A dancing armed robber left a casino on the Cambodia-Vietnam border in Kandal province short-changed during the wee hours of Monday morning. 

Posing as a punter, a man patiently mingled with customers trying their luck at the tables, then donned a surgical mask, pulled out a pistol and relieved the Loek Dek district establishment of $6,000, police said yesterday.

District police chief Ros Chantha said the man, who subsequently escaped, fired his gun once into the air to frighten customers, then pistol-whipped a Makot Pich casino staffer during the course of the robbery, which took place at about 1am.

“Joint forces and experts are undertaking the investigation, studying surveillance camera footage which shows the suspect is 20 to 30 years old and wearing a mask,” he said, adding that casino staffers interviewed had provided police with a uniform version of events.

Aav Charmroun, Kandal provincial police chief, confirmed that an armed thief had hit a supervisor on the head with his pistol before taking a cache of money stored at one of the gaming tables.

In August, Lieutenant General Sok Phal, deputy commissioner of the national police, told a gathering of casino owners in Phnom Penh that greater security and cooperation with police was needed to curb increasing crime in the nation’s gaming establishments.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Sarom at [email protected]