The thief who stole $1.5 million in casino chips from the Bellagio has been given a deadline to try to redeem the $25,000 denomination ones he took from a craps table on December 14th. MGM Resorts International, which owns the Bellagio, gave public notice that it will be discontinuing the large denomination chip and called for all gamblers to cash them in by April 22nd.
MGM Resorts first posted notice of the redemption last week in the classifieds of the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper. The ad came one week after a man wearing a black jumpsuit and full-faced motorcycle helmet walked into the Bellagio, pulled a gun on a croupier, and escaped with around $1.5 million in chips ranging from $100 to $25,000. The incident took less than three minutes and the robber fled the casino on his motorcycle that he left parked outside the valet. He remains at large.
Las Vegas police and casino officials have been working diligently to find the robber, reviewing surveillance videos and camera images to get an idea of who carried out the heist. Investigators have also been keeping an eye on any unusual chip redemptions since the robbery took place.
“Obviously, anyone walking with one of the old series (chips) is going to be subject to a certain amount of questioning as to how they obtained them – assuming it isn’t someone we know,” MGM Resorts spokesman Alan Feldman told the Associated Press. “It’s pretty unusual for someone we don’t know to come strolling up with a handful of $25,000 chips.”
Feldman also told the Associated Press that the chips were switched out at the tables within an hour of the robbery and the Bellagio immediately filed to discontinue them. The $25,000 chip, which is red with a gray inlay, will be worthless after the April 22nd deadline. The question then becomes whether it will be replaced with a new chip of the same denomination or if the casino will produce a new chip of a different denomination.
By law, a casino must give public notice that it is discontinuing specific chips to allow gamblers enough time to redeem them – in this case four months. The deadline could have a major effect on high-stakes poker players who leave large denomination chips at the Bellagio to use as a bankroll. Although the Nevada Gaming Control Board has stated that poker chips aren’t money, many poker players treat chips as currency when trading for other casino chips or paying off debts. It’s assumed that several $25,000 chips are currently being stored in the lock boxes of poker players at the Bellagio, which houses the famous “Big Game” in Bobby’s Room.
While it’s unknown exactly how many $25,000 denomination chips were stolen on December 14th, the redemption notice tactic could be very effective once the regular high-stakes gamblers begin cashing them in. If the casino spots a person who wouldn’t normally be in possession of the chip, it will raise a red flag.
“If they have people that they know are players redeem the ones that they know they have, pretty much it’s process of elimination. You’re left with people who aren’t supposed to have the chips,” said David Schwartz, a former casino security guard and Director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Authorities are suggesting that the same man from the Bellagio robbery may have been behind an earlier theft on December 9th at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. In that heist, the robber managed to take around $20,000 in cash from a poker room cashier.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily as more information on this story unfolds.