Photo by Public Domain Pictures, CC0 1.0
How did this happen?
Police records indicate the Missouri State Highway Patrol responded to the casino — which is a riverboat property on the west side of the Missouri River — after a customer reported that they had been robbed.
The victim claimed to have deposited $5,000 into a slot machine before leaving to use the restroom. They put the chair up before they stepped aside to indicate that the slot machine was taken.
When the customer returned, they found that all of their machine credits had been cashed out.
Following the victim’s report, the police accessed the casino’s surveillance system, which showed an elderly man, allegedly Gallagher, approaching and fiddling with the machine. The man cashed out $5,050 in credits and went to the redemption kiosk to obtain their ill-gotten cash prize.
Further investigation eventually resulted in Gallagher being arrested on a Class D felony charge of stealing $750 or more. The felony crime is punishable by up to seven years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Back-to-back Missouri casino robberies
Gallagher, a resident of Florissant, about 15 minutes from the casino, is only a few years removed from another financial run-in that resulted in a court appearance.
According to Missouri court records, the elderly man was sued by the Ford Motor Company in June 2021 for failing to submit payment on a vehicle loan. The case was wrapped up in Dec. 2022 after Gallagher and Ford agreed to settle the issue out of court.
Gallagher has not been listed in any other court cases.
Every state with legal casino gaming forbids individuals from taking gaming vouchers that do not belong to them. In the event that a voucher is located, individuals are advised to report it to casino staff.
This case follows another much more serious robbery of the Isle of Capri Casino in Boonville, Missouri, on March 25. In that case, a casino employee and an accomplice robbed the property of about $1.3 million in cash. The FBI recently offered a $5,000 reward for information about the lead accomplice suspect, Hollis C. Vanleer Jr.
Ameristar offers customers more than 1,700 slot machines and close to 100 live-dealer table games.
It also has a Fanatics sportsbook, 60,000 square feet of convention space, a hotel with 400 rooms, an indoor-outdoor pool, and a spa.
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