Biggest casino heists

• Most casino heists take place in Las Vegas, though some have occurred in California, London, and Australia.
• Nearly all casino heist culprits are caught, though some get away and are never seen again.
• Many casino heists are for millions of dollars and often involve a current employee of the casino or its security partners.

Casino heist films are some of the most popular movies, and for good reason. They’re filled with exciting twists, intense action, and lots of luxury when the heroes get away with it. But not many people know a lot about real-life casino heists. Many culprits are caught, so there’s a lot less luxury to revel in. However, casino heists are still really intriguing because you can learn about the inner workings of a casino’s security and the crazy stunts people attempt to overcome the house edge.

Here are 11 of the biggest real-life casino heists that you probably have never heard of.

11. Treasure Island, Las Vegas (2000) – $30,000

• Reginald Johnson robbed Treasure Island three times for $30,000.
• He was caught by police during his third attempt.

In 2000, a man named Reginald Johnson robbed Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas three times in a span of six months. The first two robberies were successful — he got away with about $30,000 total. But he got caught on CCTV firing shots at employees and trying to pocket cash during his third attempt, and the police apprehended him. He was sentenced to 130 years in prison.

10. Bellagio, Las Vegas (2000) – $160,000

• Jose Vigoa led a small team of robbers to take $160,000 from the Bellagio.
• He was caught by police after a few days and is still serving time in prison. 

Jose Vigoa and two accomplices robbed the Bellagio in 2000, but they were caught pretty quickly. The robbers fired warning shots, and then Vigoa hopped the cashier desk and grabbed $160,000. However, Vigoa didn’t wear any mask or disguise. He was already wanted for a string of armored truck robberies, so the police were able to identify and apprehend him. He was sentenced to four life sentences without the possibility for parole for the murders he committed during those other violent robberies.

9. Stardust Casino, Las Vegas (1992) – $500,000

• Bill Brennan stole $500,000 from his casino cashier job at Stardust Casino.
• He was never caught. 

Casino heists are often an inside job, and you’ll see this trend a lot in our list. Bill Brennan had worked for Stardust Casino as a cashier for more than four years. One day in September 1992, he went into work as normal and when he clocked out, he took $500,000 in chips and cash with him. He was never seen again.

Some reports say that he was a great employee, but he was denied a promotion and stole the money out of revenge. We’ll never know the real story. He was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list until 2006 when the Stardust Casino shut down. The case was then dismissed.

8. Stardust Casino, Las Vegas (1992) – $1.1 Million

• Royal Hopper and his family stole $1.1 million from the Stardust Casino.
• Hopper worked at the Stardust Casino during the two heists.

In 1992, the same year that Bill Brennan pocketed $500,000 from the Stardust Casino, another casino employee was acting up in a different department. Royal Hopper was a security guard who escorted the money transport from the armored trucks. He had his two sons stage a robbery while he was working, and they made off with $150,000. Hopper was not originally found responsible for this incident.

But this was just a test run. Six months later, Hopper, his two sons, and another accomplice teamed up to attack a Loomis armed guard who was carrying $1.1 million in cash and checks into the casino. They used smoke bombs as a curtain, and the crime family got away. Until they were caught soon after.

7. Soboba Casino, San Jacinto, CA (2007) – $1.5 Million

• Ronaldo Luda Ramon and Eric Alan Aguilera stole $1.5 million from an Indian casino in Southern California.
• They were both caught and sentenced to prison.

In 2007, Ronaldo Luda Ramon had been working at Soboba Casino in San Jacinto, California, as part of the security team. He had been there about two years when he and another employee, Eric Alan Aguilera, hogtied their co-workers and robbed their workplace.

Ramon apparently had intimate knowledge of the casino’s security camera network, so he disabled the cameras. He also used pepper spray on his co-workers and brandished a BB gun during the robbery. They managed to get away with $1.5 million stuffed into a duffle bag. But Ramon and Aguilera were caught a few days later. Ramon claimed that the adrenaline from being high on cocaine is what made him do it. He also made reference to Ocean’s Eleven in his interviews with local papers.

Both Ramon and Aguilera were charged, and Aguilera’s then-girlfriend Sonya pleaded guilty and got three years as an accessory.

6. Bellagio, Las Vegas (2010) – $1.5 Million

• Anthony Carleo stole $1.5 million from the Bellagio by robbing a craps table at gunpoint.
• He was caught selling the chips to an undercover cop and online.

Like the Stardust Casino, the Bellagio was a hotbed of heist activity, too. In 2010, Anthony Carleo was looking for a way to get rich quick, so he robbed the Bellagio craps table at gunpoint for $1.5 million in chips. He had cashed in and even played at the Bellagio with some smaller-valued chips, but he knew the casino had a database with the names of players who have or would be likely to carry around the $25,000 cranberry-colored chips he’d stolen.

Days before this heist, he had stolen from Suncoast Hotel & Casino. He was invited to play poker, but he couldn’t afford the buy-in. So he decided to rob the table at gunpoint instead. Some reports say he made away with $20,000 in chips, while others state that he got $19,000 in cash.

Carleo decided the internet was a great place to sell his hot chips. He posted photos of the chips and tried to sell them in an online casino forum under the name, “Biker Bandit,” a name the media had come up with while reporting on this robbery. He was caught when he tried to sell hot chips to an undercover cop. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.

5. Ritz Casino, London (2004) – $1.9 Million

• Three people used microcomputers to make fool-proof bets at roulette.
• They were never charged with cheating and kept their $1.9 million winnings.

