State casino revenues dip in October, with MGM Springfield showing slight reduction. Nationally, gaming revenue was down 36.5% through the first nine months of 2020. Every square foot of the casino is analyzed, measured, and reported on by the casino gaming department. Traffic patterns are monitored and value is placed on certain areas of the casino to determine which slots or games to place in that area. Usually, the highest yield slots are placed in the most popular locations in the casino.
With movies like Ocean's Eleven, Now You See Me, and American Hustle so popular among the general public, it's no wonder that curiosities about real casino heists are such an interest. Not all of the heists in recent history sound as if they had been pulled straight from a movie, but even those without the Hollywood luster do not lack excitement. In no particular order, here are the 10 of the most incredible casino heists in history.
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1. Stardust Casino – 1992
One of the most brazen heists in relatively recent history is the theft from the Stardust casino in 1992. William 'Bill' Brennan worked at the now closed Stardust Casino in Las Vegas as a sports book cashier. Brennan was 34 at the time of the theft, which was considered the largest of its time, and a native of Pennsylvania.
He was described as a wholesome guy who kept to himself, and seemed to fly a bit under the radar in social situations. His position as somewhat of a wallflower may have contributed to his thinking when he tried to get away with strolling out the casino doors with over $500,000 worth of chips and cash. And maybe he was right. Brennan, with dozens of charges against him and a warrant out for his arrest, has not been seen or heard from since the night of the heist.
2. Infamous Bellagio Heist of 2000
A few years later, in 2000, a group of men sporting body armor and wielding guns stole somewhere around $160,000 in chips and cash from the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, after they hopped over the cashier counter and made a frenzied grab at whatever they could get their hands on. Unlike Bill Brennan, Jose Miguel Vigoa, Luis Suarez, Oscar Sanchez Cisneros, then 40, 35, and 23 respectively, were arrested in connection to the robbery.
As they rushed to make their getaway, one of the thieves allegedly fired a shot at one of the casino security guards, but thankfully no one was injured. Two of the men were active in the robbery, and one acted as a lookout. Vigoa, the resident senior of the trio, has a long rap sheet of previous robberies, and the killing two armored truck drivers. He pleaded guilty to the charges brought on by the Bellagio heist, but not before staging an escape attempt from the jail he was being held at. Cisneros took his own life in his detention center cell four months after the robbery by hanging himself with one of his bedsheets.
Suarez was forced to pay $150,000 in reparations on top of the 15-year sentence that he was to serve. After this robbery, MGM resort casinos began to install bars on each of its cashier cages in casinos along the Strip.
3. Bellagio Heist Take 2 – Biker Bandit Robbery of 2010
The Bellagio seems to be a hotspot for heist attempts. Most recently, being the site of the 'Biker Bandit Robbery' in 2010. Anthony Carleo, age 29, rode up to the doors of the Bellagio, walked up to the craps table, pulled his gun, and demanded that the dealers hand over the chips. Instead of sticking to taking one chip denomination, he took whichever he laid his eyes on. His highest denomination being chips worth $25,000. He made a clean getaway on his motorcycle, but his first mistake came when he fell victim to his own hubris when he tried to sell the high denomination chips on an online poker site. He used the email address [email protected], a tongue in cheek way of bragging about his crime. He signed the emails as the ‘biker bandit', getting wrapped up in his feeling of invincibility.
Third casino in singapore open. Singapore is located in Southeast Asia. The country is composed of 60 small islands and a big one. There are about 5.4 million inhabitants in this country. The capital is Singapore City. There are two gambling establishments in Singapore. The Marina Bay Sands in Singapore City is a gigantic casino located in the heart of the city.
He returned to the Bellagio to try to sell the chips to fellow gamblers, but made his second and fatal mistake when he tried to make a transaction with an undercover member of the Metro Police. His arrest came seven weeks after his theatrical heist, and was sentenced to nine to twenty-seven years in prison, for both the Bellagio theft, and a theft he'd made at the Suncoast Casino only a few days before his heist at the Bellagio.
4. Treasure Island Robberies of 2000 – The 3 Stooges Reincarnate
The Treasure Island robberies in 2000 were something of a Three Stooges version of a casino heist. Reginald Johnson is on record in connection with four separate theft attempts made on the Treasure Island resort in Las Vegas. The first two thefts were uneventful and largely unsuccessful. The third started with a shot fired at the security guard on his way to the cashier, which brought some attention to Johnson as you could imagine. Another shot was fired, and he fled from the cashier empty handed. The security guard was left injured, but made a recovery.
Johnson was picked up by police walking down Lake Mead Boulevard mere hours after his botched attempt. Johnson attempted once more to rob Treasure Island, and made out with around $30,000 after firing two shots at the security guards. He was soon arrested, and pled guilty to all of the robberies in January of 2001. Johnson was sentenced that year to 130 years in prison, one of the longest prison sentences ever given for a robbery, after a chaotic sentencing hearing in which Johnson laughed at video evidence of him shooting a security guard, and had several outbursts.
