The Give Up Wallet

Paranoid or just cautious? When playing blackjack I carry a "give-up" wallet; the real one stays in the room safe. This is for any mugger type who has decided he needs my money more than me. We’ve all heard or read the (admittedly infrequent) stories about robberies in gaming towns. This is my precaution.

I took an old wallet and some expired credit cards. I cut the name and account number off the cards and glued them into the pockets of the wallet so they look and feel real. I added some obsolete business cards, old photos for the little windows, and some of those "You have already been pre-approved" cards that clutter the junk mail. I use friends’ cards that they save for me - nothing has my name on it.

Adding roughly twenty singles give the wallet a fat, healthy appearance, and I use this money for meal tips, a candy bar, etc. When cashing out I take the wallet out of my hip pocket at the cage, motion that I’m putting my winnings in but palming the folded bills. As the wallet goes back in the hip pocket (and securely buttoned!) the bills are dumped in my opposite coat pocket - one smooth motion as I turn away from the window. I’ve had friends watch this and they say it’s hard to see - looks natural. I figure that if anyone’s casing a winner this is the place they’ll stake out - the cage, but from a distance. Buy-ins are just the opposite; palming bills from another pocket (pre-sorted buy-in packets) I remove the wallet and "extract" the bills. I want anyone watching to think that this wallet is the source of all my money. Additional buy-ins at the table come from yet another pocket, with the wallet out.

My funds are stashed and spread in many different locations on my person and redistributed when back in the room.