Most Successful Las Vegas Casino Robberies
Today we’re talking about casino heists, robberies cheats, and scams. We do not condone any of the below practices and want to make our readers aware that sometimes casinos are a target of major heists. In fact, it’s just as likely you’ll be at a casino when it’s robbed as you would if you were visiting a bank. It’s still unlikely that you’ll see a robbery go down, but it’s taken place more times than you might think.
- Has Anyone Robbed A Vegas Casino
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- Biggest Las Vegas Casino Robberies
If you think about it, it makes sense that a casino would be a primary target for a robbery. When there are massive amounts of money located in a single place (like a bank), it’s only a matter of time before a greedy criminal takes a stab at it. It’s a terrible idea, of course, and it ends badly for practically anyone who tries it.
Robbing a casino in real life is never as it’s portrayed in Hollywood. There are rarely elaborate plans, the villains are evil people, and the criminals rarely get away with the money. Instead of getting together after the heist to talk about how they’ll spend the money, the heist is stopped in its tracks before you even get remotely close to the door. There are a few stories, however, where people hit casinos for big cash scores, the stuff that ultimately turns into a Hollywood hit film.
Bill’s Stardust Robbery In-House Job $500K
In 1992, William Brennan, a cashier who worked for the Vegas casino Stardust (no longer open), filled a trash bag full of cash and chips, threw it over his shoulder, and walked right out of the casino. The bag contained over $500,000 worth of money and chips. Word on the streets is that Mr. Brennan had an accomplice who likely killed him for his trash bag full of cash.
To this day, William Brennan is still on the FBI’s most wanted list but has never been seen or heard from since the robbery. Bill’s heist is one of the most famous Las Vegas casino rip-off stories of all time. It has resulted in many casino security standards still active today. It’s highly unlikely that an employee could pull off something like this in modern casinos, especially since employees are monitored even closer than the players.
Ocean's 11 scene detailing the supposedly most successful casino robberies before Ocean's plan. Bill’s Stardust Robbery In-House Job $500K. In 1992, William Brennan, a cashier who worked for. A man robbed the main cage at New York-New York on Thursday morning before being apprehended less than two hours later. Las Vegas police were called to the property at 3790 Las Vegas Boulevard.
Stealing the Crown In-House Job $32M
The Crown Casino in Perth, Australia suffered a $32-million-dollar robbery attempt by one of their staff members in 2013. The story involves two men; one of them a card dealer who’s sick of their job, the other a high roller visiting from a foreign country. The duo planned to take the wins and move the money as if it had been lost in regular play, hoping the casino wouldn’t catch the hit in time. Their greed caused the floor staff to investigate the foreign player’s chance. After reviewing a few of the high-paying hands, the floor staff discovered the robbery in process.
The game was ceased, the player was escorted from the casino. The employee was then immediately fired. The penalties for these two were less than a slap on the wrist with all things considered. This type of theft has been a security issue for casinos all over the world. It’s led to tighter policies related to hand play, cameras, and approval for larger bets. Any time money changes hands; it’s always a potential security issue. It’s likely that the Crown has put in place operating producers to prevent future robberies.
Bellagio’s Biker Bandit Armed Robbery $1.5M
Tony Carleo rode his motorcycle up to the steps of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino and headed straight to the craps tables. Wearing a bike helmet, with a gun in hand, he cleared the tables of chips. He then jumped on his motorcycle and took off before casino security could respond or the authorities were alerted.
Carleo’s biggest mistake was when he went to sell the chips he stole. He unknowingly attempted to sell them to an undercover police detective. When you take chips from a craps table, you don’t have time to sort them out. The trouble was that the highest valued chips were nearly impossible for Carleo to convert to cash, likely because some of the denominations were up to $25K for a single chip. It’s hard to move around any amounts larger than $10,00 at a time in most states, as banks need to report those more significant transactions for tax accounting.
