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If you’re considering a Las Vegas casino heist, something romanticized in popular films such as Ocean’s 11, the prison sentence recently doled out to the “Bellagio Bandit” should have you thinking twice.

Anthony Carleo, or the “biker bandit” made headlines after robbing the Suncoast and Bellagio casinos in December 2010 masked by a motorcycle helmet and riding gear. Yesterday, he received his sentence from Clark County Judge Michael Villani.

Villani imposed a sentence of 6 to 16 years on Carleo for the robbery of the Suncoast, which occurred on December 9. Two days prior to his Suncoast sentencing, he received an additional sentence of 3 to 11 years for the robbery of the Bellagio. He’ll also need to pay restitution for all of the money stolen.

Carleo stole nearly $19,000 in cash from the cashier cage at the Suncoast as a live poker tournament was in progress. Paying that sum will seem like a minor chore compared to the restitution owed to the Bellagio, which amounts to roughly $1.5 million. Carleo stole that sum in the form of casino chips, over half of which have yet to be recovered by police authorities.

William Terry, Carleo’s lawyer, presented Judge Villani with plenty of material calling for a more lenient sentence, including character references from George Assad (a Las Vegas Municipal Judge), a Colorado city councilman, a former sheriff from Colorado, and a slew of Carleo’s family members, friends and former teachers. He also related a story of how Carleo was addicted to drugs and gambling following a car accident that got him hooked on pain medication such as Oxycodone.

The plea fell on deaf ears, and Judge Villani ordered Carleo to serve the sentences consecutively instead of concurrently. Although Villani admitted that the character reference letters made Carleo sound like an upstanding citizen, the fact remained that he endangered the patrons and employees of both casinos in the form of armed robbery.