Wayne (Murph),

Up front let me say that there are indeed two schools of thought on the harvesting of roulettes. One school suggests (although that may be stated too softly) that roulette harvesting is stealing! The obvious reason being that many casinos offer reduced rate roulette in the late and wee hours with the same chips. For example, Monday - Thursday between the hours of 2 am and 6 am the Colorado Belle in Laughlin reduces the rate at one table from $1 per chip to .25 cents per chip. They do not change the chips, just the terms of buying-in. The chips bought for .25 cents could be re-introduced into the game at the $1 per chip rate, and if such a chip wins, then the casino just lost money.

The other school of thought suggests that it is not stealing because the pilfered chips are going into a collection somewhere and therefore will not be coming back into the casino. Consequently, there is no monetary threat to the casino. The ends justify the means.

If you are past the idea that harvesting roulettes is akin to stealing, and you have a healthy respect for the fact that the casinos do not want the roulettes to leave the tables, it remains then to figure out a way for the chips to leave, and this is what I have heard.

As stated earlier in this thread, you can buy-in for multiple stacks. Slow play with one stack and wait for a dealer change. The incoming dealer has no idea how many you bought-in for, so if you DISCRETELY pocket a stack (during the dealer change) and then turn-in what is left, you will have acquired a whole stack.

If you want to acquire in smaller quantities, go to a busy table. Buy-in and place your bets minus what you want to keep (which you would palm into your pocket). When the number comes up, make certain you are not a winner (if you are its a good thing) and if not, then walk away. When the dealer comes up short after sorting this busy table, you are long gone. BTW - If you win, take the time to palm off more. If you hit 20, then the dealer is not likely to notice. If you have less than twenty but want to cash in, then you risk the dealer noticing, unless you wait for a dealer change and then cash in.

Do not ask the other players (mates) to sell you chips. IT CANNOT BE DONE DISCRETELY!

Another technique for acquiring chips in low quantities from several roulette tables at once is to buy them from the cocktail girls. Many times a roulette table or two is in close proximity to other table games (like blackjack) and the entire "pit" area is serviced by one cocktail girl. Tokes (tips) from the roulette players are usually done as roulette chips, which are turned in by the coacktail girls for house chips. They do this with the Pit Boss, but only after they have acquired several chips. You can offer to buy those chips from the cocktail girl at a higher rate than face value, say $5 for 4 of them. And if you position yourself at a table (blackjack for instance) that is after the roulette tables, she will deliver them to you each and every time she makes her rounds.

Note however that the subject line for this post is "slippery slope". Roulette collecting is a whole catagory of chip acquisition that cannot be done on your own. You must trade with others in order to expand your own collection. This means you must acquire traders in large quantities, although initial efforts are typically done using the small quantity technique, which I call the short-stack snatch, or SSS for short.

This of course starts one on the slippery slope to FSS. FSS is the full-stack snatch.

Good luck, and be cautious.

Jim