Earlier this week the Bellagio Hotel & Casino was robbed when a gunman walked in and held a craps table at gunpoint. The gunman walked out of the casino with $1.5 million. The problem? He took $1.5 million in poker chips.
Now I don’t know if you’ve ever walked into a store and tried to pay for your groceries or a new pair of shoes with poker chips, but it’s just not the same thing as money at all! Basically, the robber got away with a whole pile of plastic. The chips were valued between $100 and $25,000 and the only way he’s going to get the money is if he actually shows his face in the Bellagio to cash in. If it was smaller-value chips it might be easier for him to sneak in or send in an accomplice to cash in for him. However, it will be a little bit suspicious if someone comes in to cash a pile of $25,000 chips when nobody has been winning that kind of money in the casino all night.
According to Las Vegas police, the robber at the Bellagio is suspected to be the same man who robbed the Suncoast poker room and got away with $20,000 in cash, which is still an impressive sum to steal from a casino. The very idea that he was able to walk out with $1.5 million (even if it was in chips) is impressive enough that a lot of gamblers are calling the heist “Ocean’s 14”. However, only time will tell if the thief will ever see a dollar of his stolen loot.