Man Throwing 100-Dollar BiIls Causes Vegas Strip Stampede

Posted on: August 29, 2017, 06:00h. 

Last updated on: August 29, 2017, 06:32h.

Casino.org Staff Writer Read More

Expertise: Commercial Gaming.

A spectacularly magnanimous clubber caused a full blown riot outside Drai’s Beachclub and Nightclub in the early hours of Monday morning when he decided to share the wealth and toss a stack of 100-dollar bills into the crowd.

Police said fights broke out in the ensuing scramble, with around a thousand people jostling for cash at the height of the melee.

“As you might expect, it caused quite the commotion,” said Metropolitan Police Department Lt. David Gordon.

Making it Rain

According to Gordon, the aforementioned benjamins were propelled into the air by an unknown benefactor at around 4am, as crowds were milling out of Drai’s at The Cromwell Hotel.

Chaos initially broke out around the Cromwell’s east valet area.

As the stampede escalated, police were drafted from other Metro area commands to assist with crowd control. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that officers were spotted handcuffing a “struggling, shouting man” at about 5.30am and police later confirmed that two people had been arrested in relation to the incident, although no injuries had been reported.

False Reports of Shooting

It was the second time in 24 hours that police had cause to descend on the Cromwell en masse. In the early hours of Sunday morning, just hours after the Mayweather-McGregor fight, reports of gunfire at Drai’s sent clubbers scuttling for cover and resulted in the evacuation of 2,000 people from the club and the casino floor.

Multiple Metro units swarmed to the scene, fearing the presence of an “active shooter,” but police ultimately determined that not a single shot had been fired.

A fight had indeed broken out at the famous after-hours hotspot and a set of large statues had been pushed over onto tiled floors, created a noise that had been mistaken for the sound of gunfire.

Frazier Rampage

Drai’s has reason to be jumpy. In 2013, when the club was based temporarily in Bally’s while Bill’s Gambling Hall was being converted into the Cromwell, gunman Benjamin Frazier shot and injured two security staff members and killed a member of the public who had tried to subdue him.

Frazier apparently flipped over a $30 entrance fee. According to court documents, he had initially demanded to preview the crowd before paying the fee.

The club’s security refused, and Frazier relented, but returned soon after to demand his money back because the club wasn’t full. During the ensuing argument, he pulled out a .38-caliber revolver and began firing.

Last month, prosecutors told Frazier they would withdraw a death penalty charge if he agreed to plead guilty but mentally unstable and accept a sentence of 32 years to life in prison instead.

Frazier responded telling the judge he wanted to fire the defense attorneys who negotiated the deal. The judge refused the request.