Seems to me, there are many casino cage robberies that go largely underreported. Already this year South Point, Ellis Island, and Monte Carlo that I know of. How often are these robberies occurring and what stance do the casinos take to these events?
It’s true that 2017 was a banner year (it you can call it that) for casino robberies, with M Resort getting hit three times, Bellagio and Harrah’s Las Vegas once each. And this year, as you note, is no better.
As far as casino robberies going unreported, that’s like the proverbial tree falling in the forest: If they’re not reported, how are we to know how many are taking place? However, it's our considered opinion that casinos are working actively with Las Vegas Metro to catch bandits, with the considerable aid of the news media as well. Also, when you go to the cage, surveillance has you on video, so you’re basically saying “cheese” for law enforcement.
In the case of the Ellis Island robbery, the suspects held up the cage at gunpoint and made off with $10,000. A male/female team took South Point for an undisclosed amount of cash and was soon caught by Metro. In the Monte Carlo incident, a very brave and/or foolhardy cage attendant refused to comply with a would-be robber’s demands and he was nabbed by Metro while leaving the scene.
Bandits favor the wee hours of the morning for their strikes, like the gunman who stuck up New York-New York and had the brass, or lack of wits, to hail a taxi afterward. (Another burglar went one better and had a parking valet retrieve his getaway car.)
In the case of the Bellagio robbery, security failed to respond to the sight of someone wearing a mask stalking the casino floor.
M Resort was hit three times by a robber brandishing a fake gun. He was caught in part because it was an inside job, coordinated with his wife, who worked as a shift manager. Also, the robber, “Senior Pastor of Grace Bible Church Las Vegas, a multi-generational church committed to loving God, loving people and making disciples,” was a creature of habit, always stalking M Resort in the same clothes, driving the same car, and using the same parking spot. He will surely be a Darwin Award laureate.
The industry is largely of the opinion that robberies cannot be prevented and that personnel should stand down, both in the interests of patron safety and the better to catch the criminals after the fact. Says a casino source who has worked for multiple large companies, “The standard protocol in the industry when these things are occurring is to comply with the demand.
“Obviously, we do not want anyone to put themselves at risk. If they're able, there are security buttons they can push to sound a silent alarm and there's pretty extensive surveillance coverage of these cages. But for the employees themselves, they’re instructed to comply with the demand because nobody wants to see them put at risk for money.”
Casino cage robberies aren't an isolated trend. As the last issue of Global Gaming Business was going to press, it wrote, “Las Vegas Metropolitan Police are investigating four separate robberies of casinos occurring within a week, and another robbery that had occurred two months prior.” (Metro would not comment for our story, nor would MGM Resorts International.)
Even so, our source maintains that casino robberies are “fairly rare. You’d have to be very foolish to do it, because the surveillance is extensive and we typically get coverage very quickly. And the police are pretty aggressive about getting that footage out. You will notice in the case of the last few attempts that you saw, every one of them was captured fairly quickly.”
(Tomorrow: the casinos' response and responsibility.)