As with most armed robberies, it didn’t work out. This crime was obviously an emotionally based decision, and various errors were made in its execution. When you rob places, and you do it more than once, you must expect you’re going to get jailed. Anthony Carleo (aka “The Biker Bandit”) is currently serving a 9 to 27-year prison sentence for this and other casino robberies.
Robbery at the Circus Circus Stolen Armored Truck $2.95M
Heather Tallchief had a job driving armored vehicles. In the autumn of 1993, Instead of bringing her truck full of cash to the bank, Heather drove away from the Circus Circus casino with nearly $ 3 million in stolen cash. She left the country with her boyfriend, Roberto Solis to hide in the Netherlands.
In 2005, she turned herself. That’s right; she came back. She went to the police with her wrist out and said, “Arrest me.” The guilt of her crime was a burden she just couldn’t stand to bear any longer.
She was sentenced to 5 years and three months in prison, but her boyfriend Roberto remains at large. For an inside job, this would have been a textbook win for the crook, at least until the guilt was too much to bear.
Has Anyone Robbed A Vegas Casino
Pirating Treasure Island Armed Robbery $30K
Reginald Johnson is known for his attempted heists at Treasure Island Casino and Hotel, but he certainly isn’t the only person to try, as the casino has had many robbery attempts in the past. What makes Mr. Johnson unique, however, is that he had attempted robbing Treasure Island twice before his third ‘successful’ robbery. There’s not much glamor here as Reginald is considered a bit of career criminal.
I hate to judge, but Reginald’s robbery wasn’t that lucky, as it was only $30K; a smaller score than comparable casino robberies. This guy is a bit of a monster; robbing various other establishments aside from Treasure Island. In some of his other crimes, he hurt people. Despite having a smaller theft total, Reginald is currently serving a 130-year sentence for the Treasure Island robbery and other offenses.
Putting on the Ritz Cheating the Game £1.3M
In 2004 three men set out to rob some casinos in London, England, and chose London’s Ritz Casino as their target. They set up casino games in a private area and devised hacks to cheat them. The most successful plan was to cheat the roulette wheel. They used their cellphone camera to measure the speed of the wheel and predict the outcome of the spins.
Greed is what tears these sweet gigs up. After winning well over a million pounds, the men were reported to authorities by the casino staff. When the three criminals were brought before the local courts, they were found innocent of committing any known crime. The only penalty they received was a lifetime ban from London’s casinos. Word of their score traveled the globe, and it’s now standard policy to ban the use of your camera near any table game at the casino.
The Soboba Grab & Dash Armed Robbery $1.5M
Eric A. Aguilera and his accomplish Luda Ramos robbed The Soboba Casino in Las Vegas in 2005. The Soboba Grab and Dash was a casino heist straight out of the Hollywood movies. The two stormed into the casino, held everyone at gunpoint and tied up several of the casino staff.
Eric and Luda’s robbery game plan was the type of theft most banks and casinos train for on a yearly basis. In this instance, the training worked, as none of the staff were injured, and the authorities were notified before Eric and Luda left the casino. This warning from the casino staff gave the police a head start, and they were able to apprehend the criminals after a short high-speed chase into the desert.
The MIT Blackjack Team Cheating the Game $100M+
Once upon a time, there was a group of college students in desperate need of money (no news there). This group of broke college students decided they would teach themselves card counting methods to use at the blackjack table. There’s a documentary about this well-planned heist which took place from 1979-1993 where a group of college students practiced card counting vigorously and made systems to make it faster and easier.
They worked as a team to give themselves a distinct advantage over the house. In systematic fashion, they cheated Vegas casinos for untold millions of dollars. They were so fortunate with their success that people who participate in the first group started to form their own teams. Criminals who heard about the book and movie have since begun their very own teams of card counters.
The MIT Blackjack Team did eventually get banned from playing Blackjack at any casino, and their charade ultimately came to an end. They were never labeled as criminals and kept their winnings. So, it’s questionable if this clever group of college students was ever really punished for their crimes.
