My friend Andy called me the other day to tell me about an experience he had after his last casino visit. He told me he had lost his wallet. I asked him how it happened. He told me that he had been playing Blackjack. When he went to the cage to cash in his chips he put the money in his wallet but instead of putting the wallet in to his pants pocket, he slipped it into the pocket of the jacket he was wearing.

Before he got in his car to drive home he took off the jacket and threw it on the passenger seat of the car. When he got home he put the jacket back on and noticed that his wallet was not in the pocket. He searched his car looking for the wallet thinking that maybe it had not fallen on the floor but it was not there.

He said he was making a list of the contents of the wallet so he could report his missing cards when he received a phone call from his credit card company telling him that someone had just tried using his credit card to purchase two IPods online. Since shipping address was different than the billing address on the account the fraud division got the notification and they were calling to confirm if he had made the purchase. He explained that he had just lost his wallet and the credit card that was used. The authorities were contacted and went to the address to investigate. As it turned out the wallet was found by two 11 year old boys who decided that they would order the IPods and have them shipped to their house without realizing that they would be caught.

My friend got his wallet back and the authorities are dealing with the "young criminals." All of this could have been avoided if Andy had been a little more diligent in protecting his wallet by not just slipping it into a jacket pocket when he left the cashier's cage. Whenever you go to the casino (or anywhere else) you have to take care to protect yourself and your money. Here are a few safety tips to follow.