Norm Wattenberger: Carrying large amounts of cash through airports

[Norm Wattenberger]

This question was asked elsewhere. I thought I'd repeat my answer here and expand on it.

This is a complex question. Rick Blaine discusses it briefly in Blackjack Blueprint (excellent book for such questions) and has discussed it more deeply in private forums. A few comments garnered from his long experience:

1. Avoid carrying large amounts of cash. (that one?s obvious.)
2. If you must, carry a letter from your lawyer or attorney stating the amount of cash that you have and its purpose. Return trips are a bit more complex but can be handled.
3. Remember that it?s not just that you might have your funds temporarily confiscated, but that when they are returned ? they may have been skimmed.
4. Carry past income tax returns to indicate that you are in fact a pro gambler.
5. In extreme cases, explain the situation to security personnel in advance.
6. Don?t hide the cash. This is something I always agree with. Never act like a criminal.

In my mind, the most important concept of getting through airports quickly is to look natural. The same concept that aids you in casinos.

For that let me go to an old story from my own silly experiences. Metal detectors were first installed in airports in 1973 in response to hijackings. I traveled heavily in those years. I also had hair halfway down my back in those days. (A Caesar?s PB once mistook me for Jimmy Page. If I could have faked a British accent, I could have had a free suite to trash.) I was never (not once) searched by the airport guards. But businessmen in suit and ties often were. I remember them making angry comments like ?What, you let the hippy through and search me?? Of course I loved it. The fact is that I didn?t look nervous. As a ?long-hair? I was stopped hundreds of times and searched head to toe by cops just walking down the street on the way to work. I was used to it. In the 60?s as a teen, I also walked through security into IBM and other companies and used their computers acting as if I belonged. Computers were very rare in those days and I ?borrowed? computers at every chance.

The point is that security people don?t have time to check every person. They look for signs of nervousness. Lack of eye contact, sweaty palms and upper lip, tense muscles, strained voice, jerky motions, clenched jaw, grinding teeth, slight muscle spasms, flushed skin. As these are automatic responses, it is very difficult to control your body?s reaction to stress. Under stress, can you say that you do not exhibit any one of these signs? The only sure-fire way is to not feel stress in the first place.

The same goes for casino play.

[Christopher]

To choose or not to choose to do the righ thing, that's the question in regard to the use of the national banks, traveller cheques, or cold cash.

Why take the risk of getting caught with big bucks in person while traveling around the country? Except for the privacy reason, why not use a national bank (such as BoA or a bank on the list below) to be your bag man?

Here are a handful of national banks:

Wells Fargo Bank

U.S. Savings Bank

Colonial Bank

Citibank

BoA Bank

Chase Bank

OK, if banks are not your cup of tea, then use some stacks of $1,000-American Express Travelers Cheques. There are no fees if you buy them with an AAA-visa credit card.

OK, Ok... if you want to beat the IRS with the untraceable cash only stuff, then take your chance with the crooked-railroading-cops at airports or on the roads.

Norm's body double

[oldnewbie]

This brings up something I have been thinking about. We actually had a winning trip last December, and I came home with about $3500 in cash split between me and the wife. I know this may not seem like much to you pro's, but it was a small fortune to us. All gotten leagally, of course. We could have deposited it in our Wells Fargo account in Vegas, and probably will if this ever happens again.

My question is, at what level of cash deposit do the Feds get curious? I have heard it is $10,000. Is that right? And what is the procedure that is followed?

Just wondering.

-Oldnewbie

[Christopher]

$10,000.01 will get a gambler's info to the Fed. However in actual practice, there's no specific amounts of cash deposits/withdrawals from which the Fed is tipped off by banks/casinos. Tip-offs to Fed could be any amounts structured by gamblers & caught by banks/casinos? computers. For example, several years ago, Bank of America hired some expert computer programmers (?consultants?) to combat its customers who structured cash deposits/withdrawals. These consultants claim that 95% is the success rate to catch the structuring customers. Say if you were a Bank of America?s customer who breaks down your $11,000 winnings into many deposits of $400 each, you would think you could beat the Fed? Wrong, the Bank?s computer program is designed to catch multi-structured-deposits easily. If any of you gamblers out there got caught structuring, now you know why and how.