Getting Taken for a Ride Inside Fraud Job $258M
There are many large casino-resorts who use junket services to bring guests to casinos. One such junket operator, named Dore, is responsible for acting as a middleman for high rollers visiting casinos in Macau, China. Dore had been bringing gamblers to the Wynn Resorts in Macau.
The junket operators are important because they lend the money to the players so they can participate. In Sept. 2015, one of the junkets were frauded out of $258 million. This was a bit of a hit to the cash flow and impacted Wynn Resorts stock only momentarily. The individual(s) responsible for the fraud have not been named, and the case is still under investigation.
Summary
We took you around the world covering about a 30-year history of casino robberies in this article. There’s plenty of attempted casino robberies that never made it to this list, but these are some of the most well-known heists to date. Although security in Casinos is ever increasing, there will always be someone crazy enough to attempt a heist. The likelihood of success, however, continues to diminish. As with most of the examples listed above, it seems the House truly does always win.
Curcio speaking to college football players in August 2014 | |
| Born | September 1, 1980 (age 40) |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Speaker, author |
| Children | 2 |
Anthony J. Curcio (born September 1, 1980) is an American author, public speaker, and convicted robber.[1] In 2008, Curcio was responsible for one of the most elaborately planned armored car heists in U.S. history.[2] He was eventually arrested and sentenced to six years in federal prison. Upon his release from prison he has devoted his life to working with youth in the field of drug abuse and crime prevention, speaking to students and athletes across the U.S.[3] He has been featured in GQ, Esquire, 20/20, Fox News, NPR and NBC among others.
Early life[edit]
Curcio was born and raised in Monroe, Washington. As a teenager, he was popular and talented and voted captain of both football and basketball teams at Monroe High School. Curcio broke many records in football and received several honors and awards for his play in both sports.[4][5]
Curcio would later go on to play football at his father's alma mater, the University of Idaho, which had been his childhood dream.[6] While returning a punt in practice, Curcio tore his anterior cruciate ligament, ending his promising college football career and introducing him to the powerful pain killer Vicodin. Curcio quickly became addicted to the prescription pills.[7]Soon after, he began experiencing withdrawals and even injured himself intentionally by kicking an oak coffee table repeatedly in order to obtain more pills. With family pressure, Curcio agreed to enter a drug/alcohol treatment facility.[8]
After completing a 21-day in-patient program, Curcio, now sober, started his first business, called 'Tony’s Gaming', which bought and sold casino tables and other gaming merchandise. Curcio expanded his business by leasing a commercial space and adjacent storage. Within a few months of being open to the public, Tony's Gaming was unexpectedly shut down. The Washington State Gambling Commission and local police raided Tony's Gaming and confiscated the inventory, stating that Curcio did not possess the proper permits.[8]
Under increasing financial pressure, Curcio relapsed and began forging prescriptions on his computer. He later became aware that the police raid was due to influence from a real estate broker who had financial interest in a local casino. Curcio attempted to retain legal representation in the case but was denied services by local attorneys already debriefed by the real estate broker/casino owner.[8]
Curcio and several of his associates retaliated against the casino owner by breaking into his businesses and removing computers, files and documents from the offices he owned.[8]
Curcio continued to maintain an outward appearance that resembled a successful business owner and family man. He graduated from college, married his high school sweetheart, had two daughters and would later own a real estate investment company based in Seattle, Washington.[9]
However, he was living two different lives. As his addiction progressed, so did his involvement in illegal activities. By his mid 20s, Curcio had already organized several high-dollar thefts, scams, and loan-sharking schemes, and was also behind a sports memorabilia counterfeiting ring.[10]Despite having completed four drug and alcohol treatment programs, ABC News stated that Curcio was spending nearly $15,000 a month on his increasing drug habit which now also included cocaine and benzodiazepines.[10]
Curcio's real estate investment business took a heavy downturn when the economy collapsed in 2008, leaving him with several homes on the verge of foreclosure and vehicles near repossession among other outstanding personal debts.[9]
With assets and bank accounts depleting, Curcio hatched the idea to rob a Brink's armored car.
