Multi-million dollar Casino heists have often been the most popular movie themes in Hollywood over the past few decades. The thrill of breaching high levels of security and getting away with unimaginable wads of cash makes for a great story line.

• Have you ever watched and enjoyed a movie based on a casino heist ?
• Are you on to a plan a Casino Heist?
• Did you know that almost every major movie based on a casino heist is actually based on a true story?

Many blockbuster movies such as the famous Ocean’s series and the Blackjack card counting movie known as 21 were directly inspired from some of the most famous casino heists in history. However, all is not as rosy in real life, and unlike those movies the criminals carrying out these heists are often caught and duly punished.

The undoubtedly fearless and daring attitude to carry out these heists is what makes them so fascinating for the public though, and for that reason, we have compiled a list of some of the biggest Casino heists of all time.

 

1. The Bill Brennan Disappearance

Facts

Year : 1992
Country : USA
Casino : Stardust Las Vegas
Thief : Bill Brennan
Amount : $500,000

One of the most controversial and popular instances of a Casino robbery occurred at the famous Stardust Casino in Las Vegas way back in 1992.

Bill Brennan was a permanent cashier at the prominent casino with no history of any crime committed whatsoever. He had been working at the casino for over a decade and was a widely respected long-term employee, a reputation which ultimately aided his heist.

Bill had the opportunity to critically examine the security system of the casino as one of its trusted employees, something that helped him identify which cameras were easily avoidable. Using this knowledge, one day Bill carefully packed $500,000 in a combination of dollars and casino chips in his suitcase, and casually walked out of the casino without being detected by the cameras or the security guards on duty.

What makes this heist even more intriguing is that it has been 25 years and there is still no trace of the thief. Rumours suggest he has undertaken a new identity and shifted to Mexico or Columbia and joined hands with certain drug cartels.

It was suggested that Bill was a reserved person who was infuriated by his manager’s refusal to promote him to a supervisory position, and that prompted him to commit the crime. However the fact that he is still at large, makes it one of the most dramatic and sensational stories of all time.

2. The Bellagio Heist

Facts

Year : 2000
Country : USA
Casino : The Bellagio Las Vegas
Thief : Jose Vigoa
Amount : $160,000

The Bellagio is one of the biggest and most magnificent casinos in the world. Located in Las Vegas, it is the epitome of luxury and is also one of the most safely guarded buildings around. Therefore, it was surprising when one of the most daring heists of all time was initiated there, and that too as recently as 2000.

Jose Vigoa was a Cuban trained as a commando who had turned into a serial bank and casino robber. After several heists of insignificant proportions at jewelry stores and casinos such as the MGM Grand, Vigoa set his sights on the big one i.e The Bellagio.

Vigoa decided to use all his stealth and weapon skills to aid his final heist, and dressed simply in a baseball cap and sunglasses over casual attire. He entered the grand casino and managed to sneak in chips and dollars worth over $160,000 and stealthily made his way out. However, he made a rookie mistake of letting the casino’s CCTV cameras capture his face in close-up detail.

A high profile police chase ensued, culminating in Vigoa murdering two truck drivers on the way. He was finally captured via one of his associates and long drawn court case resulted in a 500 year sentence for the former Cuba born Soviet commando.

Most importantly, this heist was also the main inspiration behind two movies : Storming Las Vegas, and also the mega starrer Ocean’s 13.

3. Soboba Casino Heist

Facts

Year : 2007
Country : USA
Casino : Soboba Casino, Riverside County
Thief : Rolando Ramos and Eric Aguilera
Amount : $1.5 million

In another high profile heist, with the theft totaling over $1.5 million, Soboba Casino in the Riverside County of California was robbed by 2 low level security personnel of the casino itself.

This shocking incident occurred way back in 2007 when Rolando Ramos, who worked as the installer of the surveillance cameras, used his technical know-how and experience within the casino to gain access to massive wads of cash. He obtained the cash by holding about 10 employees hostage at gun point (though he later admitted it was only a BB gun and not a real one).

His partner in crime was his friend Eric Aguilera, who was also a former employee of the casino, and he drove the getaway car, picking Ramos up and jetting away. However, the two friends were soon caught after a brief police chase.

