So there I was, in the enviable position of holding £900 worth of chips (many of which were in £5 denominations and falling all over the floor as I tried to hold them all) and not even being able to cash them! Thoughts of how on earth I was going to get them all home without getting mugged whirled through my head. But anyway, I still had the casino cashier route. I walked around to the casino area and, this time, was going to get it right. I counted out £500 in £5 chips (if I did have to take some of these chips home at least they were going to be £25 ones and so less to carry). In my anxiety I kept dropping them on the floor and God knows how I didn't lose half of them.
I finally approached the desk, barely able to hold onto the £500 in £5 chips, and just about managed to place them on the counter. Unfortunately, as I was bumbling away with these chips, the cashier spotted the others that I tried to hide in my haste. Immediately I thought, here we go again - these guys are just not going to let me cashout my winnings without ID - why the hell do they go out of their way to make it so awkward!?
However, far from giving me a hard time, this guy asked if I wanted to cash those as well! When I mentioned the £500 rule he told me it was ok - I only had to show ID if I had won over £1500! All he asked me to do was write my name down on a piece of paper with my date of birth! The relief that this gave to me was immense and the gratitude I showed to this fellow as he counted out my £900 in cash was enormous.
As I put the money in my wallet the absurdity of the situation sunk in. Why would the IFM prevent a poker player from cashing out winnings when you could just take the chips round to the casino and cash them out anyway? What the hell was his problem? Part of me wanted to go back to the poker room and talk through the ridiculousness of the situation to the IFM - but then I just thought that this guy would probably interpret this as gloating. I concluded that he wasn't worth educating and was probably more happy to wallow in his own ignorance anyway.
In my next post I'll do a very quick report on how it went afterwards at the 7PM, £35 freezeout at The Fox.
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