Brink's robbery[edit]
For three months, Curcio observed a Brink'sarmored car as it made deliveries to the Bank of America branch in Monroe, Washington. He took notes of the schedule, diagrammed locations of the bank's cameras, and noted the armored car's blind spots. He also estimated how much money was being transferred to the bank and how much was being removed via ATMs.[10]
He considered police protocol in responding to robberies and the location of the bank and decided on using a local creek to escape.
After weeks of hand-dredging the creek in Woods Creek and a failed practice attempt at using a jet ski for the getaway, he changed his approach and created a cable pulley system to quickly pull himself, and large bags of cash, upstream using a connected canvas-wrapped inner tube.[11]
Curcio's planning culminated with an advertisement he placed on Craigslist a few days before the robbery. The online ad sought 15 to 20 workers for a fictitious city cleanup project, promising $28.50 an hour. The laborers were told to wear jeans, a blue shirt, work shoes, and a yellow safety vest. The ad also told the applicants they needed to bring safety goggles and a painter's mask. The ad directed them to meet in the Bank of America parking lot at the exact time Curcio planned to rob the armored car.
Most Successful Las Vegas Casino Robberies History
On September 30, 2008, Curcio, dressed identically to his decoy applicants, pretended to work the grounds near the bank. Wearing a blue shirt, jeans, yellow safety vest, work boots, and painter's mask, he pepper-sprayed the Brink's armored car guard who was pushing a dolly loaded with money into the bank. The pepper spray forced the guard to reach for his eyes and release the cart that held the money. Curcio grabbed two bags of money, containing more than $400,000, and ran toward the creek. Meanwhile, police arrived to find the bank's parking lot filled with men matching the robber's description.
At the water's edge, Curcio threw the money into the inner tube and pulled himself up the creek with the cables he had previously strung. He traveled about 200 yards upstream and exited the creek behind several businesses on the opposite side of the highway from the bank. Curcio removed his wig and worker's clothing that had been attached by Velcro, revealing different attire underneath. He climbed into the trunk of a getaway vehicle driven by an associate and left.[12]
Curcio's careful planning and unusual getaway gained national attention. The timing of the robbery came days after announcements of the government's bank bailout package that included Bank of America. The unique robbery techniques gained notoriety for the mysterious robber who was referred to as the 'Craigslist Robber' and 'D.B. Tuber', after the 1970s hijacker D. B. Cooper.
Arrest[edit]
Curcio's undoing would come a month later when a homeless man reported to police that several weeks before the robbery he had seen a man drive up to the Bank of America parking lot and retrieve a disguise from behind a trash bin. The man found it suspicious enough to write down the license plate number of the car which he later provided to police. The car was registered to Curcio.[13] What the man had seen was one of Curcio's practice runs to ensure proper timing of the heist.
After Curcio returned from a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, the FBI began their surveillance of him as a suspect in the robbery. Local authorities retrieved his DNA from a drink bottle disposed of by Curcio at a gas station and compared it to the DNA from the face mask and wig discarded a short distance from the scene of the robbery. The DNA samples matched and Curcio was arrested in Lake Stevens, Washington getting out of a luxury SUV with $17,000 in cash.[10]
With only circumstantial evidence connecting Curcio to the crime, he initially bonded out, but a month later (January 2009), his bond was revoked and he was returned to custody after being suspected of witness tampering.[4]
Has Anyone Robbed A Casino In Las Vegas
Later details would reveal that $220,000 was recovered after an associate of Curcio's came forward to make a deal with the FBI and local police. Curcio refused to cooperate with authorities and no other charges were ever filed against any of Curcio's unnamed co-conspirators.[1][8]
All of the money except for what Curcio paid the getaway driver and other accomplices was eventually recovered.[1]
Prison[edit]
Curcio was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison and served his time in FCI Big Spring, FCI La Tuna and Coleman Correctional Complex.[14]
While being housed in FCI La Tuna, Curcio became close with fellow inmate George Jung. Jung encouraged Curcio to write a book, and put him in touch with author/biographer Dane Batty. The two soon began correspondence.[8]
During this time, Curcio was with two inmates who had previously assaulted another inmate. While prison authorities knew Curcio was not involved in the attack, authorities still held him ‘under investigation’ until the case had been resolved. Curcio spent seven months in solitary confinement for this affiliation. In solitary, he received beatings, witnessed suicides and would have cockroaches crawl all over his body at night. Upon his release, he wrote the book Heist and High,[15] promising to prevent others from making the same decisions he had made.[8][16]
Throughout the duration of his sentence, Curcio wrote and illustrated over 20 children's books, including one aimed at the children of incarcerated parents titled My Daddy’s in Jail.[17][18]
Curcio finished his incarceration at USP Coleman in Florida, where he completed a drug-treatment program and was released from custody April 2013.
