Las Vegas Casino Thief to Spend Year in Jail for $1M Scam

Posted on: October 31, 2023, 05:23h. 

Last updated on: October 31, 2023, 12:50h.

Ed Silverstein Read More

Expertise: Legal, Tribal Gaming.

A man linked to the theft of more than $1M from the Circa Hotel & Casino was sentenced to a year in jail on Monday.

Erik Gutierrez Martinez, 24, was given the sentence after he pleaded guilty to a single count of theft of more than $100K.

Clark County District Judge Jasmin Lilly-Spells said if Gutierrez Martinez completes his sentence at the Clark County Detention Center, he won’t have to spend additional time in a state prison.

Otherwise, he could be given an additional 36-to-96-month sentence. The prosecutor said he played a vital role in the scam.

He’s a bag man for a highly sophisticated criminal organization,” Clark County Deputy District Attorney Austin Beaumont said in court.

Before sentencing, Gutierrez Martinez admitted to the judge that he did something that was “very stupid,” according to Las Vegas TV station KLAS.

“I went into this to get something for nothing, and I am paying the consequences,” Gutierrez Martinez confessed in the courtroom. “This isn’t what I want to do or what I ever wanted to do,”

Caught Red Handed

On June 21, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) officers seized $850K in cash at his home.

The cash was stored in a “large bag of US currency bundled together with the name Circa written on the bundle,” DailyMail.com reported.

The Circa is located in downtown Las Vegas. The money was part of a scam that netted more than $1M from thefts at Circa, Eureka Casino Resort in Mesquite, Nev., and the Golden Nugget in Laughlin, Nev.

Gutierrez Martinez admitted to involvement in the Circa theft under the plea deal.