When career criminal Willie Sutton was captured in 1952, he was asked why he decided to rob banks for a living. His response was stunningly simple and profound at the same time…
“Because that’s where the money is,” he replied.
With that kind of thinking, it’s perhaps no surprise that hustlers, swindlers, and outright bandits have been targeting casinos everywhere pretty much since they came into existence.
In my time, I’ve read some insane stories of attempts to separate the house from its money. I’m going to share some of them with you here.
These are the most memorable casino heists, robberies, and scams in history. Enjoy!
If you’ve seen the movie ‘21’ featuring Kevin Spacey and Jim Sturgess, then you’re probably already familiar with this story. It’s a tale of the revenge of the nerds on a massive scale.
It’s a well-known fact that card counting is prohibited in casinos, but then again, most casinos aren’t prepared for a highly organized team consisting of students from MIT, Harvard Business School, and Harvard University to descend upon them with their vast collective brainpower and an unquenchable thirst for dollar bills.
The team operated from 1979 until the turn of the new millennium, which is kind of ironic when you think of how many years that is.
It’s estimated that the team took the casinos from Atlantic City to Las Vegas for millions of dollars before disbanding. Talk about a winning streak!
Sometimes there’s just no need for MIT-level mathematics and a complex scheme. Sometimes all you need is a good old handgun and an inside man.
That was the case in the Soboba heist in California when Ronaldo Luda Ramos took 10 employees hostage while his accomplice, Eric Aguilera, emptied the vault for a cool $1.5 million.
Ramos blames his actions on cocaine and claims he used a BB gun during the stickup. He also claims that it was his accomplice who was the real mastermind.
While the MIT and Harvard crew used brains, these two were clearly lacking in that department, because they both got caught and learned the meaning of the word justice. As for the cash, well, almost all of that went back where it belonged.
No, this casino swindle doesn’t involve a clever hacker breaking into a mobile casino and transferring millions to an offshore account in the Caymans. It does involve mobile phones, roulette, and millions, however.
In this case, a group used lasers on their mobile phones, which were in turn linked up to a computer, to precisely track the timing and movements of the roulette wheels in the Ritz Casino in London.
While the trio was busted at a later date, the judge presiding over their court case decided that no crime had been committed, allowing them to keep the money.
Some would say this was cheating, while others would say it’s fair play. I leave it to you to decide which side you’re on.
If the title of this one caused you to pause and reread it, you’re not alone.
This is another tale of rogue students, this time out of UC Santa Cruz. They aren’t as infamous as the MIT blackjack crew, but they do get extra points for ingenuity.
In this case, graduate physics students J. Doyne Farmer and Norman Packard built a computer, which fit into a shoe, with the objective of interfering with the roulette wheels in the casino.
While the exact details of how many casinos they hit and how much they won are difficult to come by, the two were eventually caught when the computer short-circuited and one of their socks caught fire.
This is a classic case of a great plan going up in smoke.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering why they’re called the ‘Eudaemons,’ it’s because they claimed to be inspired by the Greek philosophy of Eudaimonia, which roughly translates as ‘flourishing.’
Have you ever looked at a bank teller counting out thousands and wondered
Clearly, Bill Brennan, an employee of the now-defunct Stardust Casino in Las Vegas, had thought just such things, and he decided to go ahead and do it himself back in 1992.
Brennan pulled off what must be one of the simplest, least-violent heists of all time. He simply packed half a million dollars into a sports bag and walked out of the joint, never to be seen again.
To this very day, there is fascination and speculation surrounding this case. Some speculate that Brennan was being blackmailed in some way, while others believe he had an accomplice who killed him for the cash.
Others believe that he’s simply sunning himself on a tropical island somewhere out in the big, bad world. Nobody knows, and at this stage in the game, it’s highly likely that nobody ever will.
It’s worth noting that of all the heists mentioned so far, he’s the only one that didn’t get caught, even if he did possibly end up dead.
The turn of the new millennium must have awoken something in stick-up man Reginald Johnson’s inner life because he attempted to rob the Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas three times in the year 2000.
While the saying ‘third time lucky’ is well-known among gamblers, it both was and wasn’t for Johnson. While he did make off with $30,000, he was also caught and sentenced to 130 years behind bars.
A quick calculation tells me that’s $230 for every year inside. Somebody should have told Johnson to try his luck on the slots, instead!
Then again, based on his conduct in the courtroom, perhaps behind bars is exactly where this particular fella should be.
All great love stories involve a little tension, but not all of them involve stealing an armored truck, taking down prominent Las Vegas casinos for millions, and fleeing to Amsterdam together.
Yet that’s exactly what Roberto Solis and Heather Tallchief did back in 1993.
Tallchief turned herself in after over a decade on the run, claiming she left Solis shortly after they arrived in Amsterdam. He has never been seen or heard from since, and Tallchief claims she left him with almost all the cash.
So where does the love come into all of this? It turns out that Tallchief decided to take off when their son was born, leaving Solis with the money, and keeping the love for herself.
There are some pretty insane stories outlined here, some of which made me laugh, others which made me marvel at the inventiveness of mankind, and still others which made me fear for who might be walking around among us on a daily basis.
Either way, as long as there is such a thing as money, I assume these sorts of heists and swindles will continue, and there will be many more stories to tell in the future.
What other casinos heists and swindles have you heard of? Do any of them top this list? Share a comment below so myself and other readers can look into them.
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