The Las Vegas shooting from 2017 might have been motivated by gambling frustration, a recent report shows. A newly-released FBI report shows that the 64-year-old shooter, Stephen Paddock, was an avid high roller who was really unhappy with the way casinos treat him.
The 2017 Las Vegas shooting happened on October 1, 2017, when the Mesquite man opened fire on the audience of the Route 91 Harvest music festival. From a suite in the Mandalay Bay hotel, Paddock fired over a thousand bullets, killing 60 people and wounding more than 400.
Paddock’s terrible deed is remembered as the deadliest shooting in American history. However, the motives behind the shooting remain somewhat mysterious, for the murderer took his own life before he could be interrogated.
A new FBI report, however, suggests that the shooting may have been the result of Paddock’s gambling-related frustration.
Paddock Thought Casinos Treated Him Unfairly
The report shows that Paddock was a very active gambler. He would sometimes gamble for as many as 18 hours at a time. Other casino goers say that Paddock would often carry some $100,000 in cash to play.
A Tropicana Las Vegas worker noted that Paddock was a quiet man who played poker a lot. In addition, one gambler told the FBI that the gunman was an “intelligent man” who, “like all professional gamblers, frequently kept to himself.”
The interrogated gambler provides further insight into what may have motivated Paddock’s murderous rampage. According to them, the 64-year-old was growing increasingly discontent with how the casinos treated him and other high rollers.
Previously, operators had policies that would see high rollers rewarded with luxurious experiences such as penthouse suites, cruises, vacations, etc. Unfortunately, casinos had been less generous the last few years, immensely frustrating Paddock.
No one can say for certain whether this truly is what caused Paddock to pull the trigger. However, it seems like a plausible explanation and, even if not the whole truth, might have been one of the factors that pushed the man onto this dark path.
Paddock had no prior criminal record either. However, his descent might have begun long before the shooting. One of his business associates told the FBI that the man was furious with the system and had become morbidly fascinated with the Oklahoma City bombing from 1995 – an event that left 168 people dead and around 680 injured.