The Empire Casino in Leicester Square has a loosely adhered to rule which states that in order to cashout over £500 in chips you need to either be a member or show ID. Now I have never got round to being a member and I often leave my debit card at home when I leave for the poker room, which means I often just don't take ID with me. In the past, when I've been in the happy place of approaching the cashier to cashout over £500 I've always been asked for ID but have always had the proverbial nod and the wink from the floor manager and cashed out anyway. I've always assumed that this was because they see me as a fairly regular player and a generous tipper and just chose not to give me a hard time - and this is true, ever since I started playing at The Empire, I have made it a principle of tipping the dealers virtually every single winning hand that goes beyond the flop.
Anyway, the duty of floor manager falls on the responsibilty of three members of staff; unfortunately, yesterday evening, the two reasonable ones weren't present so the duty was left to the Idiot Floor Manager (hereafter referred to as the IFM). I approached the cash desk of the poker room with a mountain of chips and asked the IFM if I could cash the chips right there and he said yes. To make it clear I told him that I had around £900 in chips but got the reply I didn't want to hear - that I couldn't cash anything over £500 without a membership card or ID. I mentioned that it hadn't been a problem in the past but this "jobs-worth" wasn't having any of it. No problem, I thought, I'd simply cashout £500 right there and then go round to the cashier at the casino section and cashout the rest there.
So with my pockets bulging, I counted out the chips. Unfortunately I made the genuine mistake of accidently placing £600 on the counter instead of £500. (The cashier, incidentally, counted this out and looked perfectly happy to cash this as she uttered £600 and was about to count out the cash - just as had occured in the past.) However, the IFM for some reason got impatient and annoyed with me and pointed out that this was not allowed. I accepted my error and went to retrieve a £100 stack so I could cash £500 BUT (get this) he then said that I wasn't allowed to cash out ANYTHING without ID!!
Now the last thing I want is a ban from The Empire and my reaction was mild in comparison to how I really felt. I started to explain that it had always been ok in the past to cashout over £500 but even so it was 100% unreasonable not to allow a player to cash £500 just because he had won more than that. I even told him how I was a regular tipper - but all this seemed to mean diddly-squat! This guy had zero awareness of customer relations, showed absolutely no sign of goodwill or reconsidering his position and, as such, now means absolutely nothing to me.
In my next post I'll explain what happened next as I struggled to cope with holding all these chips.
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