GTA 5 Diamond Casino Heist: Complete Guide

Pre-Setup Stage — Buying the Arcade

To begin the entire heist mission, you must buy a retro arcade. But to do that, you need to register as a CEO or become a Motorcycle Club President.

The game has six arcades, four of which are in Los Santos. Talk to Lester in Mirror Park to unlock them on the map. Then you’ll get to buy one over the Maze Bank Foreclosures site on your phone. Here’s what’s available:

• Pixel Pete’s (Paleto Bay) — GTA$1,235,000
• Wonderama (Grapeseed) — GTA$1,565,000
• Videogeddon (La Mesa) — GTA$1,875,000
• Warehouse (Davis) — GTA$2,135,000
• Insert Coin (Rockford Hills) — GTA$2,345,000
• Eight Bit (Vinewood)  — GTA$2,530,000

Once you acquire one, you’ll have to complete the Arcade Equipment mission. It’s pretty straightforward, as you only need to get some initial gear for your new hideout.

This unlocks Lester’s underground base, which features three blackboards. Each represents a stage within the heist:

• Setup
• Preparation
• Heist

Let’s go over each one.

First Stage — Casino Heist Setup

The first task on the Setup blackboard tells you to scope out the casino. You can buy extras through the blackboard that will help you locate the safest casino entry points:

• Casino model — Costs GTA$130,000 and highlights all the access points.
• Door security — Costs GTA$425,000 and lets you practice door hacking.
• Vault door — Costs GTA$900,000 and allows vault cracking. It’s only available if you find the vault blueprints while scoping the casino.

Once you’re ready to begin, you need to head over to the casino. Take pictures of security features and send them to Lester. Make sure you get them all. Then you need to scope out the vault contents, and if you do this properly, you’ll find ten additional interest points.

Even though many are optional, it’s best to finish all the tasks as that will make the heist much smoother.

Now it’s time to choose your heist approach. You can pick between three:

• Silent & Sneaky — This is the slow, safe, and stealthy approach. You’ll face the least resistance and have the longest time to complete the heist. Bear in mind that stealth doesn’t always work well in GTA Online.
• The Big Con — You and your teammates disguise yourselves as workers and attempt to enter the vault. This is usually the best approach to take.
• Aggressive — Go in guns blazing and breach the vault with force. You’ll need good weapons as you’ll face the most opposition. If you love action, you’ll do fine, but the approach is not recommended to other players.

The Silent and Sneaky approach is quite popular among online players. You’ll encounter less resistance from police, which means your losses won’t be as substantial as with the Aggressive approach, which reduces your payout with each shot you take. Plus, you’ll have a chance to get the $200,000-worth Undetected bonus, the biggest incentive the Diamond Casino offers.

Bear in mind, however, that S&S is far from the easiest route you can take. It involves ten preparation missions, so you’ll lose a lot of time before the heist even begins. You’ll also have to invest more in your hackers, given the approach relies heavily on hacking. These reasons lead most newcomers to pick one of the other two methods.

You can pick whichever one suits your playing style the most. With a selected approach, you can begin the prep phase.

Second Stage — Prepare Your Heist

The prep stage takes the most time to complete as it involves hiring NPC crew members and completing tasks on your To Do list.

You can choose a specific gunman, driver, or hacker. Each option presents several characters; the more skilled they are, the higher the cut they require. However, those with more skills can help you tremendously. For example, the best hacker will get you the most time in the vault to grab as much of the contents as possible. The hacker is thus the most important crew member, so make sure to spend the most on them.

Everything else on your To Do list depends on your chosen approach. You’ll need specific equipment, including disguises, weapons, and getaway vehicles. Once again, better tools let you complete the heist more easily, but it’s the most expensive. Thankfully, you don’t have to get every tool, as some are not needed depending on the number of players you’re going with and your chosen approach.

Once you’ve completed everything, you can finally move on to the actual heist.

Third and Final Stage — The Heist

To start the heist, you need to choose the buyer. Each has a level — low, middle, and high. The higher the level, the more difficult the heist, but the higher the reward. A high-level buyer is best if you’ve completed all the previous missions and purchased the right equipment.

Unfortunately, we can’t guide you through the entire heist as it can materialize in numerous ways depending on the approach, the equipment you’ve bought, the crew members you’ve hired, and the intel you’ve gathered.

Once you steal the contents of the vault and get out of the casino, the only problem you might run into is the chasing helicopter. If you’ve bought the Clean Vehicle in the Prep stage, you’ll be fine, but you can also steal a car to get away. With some skill, you can get away with delivering the loot to the buyer.

Once you’re there, you’ll get a cutscene, and the mission will be complete. The payout will depend on the vault contents that are determined at random. There are four options:

• Cash — GTA$2,115,000
• Artwork — GTA$2,350,000
• Gold — GTA$2,585,000
• Diamonds — GTA$3,290,000

Naturally, you won’t get the entire reward. Lester will take his cut, and you’ll have to give each crew member their share. You’ll end up receiving somewhere between GTA$400,000 and $1,750,000.