So what happens when the Fed gets tipped off about a suspicious customer like a gambler or Governor Spitzer? Not good, obviously. The local IRS district office near the customer will handle an investigation. As in the case of Gov. Spitzer, the District Office near his hometown handled the case, and the rest is history.

> This brings up something I have been thinking about.
> We actually had a winning trip last December, and I
> came home with about $3500 in cash split between me
> and the wife. I know this may not seem like much to
> you pro's, but it was a small fortune to us. All
> gotten leagally, of course. We could have deposited it
> in our Wells Fargo account in Vegas, and probably will
> if this ever happens again.

> My question is, at what level of cash deposit do the
> Feds get curious? I have heard it is $10,000. Is that
> right? And what is the procedure that is followed?

> Just wondering.

> -Oldnewbie

[Blackjack Mauler]

> $10,000.01 will get a gambler's info to the Fed.
> However in actual practice, there's no specific
> amounts of cash deposits/withdrawals from which the
> Fed is tipped off by banks/casinos. Tip-offs to Fed
> could be any amounts structured by gamblers &
> caught by banks/casinos’ computers. For example,
> several years ago, Bank of America hired some expert
> computer programmers (“consultants”) to combat its
> customers who structured cash deposits/withdrawals.
> These consultants claim that 95% is the success rate
> to catch the structuring customers. Say if you were a
> Bank of America’s customer who breaks down your
> $11,000 winnings into many deposits of $400 each, you
> would think you could beat the Fed? Wrong, the Bank’s
> computer program is designed to catch
> multi-structured-deposits easily. If any of you
> gamblers out there got caught structuring, now you
> know why and how.

> So what happens when the Fed gets tipped off about a
> suspicious customer like a gambler or Governor
> Spitzer? Not good, obviously. The local IRS district
> office near the customer will handle an investigation.
> As in the case of Gov. Spitzer, the District Office
> near his hometown handled the case, and the rest is
> history.

So, am I to understand that BofA spent depositors money to hire consultants to investigate it's own depositors in order to go beyond the implimentation of federal guidelines? Yet another reason not to use BofA.

[oldnewbie]

Christopher: Thanks for the response. I'm not sure I'll need to worry about it, but it's best to be prepared.

Especially after the last trip. We won a bundle on the slots, even the ones at the airport! So you never know.

Thanks again,
-Oldnewbie

[Christopher]

> So, am I to understand that BofA spent depositors
> money to hire consultants to investigate it's own
> depositors in order to go beyond the implimentation of
> federal guidelines? Yet another reason not to use
> BofA.

Bank of America does not mean to screw its customers intentionally. Banks are required to be in compliance with the CTR law. Big banks (like BoA, Deutsche, Wells Fargo) get an annual CTR-compliance-audit by one of the big four independent auditors: PricewaterhouseCoopers, ? KPMG, Ernst & Young, or Deloitte. If big banks don?t hire those ?consultants? to implement their ?INTERNAL CONTROL against structurists?, then the Auditors will have a tough time to pass their clients. After the Enron scandals, the Auditors will not go along easily with their clients, unless they want to be lined up like the dead Andersen. BTW, Andersen was Enron's crooked independent auditor, and it was the 5th biggest auditing firm in the world.

To choose or not to choose the right bank for you as a gambler, that can be pretty important to you down the road?Just think of Gov Spitzer? a bank triggered off his downfall. So if you don?t like BoA, then use your commonsense to pick a suitable one for yourself. Good luck in your bank hunting.

[Dog Hand]

Just hide your $300,000 above the ceiling tiles in your dorm room! ;-)

Dog Hand

[21forme]

> Just hide your $300,000 above the ceiling tiles in
> your dorm room! ;-)

> Dog Hand
How stupid was that? Mr. 1600 SAT, 44 MCAT never heard of safe deposit boxes?!

[Don Schlesinger]

> How stupid was that? Mr. 1600 SAT, 44 MCAT never heard
> of safe deposit boxes?!

The question is: Was it authentic, or just another dumb misrepresentation of the facts?

Don