In the early hours of March 4 in Midlothian, a southern suburb of Chicago, Illinois, Anna’s Gaming Cafe was robbed. A group of offenders smashed their way in with sledgehammers, caused serious damage to the premises, and tried to steal money from the gaming machines. Police detained three suspects; the remaining participants in the attack are still being sought.
A shattered glass door and smashed gaming machines
The attackers chose nighttime, when the café was empty. Using sledgehammers, they smashed the glass front door and then entered the premises. The scale of the damage proved substantial: in addition to the entrance, the flooring, glass interior elements, and, most importantly, the gaming equipment, which was struck repeatedly, were damaged.
Restoring the premises will require both time and investment. The business faced not only physical damage but also a forced shutdown that is hurting revenue.
Police arrived within minutes
According to Midlothian police, a call about a burglary in progress came in at around 4:30 a.m. on March 4. Officers were dispatched immediately and caught the group as they were fleeing. The swift response made it possible to detain three of the six participants.
Six with sledgehammers—and only one cash box forced open
Surveillance cameras captured what happened in detail. The footage shows six people armed with sledgehammers bursting in through the shattered door. Once inside, they began striking the casings of the gaming machines, trying to get to the cash boxes.
However, the robbers had less time than they expected. They managed to force open only one box. As police patrol cars approached, the group hurriedly left the premises.
The getaway ended in a crash near a hill
The attackers tried to escape by car, but the getaway attempt backfired. The vehicle was involved in a crash near a hill. After the crash, officers were able to detain three of the six suspects. Key circumstances of the arrests:
• Three suspects were taken into custody on the morning of March 4.
• Three others fled the scene; the search continues.
An operations manager at another location in the chain sounds the alarm
Tom Pekich, an operations manager at Anna’s Gaming Cafe’s Hoffman Estates location, spoke to WGN. His involvement is explained by the fact that such attacks affect more than just one location: according to Pekich, this is not the first incident in which the chain’s venues and similar gaming cafés in the region have become targets for criminals.
Is iGaming safer?
From this perspective, an online casino is a far safer business, although virtual gaming platforms are not 100% protected from hackers either. It’s just that the intruders are online as well.
So what do operators do to protect players’ funds? We learned more from the authors of indianjetx.com, a site dedicated to the Jet X crash game. They assured us that the game is based on a random number generator (RNG), so players don’t have to worry about fraud. To prevent fraudsters from accessing players’ funds, licensed online casinos always use multiple layers of security. It is important for players to choose a casino with a good reputation and a valid license in order to be confident in the safety of their funds.
Reputation takes a hit, and repairs may drag on
Pekich emphasized that the consequences are felt on several fronts at once. “When people find out the place was broken into, they start thinking, ‘Should I go somewhere else?’ That’s a serious blow,” he noted. In addition to a loss of visitors, the manager pointed to financial losses and the need to deal with insurance claims both on the café’s side and on the side of the company that owns the gaming equipment.
Repairs become a separate expense item: shattered glass, damaged floors, equipment knocked out of service. All of this means prolonged downtime and a noticeable loss of revenue for a business that markets itself as a comfortable place for guests.
The search continues
At this time, the three detainees are in custody. Midlothian police continue to search for the remaining participants in the robbery and are working to determine the full circumstances of the overnight attack. The damage to the café is estimated to be substantial.