Las Vegas police released surveillance photos Tuesday of an armed casino bandit who escaped the Bellagio with $1.5 million worth of gambling chips.

"The suspect, wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet, entered the casino and went directly to a craps table. He pulled a gun, told everyone not to move and took approximately $1.5 million worth of casino chips," according to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department news release.

The robbery happened at 3:50 a.m. Tuesday and lasted only a few minutes. The man sped away on Flamingo Road on a black sport-style motorcycle.

Police Lt. Clint Nichols told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that security officers did not try to stop the gunman.

There were 15 patrons in the area during the robbery, detectives told the Las Vegas Sun.

"In most events, we actively pursue those folks that commit those robberies and do a fairly decent job apprehending them, and hopefully this will hold true," Nichols told the Sun.

Police say the biker may also be responsible for robbing a Las Vegas Suncoast Casino poker room cashier on Dec. 9.

The suspect is described as a white man, between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet tall, weighing about 220 pounds. He was wearing a white motorcycle helmet, black down jacket, black pants and black gloves.

The motorcycle is described as a 2009-2010 black sport bike, according to police.

No shots were fired and no one was injured.

Any with information can contact Vegas police at 702-828-3591. Tipsters wishing to remain anonymous can call 702-385-5555 or visit http://www.crimestoppersofnv.com.

12/14/2010 6:12:54 PM

yo holmes.....

12/14/2010 6:13:21 PM

Damn... 1.5 million bucks worth of chips from like a dozen people? Just a thought, how does he expect to turn 1.5 million bucks worth of chips back into 1.5 million bucks? Can't Bellagio just change out their chips?

12/14/2010 6:18:52 PM

I, too, got robbed at belagios. Damn black jack dealers.

12/14/2010 6:21:13 PM

^^no ... they cant just change out chips / it would cost $Bellagio to do so

he has all types of resale options available to him

his face was completely covered with a motorcycle helmet so he could use the chips i guess but not at once

hell if i know but i do know thats ballsy as hell

he probably stole the chips from the dealer and the players

12/14/2010 6:24:01 PM

It does seem a little bit tricky to turn this into cash

12/14/2010 6:31:11 PM

Quote :

"The motorcycle is described as a 2009-2010 black sport bike"

so they caught enough detail to venture a guess at the model year but not the model itself?

that's ridiculous.

12/14/2010 6:40:06 PM

It was really shiny.

12/14/2010 6:46:02 PM

12/14/2010 6:46:23 PM

It's not that difficult to look at a bike and go "hey, that looks like a brand new bike"

12/14/2010 6:47:58 PM

its also not that difficult to realize youre being robbed and stop the dude.

but yea...he can walk in 5 different times with chips and go to play blackjack...play one hand and lose...go cash out.

He can pawn them, theres all kinds of options.

dude made a pretty good amount...what was the amount of the dec. 9th robbery?

id love to get 1.5 mill this way.

better hope he never tells anyone

[Edited on December 14, 2010 at 6:57 PM. Reason : k]

12/14/2010 6:57:14 PM

^^ So you tellin me little Susie Useless at the crime scene knows which one of these shiny beasts is a 2010 and which one is a 2004, but can't remember enough detail to identify it as a Honda or Yamaha?

[Edited on December 14, 2010 at 8:44 PM. Reason : whoops]

12/14/2010 8:40:07 PM

Ugh. Did you really post two pics of brand new(for their year) shiny bikes to try to prove a point? LOL you are a dumbfuck. Of course your average person probably wouldn't know which one was new and which one was 5-6 years old. But I would imagine anyone with a fucking brain could tell the difference between a brand new bike and one with 5-6 years of wear and tear in person.


:carlface:

12/14/2010 10:31:22 PM

come on buddy, look through the obvious to the point i'm making

i know it's tough but you can do it, i have faith

12/14/2010 11:53:26 PM

Quote :

"But I would imagine anyone with a fucking brain could tell the difference between a brand new bike and one with 5-6 years of wear and tear in person"

not even close. you'd think my 04 '636 was brand new if you didn't know any better

12/15/2010 12:27:11 AM

the top one looks shinier

12/15/2010 1:13:46 AM

The security cameras will catch him when he tries to cash out...and then he'll just "disappear" to a back room, never to be heard from again.

12/15/2010 1:18:50 AM

and my '05 vtx looks showroom (when i wash a couple weeks of road grime off it)

and i've seen a 2010 gsxr that looked like it'd failed at slaloming a quarter-mile gauntlet of armor-clad midgets swinging angle grinders in a sand storm because some dork with money thought he was a stunter

my point is, regardless of the condition of the bike, it's just bad form to release a piece of info like "nondescript model motorcycle of a specific model year." if you know enough about sport bikes to venture a guess at when it was made, you're likely to have noticed some distinguishing feature. there really aren't that many makes out there.

12/15/2010 1:24:45 AM

Quote :

"The security cameras will catch him when he tries to cash out"

Yes, he will just roll up to the cashier and put $1.5 mil in chips on the counter.

12/15/2010 1:37:33 AM

In other news...I lost $1.49MM at the Bellagio this evening. I was doing great, but I got a few bad hands. Oh well, I'm still up $100k for the day.

12/15/2010 1:47:32 AM

someone should make a FS ad on CL about these chips. lol

12/15/2010 3:02:35 AM

Quote :

"The security cameras will catch him when he tries to cash out"

You all do realize that in a situation like this the whole casino will stop the use of their current chips and swap them out for a different set. I wouldn't be surprised if a place like the Bellagio had more than 2 sets of chips available in case of a situation like this. The chips he has are worthless, probably as early as an hour or so after he stole them. And it's also quite dumb considering some casinos place GPS microchips in higher valued chips now too, so it would techinically be possible to track him if he were to hang on to those chips.

Regardless, he now has a priceless novelty that he will only ever be able to share with his closest friends. Perhaps he'll play with them at his own poker games? That's all they are about good for now.

12/15/2010 3:10:52 AM

^that's exactly what I was thinking. I know they had to have the ability to switch out chips fast. I remember reading reports when card counters were becoming a big problem in the 90's and would switch their chips in 24 hours.

I was also about the ask about gps in the chips too...

12/15/2010 3:16:53 AM

the chips have RFIDs me thinks. he is SOL

12/15/2010 7:38:43 AM

12/15/2010 7:46:56 AM