Amusingly, Ramos later claimed he had no memory of his actions and blamed the consumption of cocaine for the heist. He even asked the police officers if his heist rivaled that of Ocean’s 11 or not! Both the robbers were charged under multiple charges with the bail set at a mammoth $250,000.

4. Tallchief And Solis – The Perfect Crime?

Facts

Year : 1993
Country : USA
Casino : Circus Circus Casino, Las Vegas
Thief : Heather Tallchief and Roberto Solis
Amount : $2.5 million

In one of the most high profile criminal cases of all time, $2.5 million was whisked off from a prominent casino, and even though one of the main culprits is now behind bars, the money has never been recovered.

21 year old armoured truck driver Heather Tallchief worked for the Circus Circus casino in Las Vegas, and one of her daily tasks was to fill up several ATM machines around the casino with cash. However, on that fine day in October 1993, Tallchief did not stop at the final ATM of the casino and instead continued driving away in the armoured truck, filled with $2.5 million in cash.

While authorities initially assumed she got stuck in traffic, they soon realized they had been caught up in a mega heist and a full-blown search was initiated.

Heather Tallchief was rumoured to be dating an ex convict known as Roberto Solis, and they were assumed to have planned this heist together, in advance. After nearly 12 years of absolutely no sign of either of them, Heather Tallchief finally surrendered to the police, claiming that Roberto had fled with all the money, leaving only $1000 and their son with her.

Her plea was accepted and she was released after only serving 5 years in prison. However, conspiracy theorists claim that she pulled off the perfect crime and that the couple still have all the money secretly hidden somewhere.

5. The Bellagio Bandit

Facts

Year : 2010
Country : USA
Casino : The Bellagio, Las Vegas
Thief : Anthony Carleo
Amount : $1.5 million in chips.

Another high-profile case involving the infamous Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, the Bellagio Bandit got away with a huge amount of Casino chips as recently as the year 2010.

Anthony Carleo, who referred to himself as the Biker Bandit, arrived at the Bellagio in December 2010, in his old Suzuki bike which he parked right outside. Still wearing his helmet to avoid identification, he entered the casino and made his way straight to the High-limit Craps table. In his drug fuelled state, he pulled out his gun to scare the dealers and the other players, and managed to grab about $1.5 million in casino chips, and made his way out via his strategically parked bike.

While he avoided being caught, he could not cash in immediately with the $25000 value chips as the casino had discontinued them as a safety measure. Carleo proceeded to use his chips for extravagant nights at the Bellagio hotel itself. However he was finding it hard to exchange all the chips for cash. Hence, he joined a poker forum online and secretly offered to sell the chips to an interested buyer at a lower price. However, that buyer turned out to be an undercover cop and Carleo was soon arrested.

He had already robbed the Suncoast Casino to the tune $19000 and almost got away with a second successful heist. Upon his arrest, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the Bellagio robbery, and also ordered to return the $19000 he had stolen from the Suncoast Casino.

6. Family Business – Hopper

Facts

Year : 1991
Country : USA
Casino : The Stardust Casino, Las Vegas
Thief : Royal, Jake and Bobby Hopper
Amount : $1.1 million

Way back in September 1991, Royal Hopper initiated one of the most peculiar heists in history. A heist straight out of a Hollywood script, Hopper used both his sons to play-act their way towards robbing the Stardust Casino in Vegas of millions of dollars.

Royal Hopper worked as a security guard at the Stardust Casino. At his job, he carefully tracked down the security procedures and intervals at the casino. For the first inside job, Royal asked his son to act as a robber while he was escorting money through the casino with a coworker. His son Bobby pretended to be an armed robber and took all the money being transferred and escaped. Royal himself reported the case to the authorities so that they would never assume it was his son only. In this way, the Hopper family got away with $150,000, but Royal was not satisfied.

He again decided to hatch a plot, and this time enlisted both his sons in the plan. All 3 of them intercepted an armoured truck carrying loads of cash, They wore wigs and beards to escape identification, and after distracting the truck driver with smoke bombs, they 3 men grabbed two bags containing more than a million dollars in cash.

Their joy was short lived though, however, as all 3 were caught soon. Royal Hopper was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the heist.