5. James Bond 'wannabes' Take to London Casinos
But casino heists aren't limited to the borders of the United States. In 2000, a trio of amateur James Bond in Casino Royale Londoners planned and executed one of the most high-tech casino robberies of all time. They outfitted themselves with equipment fit for a spy, including one member of the trio that was strapped with a camera that fed the footage to another member of the group that was waiting in a van nearby. The camera wielder filmed the cards as they were being dealt, which the man in the van slowed down and analyzed, and then transmitted further instructions for the current game into an earpiece of the thief in the casino.
They managed to get away with £200,000, which is roughly $249,840.00, but were eventually caught, and arrested for the robbery of six London casinos.
6. Ritz Casino Heist of 2004 – Technology Used for Evil
It seems that casino thieves in London use their technology to their advantage, as can be seen in the Ritz Casino heist in 2004. Three men made a hefty £1.3 million in only two days using lasers installed on their cell phones to covertly measure the speed in which the roulette wheel was spinning. They predicted the outcome of every spin, and made away with a large payout. The three men were initially arrested, but the judge ruled that they hadn't committed a crime, and they were set free without so much as a fine, and incredibly, were allowed to keep the money.
7. Physics Students Need to Pay Tuition – Casino Heist of 1970's
A team of physics students in California had a similar idea in the 1970's. They developed mini computers that could accurately predict the outcome of the roulette wheel through its movements. On the day their plan was to be carried out, they each hid an emitter, computer, and receiver in each of their shoes. They managed to collect thousands of dollars over a handful of months by using their shoe computers to gather information from the wheel. One student was to disrupt and somewhat manipulate the wheel with his computer, and the other received signals from the wheel to help him determine how to bet. The duo had a 144% returns rate, but it came with a sacrifice. The computers were prone to short circuits, and delivered some powerful socks, and have even caused the thieves socks to catch fire on occasion.
8. Gifted MIT Students Cheat the Casino in Blackjack
Between the years of 1979 and 1993, a group of MIT math geniuses were pulling off one of the biggest casino heists in history. For over a decade, this group operated and ran one of the most incredible card counting rings in history, under the wing of a Harvard MBA graduate named Bill Kaplan. The group dissolved in 1993, after raking in over $5 million.
Since then, similar groups and individuals have tried to match this group's legacy, but none have quite hit the mark. Casinos have since encouraged their blackjack dealers to shuffle the cards more often, to inhibit the efforts of potential card counters by making it less effective. This method is far from perfect, and reportedly bores players who are not attempting to count, therefore lowering the casino's revenue due to loss of players. The introduction of electronic blackjack has also contributed to the efforts to quell counting, but it isn't seen as a viable substitution for the physical table game.
The popular movie 21, starring Kevin Spacey, is based on the MIT students' story, and a few members even have small cameos.
9. Circus Circus Casino Heist of 1993
In 1993, at a Las Vegas casino called Circus Circus, a plan concocted by a group of Loomis armored car drivers was being carried out. While this isn't a casino heist in the traditional sense, the end of the story is an outlier in the small community of those who say they have gotten away with robbing a casino.
3. Bellagio Heist Take 2 – Biker Bandit Robbery of 2010
The Bellagio seems to be a hotspot for heist attempts. Most recently, being the site of the 'Biker Bandit Robbery' in 2010. Anthony Carleo, age 29, rode up to the doors of the Bellagio, walked up to the craps table, pulled his gun, and demanded that the dealers hand over the chips. Instead of sticking to taking one chip denomination, he took whichever he laid his eyes on. His highest denomination being chips worth $25,000. He made a clean getaway on his motorcycle, but his first mistake came when he fell victim to his own hubris when he tried to sell the high denomination chips on an online poker site. He used the email address [email protected], a tongue in cheek way of bragging about his crime. He signed the emails as the ‘biker bandit', getting wrapped up in his feeling of invincibility.
Third casino in singapore open. Singapore is located in Southeast Asia. The country is composed of 60 small islands and a big one. There are about 5.4 million inhabitants in this country. The capital is Singapore City. There are two gambling establishments in Singapore. The Marina Bay Sands in Singapore City is a gigantic casino located in the heart of the city.
He returned to the Bellagio to try to sell the chips to fellow gamblers, but made his second and fatal mistake when he tried to make a transaction with an undercover member of the Metro Police. His arrest came seven weeks after his theatrical heist, and was sentenced to nine to twenty-seven years in prison, for both the Bellagio theft, and a theft he'd made at the Suncoast Casino only a few days before his heist at the Bellagio.
4. Treasure Island Robberies of 2000 – The 3 Stooges Reincarnate
The Treasure Island robberies in 2000 were something of a Three Stooges version of a casino heist. Reginald Johnson is on record in connection with four separate theft attempts made on the Treasure Island resort in Las Vegas. The first two thefts were uneventful and largely unsuccessful. The third started with a shot fired at the security guard on his way to the cashier, which brought some attention to Johnson as you could imagine. Another shot was fired, and he fled from the cashier empty handed. The security guard was left injured, but made a recovery.
