Chips are down for casino arrest man

A man has been arrested after a robber brazenly seized $1.5m (£930,000) in high-value casino chips from the upmarket Bellagio resort on the Las Vegas Strip. Anthony M Carleo, 29, a bankrupt real estate broker, is being held on charges of armed robbery and burglary.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Mr Carleo is the son of a Las Vegas municipal court judge. Police claim that Mr Carleo was the motorcycle-helmeted robber who walked up to a craps table with a pistol, grabbed casino chips worth from $100 to $25,000 each and made off on a motorcycle before dawn on 14 December. No shots were fired and no one was hurt.

Officers said at the time that they thought the same man had robbed the Suncoast casino in north-west Las Vegas early on 8 December.

They did not explain how they expected Mr Carleo to spend or use the chips but reports say he was arrested trying to sell them to undercover officers.

Detectives had released surveillance images of both robberies, as well as a CCTV video of the suspect running through the Bellagio.

The Bellagio images show a man wearing a black helmet with white stripes, a black down jacket, black trousers and gloves, police said. The Suncoast images show the robber wearing a silver helmet and dark clothes.