7. Crown Casino Inside Job

Facts

Year : 2013
Country : Australia
Casino : Crown Casino, Perth
Thief : James Manning
Amount : $32 million

As has been the case with many major heists, the foiled 2013 attempt to dupe the famous Crown Casino in Perth was also an inside job. It was almost executed perfectly, as a partnership between New Zealand millionaire James Manning and one of the employees of the casino.

They laid down the perfect decoy as well, with Manning announcing that he will be purchasing a famous $12500 cocktail, made of a bottle of cognac which was actually stocked on the Titanic, on sale at the Casino’s bar. This distracted the Casino officials who duly provided him VIP service for a week before his scheduled purchase.

This also granted him access at the VIP only high-limit card tables, where an unprecedented 8 hand winning streak saw him win a staggering $32 million. He bet against the odds on all 8 hands, and won an eye opening sum by the end of the night.

As the casino security officials got suspicious of Manning’s bets, they decided to investigate. They soon realized that the Casino’s network of security cameras in the VIP room had been breached and a high ranking employee, probably the VIP manager himself, had been giving signals to Manning at the table, enabling him to win. Manning was then banned from the casino for life, but as the Casino never lost the money itself, they let him go with minor consequences.

8. Ritzy Laser

Facts

Year : 2004
Country : England
Casino : Ritz Casino, London
Thief : Unnamed Trio
Amount : £1.3 million

In of the most high-profile and technologically advanced crimes of all time, 3 Eastern European gamblers managed to get away with more than $1.3 million at the London’s extravagant Ritz Casino back in March 2004.

The unnamed gamblers included 2 Serbian men and an Hungarian woman, all in their early 30’s, and they were arrested on suspicion of using a laser scanning technology embedded in their mobile phones. The laser scanner apparently helped the culprits to identify and calculate the speed of the spinning wheel in Roulette accurately; giving them a fairly accurate idea of which number the ball will end up in. The 3 friends won £100000 on the first night, and then returned the next night to win a staggering £1.2 million in just over 3 hours, when they were accused of using suspicious outside influence to win.

The Casino carefully observed the security camera tapes and were convinced of suspicious activity involved. They then alerted the police who duly arrested the trio. However, when their case was brought to the court, the judge eventually ruled in their favour and let them leave scot-free, as there were no established laws against cheating a casino. Their only punishment was a lifetime ban from all London Casino, not bad for a ‘crime’ which earned them £1.3 million is it ?

9. Treasure Island Mayhem

Facts

Year : 2000
Country : USA
Casino : Treasure Island Casino, Las Vegas
Thief : Reginald Johnson
Amount : $ 33,000.

In another series of popular robbery attempts, a deranged man robbed the same casino 3 different times in one year, before being caught.

Las Vegas’ Treasure Island casino was the unfortunate target of a mentally unstable and unemployed man known as Reginald Johnson. Johnson was 27 at the time of these crimes, and first struck the casino with relative success in July 2000, robbing two casino employees of $3000 on gunpoint. He escaped harmlessly and wasn’t seen again till he hit the casino again in October of the same year. This time he was a bit more aggressive and fired several rounds in the air and also indirectly at the security officers on duty at the Casino. While no one was injured in the firing, Johnson managed to scare the employees enough to manage to get away with $30,000 in cash.

However, the casino had made stringent security upgrades after his second robbery attempt, and when he returned to rob the place again in December he realized that there were security bars installed at all entrances and his cover was blown. A mini shootout ensued in which he actually shot a security officer in the back as well.

He was eventually arrested on several counts of robbery as well as attempt to murder, among others. Remarkably, during his trial he showed absolutely no remorse and was very brash about his deed, claiming the only thing which upsets him was the fact that he got caught, and that he would have easily killed someone if he had to. He was duly sentenced to a mammoth 130 years in prison, and is currently serving his sentence.

10. Casino Royale

Facts

Year : 2000
Country : England
Casino : 6 different casinos across London
Thief : Unnamed trio.
Amount : £200,000.

In the year 2000, with millennium dropping in came along many fancy hi-tech gadgets as well. A bunch of 3 Londoners, undoubtedly inspired by James Bond’s Casino Royale storyline, decided to use the new age technologies to their advantage as they prepared to hit the London Casino circuit.

