The Man Tried to Rob the Isle of Capri Casino in Boonville, Though Girardeau Is Pictured Here
A Missouri man was convicted on November 18 of attempting to rob a casino, along with other charges. James T. Smith, a 62 year old man from Kansas City, was found guilty of two felony counts, including robbing a bank and attempted robbery of a casino.
The man used an idiosyncratic way of robbing both locations, which proved to be one of the key ways Missouri law enforcement officers were able to pin both crimes on him.
Christina Tabor and Justin Davids
The U.S. Attorneys who got the conviction were Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christina Y. Tabor and Justin Davids. Tammy Dickenson, who works out of the Western District of Missouri, gave a press conference to discuss the conviction with local press.
According to evidence offered during the trial, James T. Smith entered the Commerce Bank on West 47th Street on May 18, 2013 in order to rob the bank. Smith used a demand note to collect money from the cashier, and walked away wth $1,053 in all. The note threatened to blow up the bank with nitroglycerin. Smith also verbally threatened bank employees with the same suggestion.
Attempted to Rob the Isle of Capri
That was not enough for James Smith, though. The next night, he entered the Isle of Capri Casino on East Front Street in Kansas City, again with the intention of robbing the casino. Once again, Smith handed a demand note to an employee. Again, his note threatened to blow up the casino with nitroglycerin, while he verbally suggested he would do the same.
This time, though, James T. Smith was unable to get away with the second crime. The case was investigation by the Kansas City Police Department, the Missouri State Highway Patrol (Gaming Division), and the FBI. He was arrested, then eventually indicted with federal indictments on April 29, 2014.
Verdict and Sentencing
After both sides rested their cases, the jury took about an hour and a half of deliberation to return a guilty verdict on Nov. 17 in the court of U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple.
According to federal statutes, James Smith faces up to 40 years in federal prison without parole. If the judge believes it is warranted, Smith could be ordered to pay a fine up to $500,000, though such a fine is unlikely for someone who stole $1,000. The United States Probation Office will conduct a presentencing investigation, and then a sentencing hearing will take place.
Missouri Casinos
The Isle of Capri has two operations in Missouri, both of them boat casinos, in Boonville and Kansas City. The state has 14 casinos in all, includung the Ameristar, Mark Twain, River City Casino, Lady Luck, and Lumiere Place. Three casinos are found in St. Louis and three more are located in Kansas City. St. Charles, Riverside, Maryland Heights, Cape Girardeau, Boonville, Caruthersville, La Grange, and St. Joseph also have casinos.
High Roller Law
Though other states have more elaborate legal systems, Missouri lawmakers took an important step in June of 2014 when they voted in a credit system for Missouri casinos. Land-based gaming operations in the state would be allowed to offer “markers” to gamblers, which would give the state’s casinos advantage over other nearby states, such as Kansas and Illinois.
Markers are credit vouchers for high rollers in a casino. In Missouri, for a gambler to qualify for a marker, they must gambler at least $10,000. The law is therefore designed to give high stakes gamblers a chance to bet large amounts on credit. The state’s gaming industry lobbied for the law, saying markers would allow casinos to attract the kind of high rollers who frequent Las Vegas Strip casinos. One or two high rollers in a month can make the casino’s rake tremendous, and their totals are often itemized on quarterly reports to shareholders.
Public Service Announcement
Whatever the stakes at a game, it is never a good idea to try to beat the casino out of its money, whether it’s through cheating, counting cards, or threatening notes. A casino has cameras everywhere, and has a much more elaborate security system than virtually any other business in town. It is no surprise that James T. Smith was able to get in-and-out of a bank, but his same ploy did not work on the casino personnel.
People assume gambling is the game at a casino operation. In truth, money is the game from the perspective of a casino’s operators. While any given hand, spin, or roll of the dice might be up to chance, when a casino has a house edge, the casino is a license to print money. Every precaution is used to assure that money remains in the operators’ hands.
