The man who scammed almost $1.2m from the Circa Resort & Cainso has received a one-year prison sentence. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Facing the consequences

A man who managed to con over $1m in cash from a Las Vegas casino has received a one-year prison sentence. According to the terms of the sentence handed down by Clark County District Judge Jasmin Lilly-Spells on Monday, 24-year-old Erik Gutierrez Martinez must also adhere to the rules of his probation after getting out of prison or else he could spend an additional 96 months inside.

admitted that what he did was “very stupid”

Martinez pleaded guilty in September to the charge of stealing over $100,000 and was facing as many as ten years in prison. He admitted that what he did was “very stupid” and explained that he was trying to get wealthy without putting in any hard work. He knows that he will now have to pay the consequences for these actions.

The master plan

Martinez allegedly swindled large sums of cash from multiple Nevada casinos, including the Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Golden Nugget Casino in Laughlin, and the Eureka Casino Resort in Mesquite. He ultimately only pled guilty to the Circa theft and he was never charged for the Laughlin incident.

The first theft took place at the Eureka Casino in March. Martinez convinced a casino cage supervisor to drive $250,000 in cash to Las Vegas, claiming the money was for an unpaid bill for hand sanitizer. Martinez’s attorney told the court on Monday that he ultimately returned the cash to the employee.

cage supervisor ended up delivering cash totaling almost $1.2m

The Circa incident took place in June, when an unknown caller claimed to be the hotel’s owner and sought cash to pay the fire department for checking safety devices at the property. The cage supervisor ended up delivering cash totaling almost $1.2m across multiple installments to Martinez.

Catching the suspect

Circa’s security eventually became aware of the potential scam and contacted the authorities. Detectives were able to identify the suspect by tracking his car and arrested him at the gym. Upon searching his residence, they discovered almost $850,000 in cash in a bag that had a “Circa” label. The other $314,000 in cash from the theft remains missing.  

Clark County Deputy District Attorney Austin Beaumont told the court that Martinez is not the only person involved in the scam, claiming that the 24-year-old is “a bag man for a highly sophisticated criminal organization.”

Multiple casino employees reportedly lost their jobs as a result of the thefts.

This is not the first time this year that someone has carried out this type of con at a casino. Colorado’s biggest-ever casino heist took place in March, with a cashier taking $500,000 in cash from the Monarch Casino’s vault and delivering it to someone who claimed to be the property’s head of operations.