No Iron Man

Police believe the helmeted motorcyclist who hit Bellagio for more than a million dollars in chips early Tuesday morning had done it before.

A man wearing a similar full-face motorcycle helmet held up the cashier’s cage in the poker room of the Suncoast just after midnight Dec. 8, taking $20,000.

Tuesday’s heist occurred at 3:50 a.m. The man — white, 5-foot-10, 220 pounds — parked his late-model black sport motorcycle at the north valet entrance of the Bellagio, police say. He entered the casino carrying a handgun. He approached a craps table and demanded money, which he received,

He also took chips in denominations between $100 and $25,000, which he stuffed in a backpack before jogging out the door. The man drove west on Flamingo Road. No shots were fired. The perpetrator was in the casino for only two to three minutes.

The robber wasn’t lacking in boldness. Smarts, though?

Leave aside the fact that most armed robbers would be better off panhandling, once you divide their take by the number of hours they end up spending in prison.

Beyond that, while the Bellagio chips may have a face value in the vicinity of $1.5 million, they’re not exactly redeemable at the corner convenience store.

It could prove extremely difficult for anyone to swap those chips for cash — especially the $25,000 chips, which are rarely given out and are closely monitored by casinos.

While casinos rarely get specific about what security features they use, some high-denomination chips contain radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. A scanner can then tell the casino exactly where each chip came from.

There were nine casino robberies in the Las Vegas police jurisdiction in 2009. Tuesday’s robbery was the 10th for 2010. Piles of cash will tend to attract these behaviors.

No, casino security was not asleep. An employee had dialed 911 before the man left the casino.

So long as no guest or employee appeared to be in imminent danger, the Bellagio staff nonetheless did the right thing, resisting the temptation to endanger patrons by turning the establishment into the O.K. Corral. This character will learn soon enough that he’s no Iron Man.