Ocean's Eleven is a fiction, but big casino heists do happen! Here's a list of most interesting of them:

Easy as pie

In 1992, cashier at Stardust casino in Vegas went on a usual lunch break. The trick is his bag was stuffed with casino chips and cash - $500,000 overall. FBI searched all over the US for him, but he’s never been caught. There’s a rumor that his accomplice killed him and got all the money. But we’ll never know the truth.

Bonnie and Clyde

Heather drove an armored car in 1993, when she drove off with $2.5 million from Circus Circus casino. The police never caught her – 12 years later she turned herself in.

She said her boyfriend convinced her to do the deed. But then he got the money and vanished when Heather gave birth to their baby. The guy, Roberto Solis, was never caught, money was never retrieved.

Heather was sentenced to only five years of prison time. Could she have blamed in on boyfriend and bury the money somewhere while she does the time? No one knows.

Bike Heist

“Biker bandit” robbed the Bellagio casino in 2010. He stole $1.5 million of casino chips Hollywood-style: walked to craps table with a gun, got chips and rode off on his badass bike.

But, he was not Ocean 11 smart: he tried to sell the chips on the Internet, signing his emails “biker bandit”. They caught him at the Bellagio, where he tried to sell the chips to undercover officers.

The criminal happened to be the son of a Las Vegas judge. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Soviet Spetsnaz

Another Hollywood worthy story – about Jose Vigoa from Cuba, who was sent to Soviet Union to train with Spetsnaz forces. Later he got back to Cuba and moved to USA from there. Jose worked in Las Vegas later, but he always wanted the easy money – he started dealing drugs and went to prison for it. After the release he decided to put his skills to use, robbing five casinos and armored trucks. He got a few million dollars, but failed his last heist – the casino got close-up shot of his face. Eventually, he was arrested and sentenced to 500 years in prison.

Laser Heist

The last heist proves you need to have the brains to rob a casino. In 2004, a group of three won £1.2 million at the roulette table. They used lasers to estimate the roulette speed and figure the probability of each number.

What’s interesting that the team was arrested, but the judge let them go and keep the money. Somehow they got into some legal loophole and walked out of the prison with their £1.2 million.