Jersey gets 8 percent of the money in taxes — the same as it would had the money been won from gamblers.” I’ve got news for you–it was won from gamblers. What did they think–the slot fairy tucked it under there?