Man accused of cashing fake gaming chips at Las Vegas casinos

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A man is accused of passing counterfeit gaming chips at several Las Vegas casinos, leading to his arrest, according to documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained.

Gratis Woolen, Jr., 54, faces 14 felonies, including burglary and possession of unlawful instruments, for allegedly trying to pass counterfeit chips at several Las Vegas casinos, documents said.

In January 2023, an employee at Harrah’s Las Vegas Hotel and Casino notified the Nevada Gaming Control Board about a woman who was reportedly using a counterfeit gaming chip, documents said. Before the investigator arrived at Harrah’s, a person at the Cosmopolitan notified the board about a man, later identified as Woolen, who was also allegedly using fake $100 gaming chips.

That night, Woolen allegedly presented several counterfeit chips to the Cosmopolitan cashier cage, exchanging them for several hundred dollars, documents said.

The gaming board investigator later reviewed the chips, finding they had a Golden Gate sticker on them, documents said.

“Some of the Golden Gates stickers were peeling, which revealed a solid black face underneath the sticker,” an investigator said. “The chips were easily identified as counterfeit, as legitimate chips are a solid piece of ceramic without external decorations, such as stickers and paint.”

Another investigator noted “the ‘inserts’ of the counterfeit chips were off… and also had an abnormal ‘bump’ underneath,” documents said.

In all, Woolen and the woman, whose name was redacted in court documents, are accused of using the counterfeit chips at several gaming establishments, documents said.  Woolen received several hundreds of dollars in the exchange of the counterfeit chips, officials alleged.

In one exchange, at the LINQ Hotel and Experience, a cashier “attempted to verify [the chip] but [it] ‘did not look like a good chip,’” the cashier told investigators according to court documents. “[The cashier] then asked her manager to verify, to which he said to not take it. [The cashier] then gave the chip back to the [woman] and said to ‘take it back to Golden Gate.’”

Gaming board investigators said Woolen had a history of a similar incident in 2014 and 2018, documents said.

On Wednesday, April 10, officers responded to a motel on Las Vegas Boulevard for a disturbance involving Woolen, Las Vegas Metro police said. While speaking with Woolen, they found he had warrants out for his arrest.

During his initial court appearance, Judge Melissa Stratton released Woolen on $1,000 bail with electronic monitoring. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for April 25.

Gaming investigators did not say from where Woolen allegedly received the chips or if he manufactured them himself.

A file photo of gaming chips is presented in this article for reference purposes.