Release[edit]
Has Any Las Vegas Casino Ever Been Robbed
Curcio was released April 4, 2013 and returned to the Seattle area, reuniting with his wife and two daughters. He has since been working with youth and giving presentations regarding drug abuse prevention and the importance of making positive choices. He speaks to middle schools, high schools and universities across the U.S.[14]
Curcio has been featured on several media platforms using his story to increase awareness regarding addiction.[19] His book, Heist and High[15] (Nish Publishing, 286 pages), was released June 21, 2013 and has been the recipient of several awards.[16][20]
References[edit]
- ^ abcClarridge, Christine (September 18, 2014). 'Inner-tube robber now free, warning about life of drugs, crime'. The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on December 19, 2014.
- ^Doughery, Phil. 'D.B. Tuber'. HistoryLink.org. History Link.
- ^Esteban, Michelle (October 10, 2014). 'D.B. Tuber dedicates life to warn others of dangers of drugs'. KOMO 4 News.
- ^ ab'Former High School Star Athlete Sentenced to Prison for Armored Car Robbery'. justice.gov. The United States Attorney's Office. July 2009.
- ^Stangeland, Brooke (June 21, 2013). 'Out of Prison, Real-Life Thomas Crown Looks Back on Almost-Perfect Heist'. ABC news.
- ^'1999 Idaho Vandals - Sports Illustrated'. CNN/Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on 2014-11-30. Retrieved 2014-11-29.
- ^Stangeland, Brooke (June 20, 2013). 'Reporter's Notebook: On the Trail of a Bank Robber'. ABC News.
- ^ abcdefgBatty, Dane; Curcio, Anthony (June 21, 2013). Heist and High. Portland, Oregon: Nish Publishing Company. ISBN098579450X. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
- ^ abKushner, David. 'The All-American Bank Heist'. GQ Magazine. Archived from the original on 2014-11-30. Retrieved 2014-11-29.
- ^ abcdBenitez, Gio. 'The (Almost) Perfect Crime'. ABC 20/20.
- ^Ith, Ian (July 2009). '6-year sentence in robbery with getaway inner tube'. The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on 2014-12-19.
- ^Sigerson, Doc. 'AKA: DB Tuber'. Red Fez.
- ^Hefley, Diana (November 26, 2008). 'Feds Charge Suspect in Armored Car Heist'. The Everett Herald.
- ^ abCurcio, Anthony. 'acurcio.com'. www.acurcio.com.
- ^ ab'Heist And High - Nish Publishing'. Archived from the original on 2014-12-05. Retrieved 2014-11-29.
- ^ abManning, Craig. 'Indie Ground Breaking Book: Heist and High'. IPM.
- ^Burykill, Brett. 'The Ex-Con Who Wants to Explain Prison to Kids'. Vice Magazine.
- ^Wing, Jennifer. 'How Years Of Unforgivable Theft And Lies Became Forgivable'. Retrieved 2016-09-07.
- ^Millman, Michelle. 'How Painkillers Can Lead to Heroin Addiction'. KIRO 7 news.
- ^'2013 IndieFab Award Winners'. FOREWORD.
External links[edit]
Las Vegas Robbery News
Media related to Anthony Curcio at Wikimedia Commons