Lone Las Vegas Robber Nets $1.5 Million

In a news story that sounds more like something out of Hollywood than real life, a lone gunman has stolen $1.5 million worth of gambling chips from the Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas.

Acting Alone

The man stuffed the chips into a backpack and ran to the exit where he fled the scene on a black motorcycle, it was reported. An 11-second video taken by a surveillance camera and broadcast later to the public showed running down the hotel corridor while carrying a pistol and wearing a motorbike helmet that concealed his face.

No shots were fired during the robbery, which took place at around 3:50 on Tuesday morning, Las Vegas time, and which lasted around two to three minutes according to police.

"He parked, walked in, committed the robbery and left," police spokesperson Clint Nichols was quoted as saying by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Land Based casinos

Police also believe the same gunman may have been behind a robbery last week at the Las Vegas Suncoast Casino poker room, in which around $20,000 worth of chips were stolen.

The news will no doubt also come as a boost for the online casino industry, which can point to the absence of hard currency and chips as a security benefit of playing on the internet rather than at a bricks-and-mortar establishment.