Three international guests to the Ritz Casino in London used sophisticated microcomputer technology to analyze the roulette wheel for their nearly fool-proof betting strategy. They won £1.3 million, or $1.9 million.

Over two days, two Serbian men and a Hungarian woman used lasers on their cell phones that measured the ball speed and wheel speed to select a number that was likely to hit next. That information was quickly relayed to a microcomputer they referenced before placing bets.

There are two very impressive elements to this story. For one, security experts considered the technology they employed to be impossible, especially for its discretion. The second amazing fact is that the trio were never found guilty of cheating and the judge never charged them with any crimes. Many casinos and state laws might consider a device like this an illegal casino scam. But the group led one of the only successful heists on this list, and the best part — no one got hurt.

4. Circus Circus, Las Vegas (1993) – $2.5 Million

• Heather Tallchief and Roberto Solis stole $2.5 million by overtaking a secure money truck.
• Tallchief confessed to the crime 13 years later, but Solis has never been found.

If you’ve watched Netflix’s docu-series Heist, then you may be familiar with the story of Heather Tallchief and Roberto Solis. This Bonnie-and-Clyde duo stole an estimated $2.5 million from an armored truck serving Circus Circus Casino in Las Vegas in 1993.

Tallchief was working as an armored truck driver for Loomis, the same secure transport company that Royal Hopper and his accomplices robbed at the Stardust Casino in 1992. Solis had just gotten out of prison after serving 17 years for prior robbery and murder convictions. The two conspired to drive the truck to a warehouse, take the money, and run off. They did just that, managing to get away with about $2.5 million.

Tallchief was number 3 on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, making her the highest-ranking woman to ever make the list since its inception in 1950. What’s interesting is that reports state that Loomis didn’t suspect Tallchief since she seemed like a good employee, just like Bill Brennan.

After 13 years of living under fake identities, Tallchief confessed to everything. She and the young son she had with Solis were living in Amsterdam under fake identities with faux passports. She worried about what would happen when those documents expired, and she wanted her young son to have a normal upbringing. Plus, Solis had left them, taking all the money but about $1,000.

Tallchief was charged with obtaining a fake passport and embezzlement, and she served four years. She was released from prison in 2010 and lived under police supervision until 2015. She was also ordered to pay $2.9 million in damages to Loomis. However, Solis has never been caught and remains at large.

3. Crown Casino, Perth, Australia (2013) – $33 Million

• A millionaire businessman from New Zealand worked with a casino VIP services manager to win more than $33 million at blackjack.
• He got caught after making a risky bet that paid off.

This heist is a bit different from the others on our list. The story starts with the world’s most expensive cocktail. The featured bar at the Crown Casino in Perth, Australia, was going to create a record-breaking drink called “The Winston,” made with 1858-vintage cognac that Winston Churchill and President Dwight Eisenhower drank when planning the D-Day landings during WWII. The cocktail was priced at $12,500 and was up for a Guinness World Record.

It was to be a whole event, complete with a photo op and official witnesses to the record. The VIP services manager at Crown Casino reached out to New Zealand millionaire James Manning to be their buyer, and he agreed. He was enjoying his time at the high-rollers blackjack room a day or so before the event where he won eight incredible hands, amassing winnings of nearly $33 million.

But on one of those hands, he bet against serious odds that would typically make even the most experienced blackjack strategy player shy away. This piqued the interest of the casino’s security team, who found that the camera network had been hacked. The VIP services manager was using it to feed Manning information during each hand.

Manning had only received a fraction of his winnings while the casino verified his play, which is common for many huge wins. Because he hadn’t completely cashed out, they ordered him to leave and didn’t press charges. He walked away empty handed and without the record for buying the world’s most expensive cocktail.

2. MIT Blackjack Team (1990s) – Between $22 Million and $57 Million

• A team of well-trained card counters won millions of dollars playing blackjack.
• They were never charged with a crime but had to dismantle the team after being banned at multiple casinos.

We’ve written a lot about the MIT Blackjack Team that featured grads from MIT, Harvard, and Princeton who counted cards and took casinos around the U.S. for millions of dollars. They trained on card-counting and blackjack strategy and had coordinated team play complete with sneaky codewords. This team inspired the non-fiction book “Bringing Down the House” by Ben Mezrich, which inspired the casino movie based on real events, “21,” starring Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth.

While this team was never formally charged with cheating since card-counting isn’t illegal, the casinos they patronized didn’t take kindly to their tactics and banned many of the team’s players, effectively ending their run. Reports vary on how much they actually won as a team, but the estimates are between $22 million and $57 million across multiple casinos.

1. Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas (2005) – Undisclosed Amount

• Two masked people robbed the Mandalay Bay Casino for an undisclosed amount of money.
• They have never been caught.

One of the most infamous casino heists is also one of the most mysterious. The story goes that two masked men held up a cashier at gunpoint at Mandalay Bay in 2005. At around 4 p.m., they fired warning shots and ordered people to the ground, but no one was hurt. Then, the robbers got away with an undisclosed amount of money.

We have no idea who committed this crime or whether they were ever caught. The amount of money they stole is also unknown, though it could be a huge sum considering just how tight-lipped they’ve been about the whole thing.
Take these stories as cautionary tales and brush up on your strategies for your favorite casino games instead. Check out our reviews of all online casinos in New Jersey to find the one that meets your needs in terms of game selection, customer service, and welcome bonus offers.