Johnson was picked up by police walking down Lake Mead Boulevard mere hours after his botched attempt. Johnson attempted once more to rob Treasure Island, and made out with around $30,000 after firing two shots at the security guards. He was soon arrested, and pled guilty to all of the robberies in January of 2001. Johnson was sentenced that year to 130 years in prison, one of the longest prison sentences ever given for a robbery, after a chaotic sentencing hearing in which Johnson laughed at video evidence of him shooting a security guard, and had several outbursts.
5. James Bond 'wannabes' Take to London Casinos
But casino heists aren't limited to the borders of the United States. In 2000, a trio of amateur James Bond in Casino Royale Londoners planned and executed one of the most high-tech casino robberies of all time. They outfitted themselves with equipment fit for a spy, including one member of the trio that was strapped with a camera that fed the footage to another member of the group that was waiting in a van nearby. The camera wielder filmed the cards as they were being dealt, which the man in the van slowed down and analyzed, and then transmitted further instructions for the current game into an earpiece of the thief in the casino.
They managed to get away with £200,000, which is roughly $249,840.00, but were eventually caught, and arrested for the robbery of six London casinos.
6. Ritz Casino Heist of 2004 – Technology Used for Evil
It seems that casino thieves in London use their technology to their advantage, as can be seen in the Ritz Casino heist in 2004. Three men made a hefty £1.3 million in only two days using lasers installed on their cell phones to covertly measure the speed in which the roulette wheel was spinning. They predicted the outcome of every spin, and made away with a large payout. The three men were initially arrested, but the judge ruled that they hadn't committed a crime, and they were set free without so much as a fine, and incredibly, were allowed to keep the money.
7. Physics Students Need to Pay Tuition – Casino Heist of 1970's
A team of physics students in California had a similar idea in the 1970's. They developed mini computers that could accurately predict the outcome of the roulette wheel through its movements. On the day their plan was to be carried out, they each hid an emitter, computer, and receiver in each of their shoes. They managed to collect thousands of dollars over a handful of months by using their shoe computers to gather information from the wheel. One student was to disrupt and somewhat manipulate the wheel with his computer, and the other received signals from the wheel to help him determine how to bet. The duo had a 144% returns rate, but it came with a sacrifice. The computers were prone to short circuits, and delivered some powerful socks, and have even caused the thieves socks to catch fire on occasion.
8. Gifted MIT Students Cheat the Casino in Blackjack
Between the years of 1979 and 1993, a group of MIT math geniuses were pulling off one of the biggest casino heists in history. For over a decade, this group operated and ran one of the most incredible card counting rings in history, under the wing of a Harvard MBA graduate named Bill Kaplan. The group dissolved in 1993, after raking in over $5 million.
Since then, similar groups and individuals have tried to match this group's legacy, but none have quite hit the mark. Casinos have since encouraged their blackjack dealers to shuffle the cards more often, to inhibit the efforts of potential card counters by making it less effective. This method is far from perfect, and reportedly bores players who are not attempting to count, therefore lowering the casino's revenue due to loss of players. The introduction of electronic blackjack has also contributed to the efforts to quell counting, but it isn't seen as a viable substitution for the physical table game.
The popular movie 21, starring Kevin Spacey, is based on the MIT students' story, and a few members even have small cameos.
9. Circus Circus Casino Heist of 1993
In 1993, at a Las Vegas casino called Circus Circus, a plan concocted by a group of Loomis armored car drivers was being carried out. While this isn't a casino heist in the traditional sense, the end of the story is an outlier in the small community of those who say they have gotten away with robbing a casino.
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Heather Tallchief was scheduled to refill the ATM's at several casinos through her job as an armored car driver. By the end of the night, when she should have been filling one of the ATM's at Circus Circus, she decided to skip over it and keep the money for herself. She managed to take somewhere around $2.5 million, and stayed under the radar of the law for twelve years, using fake identities and moving all over Europe to avoid capture.
She turned herself into a Las Vegas court in 2005, tired of running away from the law, and hoping to set an example for her ten-year-old son. Roberto Solis, her partner in crime and the father of her child, is still at large.
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10. $32 Million Dollar Heist – The Greatest Inside Job Ever?
Although most of the thieves on this list made away with more money than I would ever know what to do with, the biggest heist payout of those listed goes to a duo in Perth, Australia, which managed to acquire $32 million before being caught. This was an inside job, where an employee of the casino closely watched the security cameras pointed at the card game tables, and relayed information to a high-roller on the floor.
After a few hands, casino security caught on, and the duo was busted. The casino employee was fired, but they both managed to get away scot-free because the casino was able to keep most of the money, because the team had not thought to transfer their winnings before moving to the next game.
Summary
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You laughed, you cried, you learned not to put computers in your shoes. Casino heists will be around for as long as we as a culture remain interested in how some of them are carried out. Some, like the MIT card counting ring, make us want to get better at math. And some remind us not to sign our emails with ‘Biker Bandit' if we're trying to sell poker chips that we stole in one of the most well-known casinos in the world. We hope you enjoyed reading our top 10 list, and we hope we'll never have to write about YOUR failed casino heist in the future.
