Bellagio Poker Cage Robbed at Gunpoint

The Bellagio Casino on the Las Vegas strip was the scene of an armed robbery yesterday when a masked man with a gun robbed the poker cage – mere feet from players who included actor James Woods – before fleeing the scene in a silver Chevrolet Cruze, according to police and press reports.

One Bellagio regular, Randy Ohel, quickly tweeted about the incident which happened shortly before 3.45pm…

…adding a second tweet that the ‘cage is a literal crime scene’, although players can be seen going about their poker business seemingly unconcerned at the drama which unfolded around them.

No-one was hurt in the robbery, Ohel responding to Twitter questions such as that from ‘reporter, producer and poker player’ Lizzie Harrison…

Oscar-nominated actor and enthusiastic poker player James Woods was in the room when the armed gunman carried out the daring raid…

…and he praised the Bellagio Casino staff for their cool handling of the situation…

…and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department quickly issued a Twitter alert, detailing the suspect and the car he fled in…

This is far from being the first time that the Bellagio has been at the centre of armed robberies, this March seeing the ‘high-end’ jewellery store Tesorini subject to a four-man smash-and-grab raid by raiders wearing animal mask disguises – the Independent reporting that ‘Three of the men escaped on foot, but the man in the pig mask, Sebastian Gonzalez, 20, stripped off his disguise and tried to hide in the parking garage because he didn’t want to run anymore’, quoting police sources.

Gonzalez claimed he was ‘provided with fake ID and that the group was given masks, phony guns and ear pieces through which they would be instructed on which business to target, and the robbers ‘were told to take high-value watches that would be sold in Mexico for $2 million’.

In July 2014 an equally hapless robber was nailed after he celebrated his ill-gotten $45,000 haul from the casino with a wild night on the town, later caught ‘wearing the same shirt he had worn to commit the robbery’, and had ‘several prostitutes with him in his room’, when arrested by police.

The Bellagio Bandit was the nickname given to Tony Carleo after he stole $1.5million in Bellagio casino chips from a craps game back in 2010, the less-than-genius thief returning the next night to play at the very tables he had robbed – Rolling Stone magazine describing him as ‘a degenerate gambler with an Oxycotin addiction and with money to burn’.

Carleo was eventually snared in a classic sting operation after attempting to sell the $25k Bellagio chips he had stolen - two months of living the life of a millionaire gambler swapped for a long prison sentence and a bleak future.