The complete story of the Bellagio robbery

You’ve probably all read the Bellagio robbery story in the news section of this website, and you’ve probably also read the piece about how the robber was eventually apprehended. What’s the full story behind these events though? Exactly what lead to the downfall of 29 year-old Anthony Michael Corleo, the son of a Las Vegas City judge? Here’s a deeper look.

When he jogged out of the Bellagio in December, with $1.5 million worth of casino chips, and – to quote Tony G – he got on his bike to ride off into the sunset with the dough, Anthony Michael Corleo must’ve already known that he just got a huge problem on his hands. Never mind the national attention that comes with the turf in this line of business: he hadn’t even completely pulled the caper, despite his Ocean’s eleven-like exit from the casino. He still had the not-the-least-bit tiny or insignificant problem of turning his haul into cash. Many experts and non-experts chimed in with various theories about how he could accomplish that, as the imagination of the poker and gambling world shifted into high gear. Unfortunately for Corleo, none of the floated theories offered him an easy and straightforward way to cash his chips in, and the sudden notoriety proved to be a huge problem for him ego-wise too.

After the robbery, he returned to his home town of Pueblo, Colorado where he started buying drinks to all his friends and generally being extremely generous with money he said he had won gambling in Vegas. The draw of Sin City proved way too hard to resist though, and he returned to the Bellagio, where he played and lost money, even on New Year’s Eve. His antics soon earned him high roller status and he once even stayed a week at the Bellagio by means of the comp points he had earned. The pressure of having to cash in the cranberries ($25k chips) got to him though and he started making mistakes. He first donated a chip to a Salvation Army bell ringer who later helped identify him. Then he took his chips online, and opened an account at one of the popular poker forums where he didn’t shy away from bragging about his caper. He befriended Matthew Brooks, a forum regular, and started exchanging private messages, phone calls and emails with him. As proof that he was indeed the “Biker Bandit” he even sent him pictures of two of the cranberries in his possession. He even admitted on one occasion that he was indeed the “asshole” who had pulled the heist.

Unfortunately for him, Brooks decided to share the information he obtained from him, and that’s what eventually led to his arrest.
The person with whom Brooks initially shared the information he had gathered on the Biker Bandit, was a Bellagio investigator. This guy set up a few meetings with Corleo, and the caper came full circle when he tried to sell some of the stolen chips to undercover LVPD officers.

Brooks took some flak on the forum for ratting the guy out, but he addressed such attacks in a statement in which he detailed his decision. He said he felt the need to share the information out of principle and that he wasn’t about to sacrifice the normalcy of his life for a strung-out junkie.

Corleo’s downfall wasn’t the first time a criminal plot got foiled by an online poker forum. Back when the UB cheating scandal was in full swing, it was an online poker forum post that raised awareness and that eventually prompted the right authorities to launch an actual investigation into the matter.