Two charged in Vegas heist of $33K in chips

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A cabbie and another man were arrested on suspicion of being in cahoots with a wig-wearing gunman who snatched $33,000 in chips from a Las Vegas casino, police said Friday.

The search was still on, however, for the robber who threatened a poker dealer with an unloaded gun before fleeing in a waiting taxi.

The stickup was the second grab-and-run heist in Sin City in two months. In December, a bandit snatched $1.5 million in chips from a craps table at the Bellagio casino then sped away on a motorcycle.

The gunman in Thursday's holdup, identified as Steven Gao, 45, went to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino and grabbed the chips from a pai gow table before fleeing in a taxi driven by 61-year-old Hiroyuki Yamaguchi, police said.