Las Vegas Shooter Gambled $10K Per Day in Vegas, $100 Per Hand on Video Poker

6 years ago
Las Vegas Shooter Gambled $10K Per Day in Vegas, $100 Per Hand on Video Poker
20:23
02 Oct

The man who police believe carried out the mass shooting in Las Vegas, which has left at least 58 people dead and hundreds more injured, gambled $10,000 or more per day in the run-up to the massacre of concert-goers, his brother claiming he also bet $100 per hand on video poker.

As authorities investigate suspected gunman Stephen Paddock, who apparently committed suicide as police closed in on him in the room he used to carry out the attack last night, media sources have been digging into his past as well as interviewing his friends and family to discover what might have caused him to commit the atrocity – unearthing that his father was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list several decades ago.

The news of his gambling first came from ‘an NBC News source who read the suspect's Multiple Currency Transaction Reports (CTR) and a casino gaming executive,’ according to nbcnews.com, the CTR being ‘a Treasury- and IRS-mandated report that casinos have to file when "each transaction in currency involving cash-in and cash-out of more than $10,000 in a gaming day."


The gunman – believed to be 64-year old retired accountant Stephen Paddock - opened fire on a 22,000-strong crowd attending a country music festival close to the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino on the Vegas strip, videos of the moment being spread widely in the news and social media, including a short clip from Dan Bilzerian who was caught up in the deadly chaos.

One of the suspected shooter’s brothers, Eric Paddock, told NBC News: “Mars just fell into the Earth. We’re completely dumbfounded,” adding that Stephen was "just a guy" who liked shows and gambling.

“He was a wealthy guy playing video poker... on cruises," his brother stated, adding that ‘Stephen could afford anything he wanted and played $100-a-hand poker’ according to media sources.

Another brother, Bruce Paddock who resides in California, claimed he hadn't talked to Stephen, ‘in approximately 10 years’ and stated that ‘his brother made money through apartment buildings, which he owned and managed with his mother’. "I don't know how he could stoop to this low point, hurting someone else," Bruce told reporters, claiming that Stephen was a "never-in-a-hurry" type of guy, ‘a law-abiding citizen who never did anything violent prior to the shooting’.


Paddock had been staying at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas since last Thursday, according to hotel employees, his corner room on the 32nd floor apparently containing 10 guns including an assault rifle which had been ‘altered to function as an automatic weapon’, one official said.

In the aftermath of the horrific attack, which saw hundreds of dead and injured concert-goers being ferried to hospitals by survivors and witnesses to the massacre, the Islamic fundamentalist terror organisation ISIS claimed responsibility, stating that Paddock had converted to Islam several months previously.

Authorities, however, are not considering the assault to have been ‘inspired by international terrorism’, nor are they focusing on Paddock’s gambling losses playing a role in the attack.


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Andrew from Edinburgh, Scotland, is a professional journalist, international-titled chess master, and avid poker player.Read more

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