News about yet another Bellagio Casino robbery have taken over the online newslets. The Bellagio Casino’s poker room was hit once again by an armed robbery this week, and this time it turned deadly – the gunman dying after being shot by police as he made his escape, and one officer injured in the shootout
Robbery suspect at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas dies after shootout with police https://t.co/FRUQYJ25UF pic.twitter.com/LS2M5fZtwo
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 17, 2019
The Bellagio Casino robbery occurred on Friday evening when an armed man entered the Las Vegas casino and demanded money from the poker room cage. Mere feet from where full tables were playing their Friday night cash games. A well-known pro Eli Elezra among them…
Unreal @BellagioPoker cage got robbed again at gun point.15 minutes ago while we where playing our game scary Shit pic.twitter.com/qoZ3lHMOIS
— Eli Elezra (@elielezra1) March 16, 2019
Officer injured, gunman dies in shootout after the Bellagio Casino robbery
The gunman made off with an undisclosed sum of money but got only as far as the valet parking area when he was confronted by four armed police officers as he attempted to steal a car for his getaway.
According to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Captain, Nichole Splinter, the suspect of the Bellagio Casino robbery fired his gun and struck one of the officers in the vest.
A second officer fired back and hit the suspect. Splinter explained: “The officer had his bulletproof vest on, which probably saved his life,” adding,”…it looks like the bullet hit the front of his chest and possibly went across.”
The LVMPD officer was treated for his injuries and later released. But the robber – so far unnamed – reportedly died of his injuries the following day.
The Bellagio has previous…
The Bellagio has been hit by a spate of armed robberies in the past couple of years. A masked raider holding up the poker room cage in November 2017. Again just yards from the players, this time including Doyle Brunson and actor James Woods…
So we are playing poker at the @BellagioPoker and a guy walks up with a gun and robs the cage thirty feet from us ten minutes ago.
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) 29 November 2017
Doyle Brunson also tweeted about the 2017 heist, the legendary Bobby’s Room regular stating there was close to $200k in cash at his table…
The guy that robbed the cashier cage at the Bellagio should have walked south 10 yards and took our money in Bobby’s Room. He got 35k and we had about 200k in cash waiting to put it on deposit. Waitress said she could have hit the guy as he slowly left.
— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) 29 November 2017
Earlier in 2017 a jewellery store in the Bellagio Hotel complex was also hit. Four masked men – including one in a pig mask seen below on CCTV and mobile phone footage.
The Bellagio Biker Bandit
In 2010, the Bellagio was one of two casinos robbed by Anthony Carleo. Carleo is self-dubbed the Biker Bandit for wearing a motorcycle helmet and escaping on a bike after robbing the casino’s craps tables.
Carleo, the son of a Las Vegas judge, escaped with $1.5million in casino chips from his brazen Bellagio heist. More than half of them has never been recovered. Carleo was given lengthy consecutive sentence jail sentences that will see him serve at least 9 years behind bars.
The Berlin EPT robbery
The biggest armed heist of all at a poker event also occurred in 2010 at the Berlin leg of the European Poker Tour (EPT). The brazen thieves fought a pitched battle with security as they attempted to make off with over €1million in cash.
They finally fled with around €240,000 in cash, a security guard managing to snatch a bag containing €500,000 from one of the assailants.
The Main Event continuing play a short while later, much to the chagrin of eventual winner Kevin MacPhee, who told Pokerlistings at the time: “I think it’s completely irresponsible to start playing again. This is the most important moment in my poker career. We’re playing for €1 million here, and you think, after a raid like this, you just sit back at the table and play?
He added: “After an incident like this, everybody should get some time to sleep over this and to calm down. Tell me, how many people are expected to get back to work the same day they were held at gunpoint? Is there any other job in the world where you would do that?”
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