Armed Robbery on Vegas Casino Ends in Quick Arrest
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Police have arrested a man following an armed robbery at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas hotel’s casino this week that saw the robber threaten a cashier and demand $10,000 in casino chips...
51-year-old Ronald Allison is alleged to have approached the casino cage inside the Cosmopolitan on the Vegas strip at around 6.30am on Tuesday morning and placed a duffle bag on the counter.
He then handed a note to the teller that read: “Give me 10k purple or Boom.” The cashier, having heard a loud noise as the duffel bag was dumped in front of them, believed Allison to have a weapon.
The teller then handed over 10 black $500 casino chips, and pressed the panic button under the counter as Allison made off with the loot, his escape caught on the casino’s CCTV.
After putting on an Indiana Pacers basketball jersey in the valet area, Allison was then witnessed walking towards the Waldorf Astoria across a pedestrian bridge.
Las Vegas police placed him under arrest at the Waldorf on suspicion of robbery with a deadly weapon and burglary with a firearm.
The stolen casino chips were found during a search of Allsion’s person and belongings, along with “letters to casinos that he did not like in his duffle bag” according to press reports.
“He was wearing two sets of shorts,” a police report stated. “The outer shorts had two $500 Cosmopolitan casino chips in his right pocket and another eight $500 Cosmopolitan chips in the right pocket of his inner shorts.”
When police searched a black duffel bag in Allison’s possession, they found “a notebook and loose notebook paper that showed letters to various casinos of his dislike toward them.”
Allison reportedly confessed to the robbery after he was arrested.
Las Vegas casinos have seen multiple armed robberies throughout the years, perhaps the most infamous involving ‘The Bellagio Bandit’, Tony Carleo.
Carleo stole $1.5million in Bellagio casino chips from a craps game back in 2010, returning the next night to play at the very tables he had robbed – Rolling Stone magazine describing him as ‘a degenerate gambler with an Oxycontin addiction and with money to burn’.
He was later arrested in a police sting operation after attempting to sell the cranberry-coloured chips through the 2plus2 poker forum, and was sentenced to 9 years in prison.
The Bellagio was also the scene of a double robbery that ended in deadly fashion, with Michael Charles Cohen gunned down in the parking lot in a shootout with police.
Cohen was caught on CCTV robbing the Bellagio poker room cage back in 2017, just yards from where Doyle Brunson, actor James Woods and other highrollers were playing.
An almost identical attempt in 2019, however, ended in the ultimate failure, Cohen passing four LVMPD officers as he exited the casino, the ensuing gunfight caught on camera.
You can check out our top 5 poker robberies here and the PokerTube advice if you find yourself involved in any such situation at a casino is to comply with the robber’s demands, don’t try to be a hero, and live to fight another day!
