I am a busboy at a hotel and casino I work for in southern California. During my shift, I was cleaning plates and discarding food waste. I noticed a slot machine voucher ticket in the trash and was curious as to the amount. I picked it up and it was $1,200. Being honest, I panicked. $1,200 for some people is not a lot of money but for someone like me (mid thirties male, making minimum wage, little savings, engaged to be married etc) $1,200 is a lot of money. ALOT. With that kind of money my credit cards could finally be paid off and I could start saving.

I threw it in my pocket. Mind racing all day. Got home and told my fiancee I found a $1,200 voucher in the trash.

What laws am I unaware about this situation? If something is discarded in the trash, does that not mean that legally speaking the owner of the ticket did not find it to be useful to himself and discarded it? Did I technically steal if it is in the trash? The ticket is not in possession of the owner and had I not found it, it would have been piled down in with the rest and shipped out to dumpster within the hour. What am I missing here? I know I cannot gamble in the casino I work for so I cannot directly cash it out myself. But if I am legally okay, my fiancee can. However, I do not know the laws in this type of situation. Is this a misdemeanor or felon? Or because it is trash, I am now the fair owner of a discarded ticket?

What are the chances of being caught? Is it believable the owner of this ticket reported a discarded ticket to the casino and the casino would be looking for it? The owner of the ticket would needed to have a picture of the ticket number or have knowledge of the time and machine for the casino to investigate the location of the ticket.