The staggered discovery of a pair of concealed devices at the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa last week caused authorities to evacuate the Florida casino hotel twice in 24 hours.
The first device, a “crude concealed device with fireworks components,” was discovered shortly before midnight on Sunday in a men’s restroom near the casino. According to CBS News, officials immediately evacuated part of the casino, and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Disposal Team removed the device. The casino reopened shortly after at 3 a.m.
As part of the investigation into the first device, authorities found a second, similar contraption just after noon on Monday. Once again, investigators found the gadget in a men’s restroom in the casino. Mimicking earlier events, the casino was again immediately evacuated, and the bomb disposal team removed the device.
According to the Tribal police’s description, both concealed devices had fireworks components. However, who planted the devices and the damage possible had the mechanisms exploded remains unclear.
In addition to the Hillsborough sheriff’s office, according to reports, the Seminole police were working with the FBI to uncover the culprits. As yet, authorities have not publicly identified any motive or suspects.
Bonus contacted the FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement for an update on the investigation. As of publication, neither has responded.
In an email, a spokesperson working with the Seminole Police said the devices cannot be “accurately described as bombs” due to their fireworks components. However, they had no additional information to share beyond the original incident brief.
Rather, for the immediate future, they said the focus is on the approaching hurricane.
US Casino Threats Not Uncommon
While the latest incident in Tampa involved physical devices, fortunately, historically, most have turned out to be nothing more than empty threats.
So far this year, several bomb threats impacted US casinos.
In August, a possible bomb threat at Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood, California, sent casino-goers scrambling for the doors in the early hours of the morning. A month earlier, in Atlantic City, police received an anonymous call from a man claiming to have weapons and explosives inside Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa.
Similarly, in March, Missouri authorities evacuated Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway after a man made a threat against the casino to police. And in February, a bomb threat temporarily shut down operations at Rivers Casino in Schenectady, New York. Less than two weeks earlier, another incident led to the evacuation of the Saratoga Casino Hotel in Saratoga Springs.
When caught, the empty threats often stem from disgruntled gamblers or troublemakers engaged in attempted swatting. Swatting involves making a prank report of a possible crime to draw armed officers to a particular person or location.
However, in 1980, a bomb threat made against Harvey’s Resort Casino in Stateline, Nevada, turned out to be the real deal.
John Birges, a restaurant owner with a failing business, worked with accomplices to deliver an “undefeatable” explosive device to the casino. Birges then called in a bomb threat to extort $3 million from Harvey’s, the casino he’d previously lost $750,000 gambling. The hotel refused the ransom, and authorities detonated the device in a controlled manner, avoiding any injuries. However, the bomb’s 600 pounds of dynamite damaged five floors and left behind a 50-by-30-foot crater.
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