The 3 youngsters, managed to get their hands on the latest spy-level gadgets, such invisible earpieces and wireless transmitters. The first man was fitted with a micro camera on his shirt, with which he was filming the cards as they were being dealt. The footage was received by the second member who was hiding in a van outside. He analyzed the dealt cards and then proceeded to transmit information to the 3rd member, who was effectively the one playing the actual game and had an earpiece inserted for communication.

Through this gadgetry, the trio managed to get away with an amount of £200,000 from 6 different casinos before they were eventually caught. This robbery attempt many other similar robbery attempts during that period, as casino security struggled to keep up with the latest advancements in technology.

11. Toying Around

Facts

Year : 2017
Country : England
Casino : Park Lane Club, London
Thief : Unnamed masked robber
Amount : £35,000.

In one of the most amusing cases in recent history, a man in Central London actually managed to rob a prestigious casino using a mere toy gun.

The unnamed masked robber made his way into the elite members-only Park Lane Club in Mayfair, wearing a full boiler-suit for protection. He was carrying an imitation firearm with which he successfully managed to scare several employees into handing him over £35000 within a few minutes. He then proceeded to quietly leave the casino, and fled towards Hyde Park.

The cops were immediately alerted, and reached the scene along with The Scotland Yard but could not find any trace of the man. A while later, his boiler suit as well as the toy gun he used for the heist were recovered from a bin near Hyde Park.

The only details known about the man are that he was fairly tall, about 6″3, and white. The fact that a masked robber could rob a prestigious casino with a toy gun, even in the year 2017, made this case the butt of all jokes online, with memes and parodies spreading on social media.

12. Physics Gone Wrong

Facts

Year : 1978
Country : USA
Casino : Several Casinos in Las Vegas
Thief : Several physics students, Eudaemons
Amount : $10,000.

In another famous case that went horribly wrong for the people who planned the heist, a team of highly qualified physics students had a crazy idea of using advanced technological gadgets fitted into their shoes to help them rob a casino. The group of students was nicknamed as Eudaemons, and was formed by students of University Of California in the 1970’s. The group’s original aim was to find out a method to beat the game of Roulette. After several years of research, the group managed to figure out a formula to calculate the rotational speed of the Roulette wheel using trigonometric functions and 4 different variables. They also used a camera and an oscilloscope to track the motions.

As the calculations were cumbersome, the team decided to build a computer specifically customized for these calculations alone. This portable computer was small enough to fit inside a shoe, which is exactly what these students did. The big toe of every participating member was used to input the data via a micro switch, and then an electronic signal was passed on via several gadgets hidden under the shirt of the member, indicating which Roulette octant to bet on. Though this technology was brilliant for its times, the plan failed miserably before it even started.

One of the leaders of the group suffered a bad injury as the gadgets attached to her body and inside her shoes burned her skin and malfunctioned. Though they managed to make just about $10,000 using this technology, the group disbanded after this incident. However they did achieve their long-term aim of proving that a Roulette outcome can be statistically predicted.

13. The MIT Blackjack Geniuses

One of the most famous cases in the history of organized crime, the MIT Blackjack team became some sort of cult heroes, especially after the release of the movie 21, which elaborates on the group’s achievements using their card counting techniques.

The team was founded by a Harvard graduate called Bill Kaplan, who actually delayed his Harvard entrance to make a small fortune by playing Blackjack across the planet, after discovering how card counting can really help him get an advantage over the dealer. Within a year in Vegas, he had converted $1000 in to $35000 just by playing Blackjack, and eventually graduated from Harvard.

He then got in touch with a group of students from MIT and began training them for card counting, forming the infamous MIT Blackjack Team. The team grew massively over the years, and in 1992, with the casino industry booming, Kaplan got a $1million investment to form a new company to train many more students in card counting and then send them to unsuspecting casinos to implement their tricks and win money for the company.

Card counting is effectively the proper utilization of probability to shift the odds in the player’s favour. The player has a better idea of when to raise his bets, and a better indication of the dealer’s cards, helping him turn a profit in the long run.The MIT blackjack team won millions of dollars across the world implementing these techniques, however casinos became aware of this soon, and many members of the team were soon barred from playing.