The Biggest Casino Heists of All Time

Scoop Canada Team
soubhik Casinos Entertainment
6 Min Read
Casinos in Vegas. Source: Shutterstock

Casinos are known to have a lot of money which owes to the fact that the house always wins. And as a result, they attract many eager players who want to take some of that money home. Even online casinos have experienced this influx in players as people search for the best online casino in Canada where they can win money. But not all players are after winning money by adopting strategies. Some are out to take it out of the casino coffers in other ways. Let’s consider some of the biggest casino heists of all time:

Greatest Casino Heists

You’ve likely watched an Oceans film and marvelled at how the cast pulled off such a heist. And even while you knew it was acting, you could not help but feel the adrenaline pumping through your veins at each scene. Would they make it? Would they get caught? It turns out that aside from filmmaking, casino heists do occur. Consider the following examples:

  • The Junket Fraud

The high-roller industry attracts a lot of interest. And junkets are a subsidiary of this industry which helps it thrive. They lend money to players to gamble with and attract gains from these sums. So, when a junket lost $258 million to a fraudster, people could not believe their ears. Not only was this a threat to other junkets, but it also affected the Wynn Casino stock. The casino has yet to get answers to what was a substantial loss.

  • Circus Circus

This story dates to 1993 and follows an armored car driver. Her role was to drive around with money used to fill casino ATMs. You can imagine that driving around with that much cash finally had her thinking of how to benefit herself. So, one day, the driver sat in the van as the two other guards walked into the casino. And instead of waiting for them as was the custom, she drove off with over $3.1 million.

Was she alone? No! It turns out that she had a male accomplice. Together, they ditched the truck, adorned disguises and left the country. She could have remained at large for the rest of her life. But ten years later, she turned herself in to the police to set an example for her son. Her accomplice did not follow suit and continued living in the shadows with the rest of the money.

  • The Stardust

Just like with Circus Circus, this heist involved an employee who often handled large sums of money. In this case, it was the cashier. On a standard workday, the cashier took a trash bag, filled it with over $500,000 worth of cash and chips, and left the casino. Who would have stopped a man carrying a trash bag? The idea was genius. And this was back in 1992 when security measures were not as heightened as they are now. The cashier was never seen again, and people have made up stories about his whereabouts to date. Some even speculate that he had an accomplice who murdered him and made away with the money. Will we ever know the truth? Probably not!

Moving Forward

Let’s not forget the MIT Blackjack Team, which perfected card counting to win games. While cheating is not an actual heist, the team made away with more than $20 million, eating into casino profits over two decades. Some figures state that the winnings could have totaled $55 million. But there’s no way to know for sure.

So, how do casinos manage their operations to keep such incidents from reoccurring?

  • Most physical casinos have teams to monitor activities and weed out suspicious players. They ask you to leave if they suspect you could be cheating or engaging in criminal activity. They can even call the police.
  • Most physical casinos have cameras to monitor anyone who enters their premises. They also invest in AI technology to gauge player responses and determine who’s likely not in the casino for legitimate reasons.
  • Online casinos invest in various technologies to ensure money is not withdrawn from players’ accounts. They have IT teams who see to this and reinforce the online barriers to cybercrime.

While not impossible, pulling off such a heist is much more challenging in the modern century, where technologies have eased security measures in casinos.

Last Updated on by soubhik

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